Hussaini Abubakar Agare, a stakeholder and concerned resident of Abuja in FCT in this piece as amplified in a press briefing in Abuja opined that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Nyesom Wike’s land administration ‘annexation’ is prone to fraud, manipulation with crisis-ridden will erode the laudable gains of yester-years in the territory. Excerpts…
After 8 years in office, Nyesom Wike, in office as Rivers State Governor and now the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the Minister can be rightly perceived as suffering from a power hung-over that deludes him into thinking that everyone in Rivers, including the peoples’ choice, Mr. Siminalayi Fubara who is the Governor and leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) must answer to his whims and caprices.
But the delusion that does not recognize an obvious change in power relations—where a godson, even if by your own agency, has now also become all too powerful—leaves everyone wondering if the situation is not even worse.
The FCT Minister has now found a new trade: busying himself with what is absolutely not his business. He should instead concentrate on his job as the Minister of the FCT, where his attention is truly needed.
But even there, his underlying urge for self-idolization is taking over his faculties, such that, if not immediately addressed, by the time he is done with his term in office in the FCT, it is most likely that he will have successfully taken us back to where we were 20 years ago. It seems for him, anything that isn’t him, is not too good and as such has to be taken down.
It is on this note that Wike is, for instance, bent on taking us back to pre-Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS) days in land administration which is fraught with high-level corruption, mismanagement and waste of resources.
To put this plainly, Wike is bringing down the roof of AGIS in order to perfect his individual control and dominance over land in the FCT, as he had done while in Rivers.
It is an irony that when various states are taking after the AGIS to sanitize land administration, Wike is taking the FCT back to where the states are abandoning.
In perfecting this, he is mercilessly crushing every internal resistance from those who toiled to put up the systems within the FCDA.
You are likely to find out that the removal recently of the director, urban and regional planning may not have been unconnected to with this agenda. For him, you either help him to entrench his dominion and hang up his sculpture, or you are out of play.
Why did we introduce the Geographic Information Systems and Land Information System in the first place, which gave birth to the Abuja Geographic Information Systems, AGIS? Wike cannot claim to be unaware of the reasons.
Abuja is rapidly expanding because of population movement and this has further made the land business very complex, intricate and delicate that it needs a humane personality, knowledgeable and selfless individual to handle it. Certainly, Wike is not the right man here.
The market is prone to fraud, manipulation and a lot of crisis, bred by highly entrenched businessmen in cahoots with officials in the FCTA and FCDA. Out of these crises, individuals lose their lands or fortunes and government loses revenue. With AGIS, human participation in the process is limited and most especially, with clear traceability and accountability of every action taken. As a governor, who, what’s more, has a legal background, he knows that the more human participation in land administration, the greater it is susceptible to manipulation.
Like everything, AGIS is not perfect but it offers a lot that minimizes the traditional challenges in the sector.
For someone who knows this much, and still chooses to go ahead with it, the motive is not farfetched.
The Minister is equally replacing people in strategic offices with his own people who would obviously end up doing his bidding, simply to convert Abuja into his estate.
Those of us relating with land and issues related in the FCT, are aware how he was herded out of the FCDA in the past because of several allegations, including allocation of several plots to himself. He would now help to implement his principal’s unholy agenda.
There is also every indication that those working in AGIS will be shipped out because the agency will be going down completely, to be replaced by his men who would help erect the stand of his emperor’s stool. The fear is that, behind this veiled move, there may be an agenda to uproot Northerners and Muslims in the system.
And this is not out of place to assume. Wike has a well-known precedent of doing this. When he was governor, he declared that Rivers is unapologetically a Christian state. Such a person cannot be expected to handle our diversity well because of his past credentials in that state.
And what’s more, what he does to systems and policies, Wike didn’t leave out even infrastructure. Those in Abuja wonder, what is the rationale behind some of the rigours the man is bringing to rehabilitation of roads that are already in perfect condition, especially when there a lot of infrastructure deficits across the city. A typical example is the abandoned Kogo-Bwari road that was hurriedly last year and as this article goes to press, residents in that area have been forced and subjected to pains because of the abandoned project that connect residents to the town, Law School and JAMB.
For instance, one is lost as to why he is scrapping the already tarred roads in Maitama, Asokoro or Wuse, among others.
Not only are they in good condition, they may remain strong for over a decade. Why would taxpayers’ money go into such projects since there are numerous other communities that need fresh road projects, among other things, to improve connectivity and urban development?
Besides, FCTA is not only about land and road projects. Everyone is where that Abuja has some of the worst schools and hospital facilities. A few days ago, primary school teachers had to embark on a strike because of unsettled allowances and salaries. There was a report of resignation of about 50 medical doctors who could not put up with the working condition in the FCTA. Why are they not receiving adequate attention or are they not as important as roads or land? The answer is better left to be imagined.
Wike wants to build an empire, but not with decency, as is done elsewhere thereby undoing some of the major reforms achieved in land administration over the last 20 years.
