Daily Independent (Lagos)
16 February 2009
editorial
The Senate adopted, last week, the report of its ad hoc committee, headed by Senator Abubakar Sodangi, that investigated land allocations in the Federal Capital Territory under the immediate past administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo. It was a damning report, for the committee's findings unearthed numerous irregularities associated with plot allocations by the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory , Mallam Nasir el-Rufai.
Among the findings endorsed by the Senate was that the former minister arbitrarily signed the allocations for 4,352 plots of land within less than 30 days, and that 3,645 of these plots were allocated on his last day in office. Furthermore, Mallam el-Rufai allocated 665 of the plots even after former President Obasanjo had dissolved the cabinet - in other words, when the minister had ceased to be in office.
On the strength of these and other findings, the Senate resolved that the illegal or irregular plot allocations be revoked. Mallam el-Rufai's purchase of the former guest house of the Vice President was similarly revoked by the Senate.
The former president's company, Obasanjo Farms Limited, was the beneficiary of one of the irregular allocations the Senate wants revoked. It is a winding tale. The plot of land was originally allocated to the National Primary Education Board (NPEB) and subsequently transferred to Inter-Projects Associates Limited, a private company, under the Accelerated Development Programme of the FCT Administration. The company developed a structure, a 13-storey project, up to the third floor, but had to stop work because the FCTA's Development Control office refused to release the approved building plan to the company for undisclosed reasons. According to the Senate committee's findings, an agent of Obasanjo Farms later accosted the company, and laid claim to the plot. It turned out that on May 28, 2007 - that is, on President Obasanjo's last day in office - the plot had been re-allocated by El-Rufai to the Farm. The company's structure was later demolished at the unholy hour of 2a.m.
What a tale, and what a country! Sordid as the Obasanjo Farms eleventh-hour plot allocation was, it was not an isolated case. There were literally thousands of other irregularities, as found by the Senate: falsified allocations, illegal demolitions and ejections, defiance of court processes, denial of citizens' right to appeal and many other acts of grave misconduct.
It is a national embarrassment that the FCTA descended into such flagrant illegalities as have been uncovered by the Senate probe. That the former President has been revealed as benefitting personally from the rot is more embarrassing. The Obasanjo administration, while it lasted, was noted for its vigorous gestures against the menace of corruption in the land. It caused laws to be passed creating new anti-corruption agencies such as the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in addition to existing establishments like the Police and the Code of Conduct Tribunal. Repeatedly, the public was told that it would "not be business as usual" any longer, and that there would "be no sacred cows."
To its credit, some visible results were produced by that administration - '419' kingpins were brought to book, and some VIP looters, such as a serving Inspector-General of Police and some State governors were jailed or impeached. These achievements were dismissed by many critics, however, as tokenism and double standard, for they alleged that other patent examples of corruption abounded but the administration was turning a blind eye to the evidence or restraining the anti-graft agencies from moving in because its close friends, associates or cronies were involved. The recent Senate report on nauseating land deals in Abuja under the Obasanjo regime has confirmed such allegations.
We join the Senate in condemning the brazen violations of the law in the handling of land allocations and the sale of government property in the FCT by the immediate past administration. We support the Senate's resolutions calling for the revocation and reversal of the illegal deals. Although the resolutions technically lack executive force, they are morally very weighty and the present Umaru Yar'Adua administration would do well to follow up on the executive measures necessary to give the decisions binding force.
No group of people, however powerful, should be allowed to so flagrantly betray the trust of the public, trample with impunity on the laws they swore to uphold, protect and defend, and inflict callous injustice on the people - as the last administration did to many Abuja residents.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Daily Independent. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
