By Akin Ogunsakin
On Thursday, June 2, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, at the Aso Villa Press Gallery, was the guest at the 40th State House Briefing Series and for over two hours held the usually hard-nosed State House Press Corps spell-bound while he presented the scorecard of his stewardship as the minister of the FCT.
At the end of the briefing and the question-and-answer session that followed, Bello was granted a standing ovation, an honour that was said had never been granted to anyone before.
The general consensus was that the quality of the presentation, which included aerial videos and photographs, maps, as well as detailed and well-prepared write-ups, was expertly delivered by the minister in a manner that could only have been done by someone who not only possessed a deep knowledge of the workings of the FCT but also had a deep passion for its development.
For many of the journalists at that briefing, the eloquence of the minister as he made his presentation, often explaining very salient points without recourse to the slides or briefs in front of him, surprised them.
This is because very few of them indeed had encountered the FCT minister at close quarters. For those who had, however, his performance was no different from what he had always done and how he had always conducted himself; it was just Bello being Bello. Nothing more, nothing less.
In his comments, Senior Special Assistant to the President, Malam Garba Shehu described the FCT minister in five words, “He is not a showman.”
As he repeatedly pointed out during his presentation, new infrastructural development in the FCT is often carried out in a seamless manner so much so that residents do not even notice that a new road has been opened and new bridges put to use, because, to them, it seems the road or bridge has always been there.
Remember, he said, in 2015, when the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari came into power, while driving into the FCT, you had to do a lot of meandering, taking several detours in order to get into the city. All that is now over.
The usage of those infrastructure has never been heralded by fanfare and huge ‘commissioning’ ceremonies. A gathering of the relevant government officials and the immediate community leaders are all that would be assembled for a symbolic inauguration. These are hardly the actions of one seeking any form of publicity for either political or personal gains.
Over the last seven years, the FCT, like the rest of the country, has faced unprecedented challenges that border on the economy, security and social matters.
However, it is in the midst of all of these that the FCT thrived. Careful, strategic planning saw the FCT, Nigeria’s “Administrative Capital,” becoming the second highest internally generated revenue earner only after Lagos, the commercial capital.
The FCT beat other famous commercially renowned states and plans are afoot to even wrest the top position from Lagos. This will be achieved also without much fanfare.
What the FCT has experienced over the last few years has been an unprecedented stable leadership that gets the job done despite the difficulties inherent in managing a very complex city like Abuja.
Still waters run deep was how the managing director of a major Nigerian corporation described the management style of the FCT minister.
And the man was right. Still waters indeed run quite deep. Let’s take a look at the COVID-19 pandemic in which the FCT was an epicenter often trailing just behind Lagos in the daily grim figures. But with careful management, very few actually realized how badly hit the FCT was, not with the mortality rate kept low in relation to the number of recorded cases.
The FCT’s management of COVID-19 was the best example of how galvanizing the private sector and leveraging personal network and contacts for public good is possible.
The minister inaugurated the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee on COVID-19, chaired by a former minister of the FCT, a man who shares his passion for the development of the FCT, and had as members medical, logistics, financial and media experts and together they developed the perfect response plan.
Members of the committee provided expert advice, contributed their own funds and mobilized other resources and at the end of it all, even donated a very modern molecular lab as a legacy project.
Of recent, critics have pointed to the “rising insecurity” in the FCT. Pray, where in Nigeria is security not a challenge? The minister has often said that, with the leadership being provided and the cooperation among security agencies in the FCT, for every crime reported, at least 10 are nipped at the bud or solved. Take the high-profile crimes such as the kidnap at the University of Abuja staff quarters. The culprits were caught, victims freed and it was discovered that the target was actually high profile individuals within the city with the ultimate aim of creating panic and drawing maximum public attention.
That truly is the challenge of security in the nation’s capital which in my opinion still remains one the safest in the country. It has often been discovered that a greater proportion of sensational “crimes” that have led many a critic to scream “Abuja is not safe” are not really crimes but attempts by some individuals to create so much hoopla either to create such an impression for political or personal reasons or just plain mischief.
The latest being the vexing case of citizen Ameerah Sufyan who broke the internet with a hoax kidnap.
Sure, dear people, crime is rife all over the country but with the high profile nature of the FCT, how many of us have stopped to ponder how come the crime rate is not higher than it is considering that every two bit criminal, kidnapper, armed robber and even those chasing clout have not berthed permanently in Abuja. The reason is simple, the city is not safe for them as the possibility of getting caught is considerably higher here.
The Minister has always said that Abuja is like a living, breathing entity that must be nourished and cared for. If you neglect it, like a living human, it will become ill and possibly die. You must own the city, you must love it and you must care for it.
By constantly drawing attention to all that is seemingly wrong with the city and her managers without giving credit for progress made and offering no solutions to identified problems, you are killing it slowly, but surely.
But then, a seemingly respectable columnist using the platform provided by his organization maligned not just the person of the Minister, but used Abuja as a metaphor for darkness. Haba!
And speaking about power supply, it is no news that street and traffic lights are powered by the national grid which we all know is unreliable at best. The FCTA has often had to power the major expressways of Murtala Mohammed (Kubwa) and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (Airport) with back-up generators at very expensive costs.
Efforts are currently being made to retro-fit others with solar powered lights and none of these come cheap. Perhaps we should lay the blame where it really belongs.
The Minister has even received commendations from several quarters on the on-going solar powrred street lights currently lighting up several streets in the city.
Malam Bello has always provided exemplary leadership based on the provisions of the law because as he has always said, the FCT is a creation of law and “all that we do here must reflect that”.
He has often come under tremendous pressure to circumvent the law for either political or even personal gains and the man has refused to budge. The latest being the court ruling elongating the tenure of FCT Area Council Chairmen.
The Minister was asked by many to ignore the ruling and swear in the Chairmen, a move which he vehemently resisted and insisted the law must take its course. The FCTA appealed that ruling, had it vacated and he subsequently inaugurated the Chairmen.
And crisis management? The Dei-Dei issue comes to mind. The level of maturity and dexterity with which that was handled is to be admired. Despite a lot of criticism by many who have very little knowledge on the complexities of managing the FCT, the Minister got all the parties involved to commit to the maintenance of peace while the government does the needful.
Truth is that managing the FCT is one of the most challenging jobs in our country. Every Nigerian has a right to the FCT and every Nigerian wants the FCT managed in a manner that suits his or her own peculiarities. This is in addition to it being the seat of government and home to most of the international community in Nigeria.
The delicate balancing act of governing the FCT, takes tact, courage, wisdom and the guidance of the Almighty. Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has made a success of this tedious assignment, largely without making noise.
•Ogunsakin wrote from Gwagwalada, FCT