allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Reflections - the Making of a Rogue Capital City (Page 1 of 1)

The collective vision of the Federal Capital city of Abuja still remains mysterious and unfathomable, (just like its Master Plan!) but I can bet that the late General Murtala Muhammed whose regime rightly conceptualized a worthy capital for the country, would not have imagined the obscene display of mutual destructive roguery in the territory in the past two weeks.

In his book, the Rogue Nation, Clyde Prestowitz who is also the author of TRADING PLACES, employs Webster Dictionary definition of Rogue, (read: No longer obedient, belonging or accepted, not controllable or answerable; deviant, having an abnormally savage or unpredictable disposition) to aptly dub United States of America (USA) under George W. Bush a Rogue Nation in the mould of Sadam Hussain's Iraq. The heuristic value of such description for analysing Abuja territory scandals in the wake of recent tons and tons of revelations and counter revelations over elitist land deals (elitist land deals alone!) cannot be overstated. The only difference here is that while the serial acts of American roguery and imperialism are targeted at other oppressed nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America, the Abuja bestiality, organized greed and entrenched pursuit of selfish agenda are callously targeted at own brothers and sisters. Witness this; the former Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) reportedly allocated as many as 300 plots of land a day before he left office.

Both Obasanjo and El-Rufai allegedly converted land allocations to family estates with each cornering as many as 10 plots in choice areas of the capital. The former President reportedly got various land allocations that included the ones meant for Universal Basic Education (UBE) (ever doubt why Nigeria witnesses emergence of new illiteracy?). In fact the former Minister of the territory, El-Rufai defended the wholesome 1 million square of Abuja land (please note: not Kakuri land!) allocation made to Obasanjo arguing that it was based on the provisions of the Land Use Act (some "rule of law") and that its was for farming purpose. The serving Minister, Aliyu Moddibo told the Senate Committee, (the platform for celebration of live coverage of roguery) that two of his predecessors, namely Jerry Hussein and el-Rufai sole- dictatorially allocated lands based on their respective "whims and caprices" (his words) ignoring the statutorily constituted committees responsible for land allocations. In a fight back campaign that unsettled Sodangi Committee, Alhaji Abbas Umar, the Director of Special Duties in FCT and Chairman Ad Hoc (read; Rogue) Committee on sale of Federal Government houses disclosed without betraying emotion that Sodangi committee applied and got 58 flats of varying bed-rooms. In a desperate response the entire Senate rose in "tribal" defence (remember similar "tribal" defence of Senator Iyabo Obasanjo!) of the panellists alleging blackmail but not refuting the "fact" that the secretary of the Committee actually applied for allocations.

In one "smart" defence, Senator Smart Adeyemi was quoted as much: " I am hearing this for the first time,; I still live in a hotel (who pays and at how much?) because, it is safer for some of us when you want Senators of Federal Republic of Nigeria to stay in a two-bedroom flat." So the issue is not the impropriety of lack of disinterestedness but the quality of what is being offered. The Chairman of the Senate panel when confronted with allegations of multiple self land allocations (again land!) quickly alleged treat to his life but accepted that he has "only three plots" (again of land!). In another breath, Moddibo, the current FCT Minister regrets the demolition of the house of the former Chairman of the ruling (or is it ruining?) party, PDP, Ahmadu Ali and told the panel that some millions Naira were paid in compensation to him (even as he exhibits no regret that FCT is yet to collect property tax decades after property allocations to some select few). Meanwhile the Minister (paid to serve all residents) maintained loud silence on hundreds of other demolitions and how much he had paid to other anonymous ordinary non-party victims of the high-level roguery at the Federal Capital territory.

The Abuja land allocation scandals have once again brought to the fore the crisis of governance in the land. Those paid to expand the space for development for all are shamelessly neck deep in pecuniary indulgence of self. Successive Ministers of the territory have assumed notoriety on account of lands allocated to self and relations rather than new industrial estates opened and housing estates built for the multitude of homeless in the new capital. In the process, the rogue elite could not even agree on the formula for grabbing. What we then have at hand is the case of dog eating dogs.

The Abuja story is more entertaining than the legendary Ali and the forty thieves in the Arabian Nights. Something close to Abuja home-video story line of land robbery is the narrative of colonial dispossession by the late Jomo Kenyata of Kenya. According to him European colonizers shamelessly fought each other over the scramble for Kikuyu land at the turn of the 19th century. In a classical political satire entitled "Gentlemen of the Jungle", Jomo Kenyata disclosed that once upon a time there was a Kikuyu man who out of generosity allowed his friend elephant to put his trunk in his hut. The elephant played "smart" and eventually pushed the man out of the hut. In the commotion King Lion intervened and appointed the Royal commission of Inquiry to look into the man's case. The Commission was ably made up of Mr Buffalo, Mr Rhinoceros, and Mr Hyena and of course Mr Fox as the Chairman. The result of the Commission was serial dispossession of the man of his land and shameless sharing of the land possessions by the members of the Commission; Mr Hyena, Mr Buffalo etc. When will Nigerian people write their story of dispossession by Abuja city Rogues?

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