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The Abuja probes: Another futile campaign?
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Nasir el -Rufai
Nigerians have recently been in undated by claims and counter claims on how landed proper ties in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja -our commonwealth- were allocated and misappropriated.
We have heard allegations of who (wrongfully) got what and who did not. It is the latest public spectacle and Nigerians are reading in the media daily as public officers exchange and discount allegations of ‘Oh you got this' and ‘Oh no I did not'. This ‘Pandora’s box of dirty deals is coming in the wake of the take-off of Senate Committee on FCT probing the sale of Federal Government properties. The probe is addressing the era of Nasir el -Rufai as the Minister of the FCT. The committee is headed by Abubakar Danso Sodangi.
In his defence, Nasir el-Rufai stated that he applied the law as it is and never disobeyed any court order.
Often times, many administrations restart their regimes by attempting to find out what happened in the past. The quest for knowledge of the past is a necessary requirement, sometimes for the signposting of the future. However, the probes, including the Federal Capital Territory probe does not currently suggest we will have the direction for the future after this exercise.
With every activity, especially of this nature and magnitude, should come the remit and parameters. The way the probe is presently constituted does not give any clear indications of the answers that the Senate committee wants. A blanket explanation of all that went wrong in the last eight years of the last administration, in our considered opinion, is a waste of time of the members of the committee. A streamline question of those that wrongfully had their homes demolished through an administrative exercise in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with the aim of providing compensation to the victims would have been more beneficial.
According to the last administration, the context in which the plethora of demolition of properties took place was to correct the many years of abusing the original Abuja plan. If this was correct, the context in which this probe can be justified is whether the last administration complied with that in principle. And in an exercise of that nature, it is inconceivable that there would not be a group of people that their properties were unjustifiably demolished and this set of people should receive compensation. The present probe can be justified if the majority of the properties demolished did not contravene the original Abuja master plan.
To say the least, the probe has been a messy orgy of mud slinging.
This is why we doubt the sincerity of purpose of the probe, considering that the majority of the senators in office today, were in office then, and did not raise these issues or set up a probe then. Given this background, it is strongly believed that the probe is more of a vindictive witch hunting exercise than a good faith accountability venture.
The essence of the probe has not been made very clear and the desired outcomes have not been spelt out. Because of these missing basic parameters, we do not have an idea when the probe will come to an end and whether those that perpetuated wrong doing during the last administration will be punished by the law. Again, if the minister actually followed due process and obeyed the law, what we should do rather than setting up endless probes would be to compensate all those affected by through administrative means.
If at the end of this probe, all we have witnessed is the plethora of personal stories of pain, disappointment and frustration, this probe would have achieved nothing. The parameters and basis for which those that had their houses wrongfully demolished should have compensation should have been prepared before the probe. The expose of the wrong doings of the last administration in Abuja is not enough; the expectation is that something will be done and be seen to be done will make this probe a successful one.
In his defence, Nasir el-Rufai stated that he applied the law as it is and never disobeyed any court order.
Often times, many administrations restart their regimes by attempting to find out what happened in the past. The quest for knowledge of the past is a necessary requirement, sometimes for the signposting of the future. However, the probes, including the Federal Capital Territory probe does not currently suggest we will have the direction for the future after this exercise.
With every activity, especially of this nature and magnitude, should come the remit and parameters. The way the probe is presently constituted does not give any clear indications of the answers that the Senate committee wants. A blanket explanation of all that went wrong in the last eight years of the last administration, in our considered opinion, is a waste of time of the members of the committee. A streamline question of those that wrongfully had their homes demolished through an administrative exercise in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with the aim of providing compensation to the victims would have been more beneficial.
According to the last administration, the context in which the plethora of demolition of properties took place was to correct the many years of abusing the original Abuja plan. If this was correct, the context in which this probe can be justified is whether the last administration complied with that in principle. And in an exercise of that nature, it is inconceivable that there would not be a group of people that their properties were unjustifiably demolished and this set of people should receive compensation. The present probe can be justified if the majority of the properties demolished did not contravene the original Abuja master plan.
To say the least, the probe has been a messy orgy of mud slinging.
This is why we doubt the sincerity of purpose of the probe, considering that the majority of the senators in office today, were in office then, and did not raise these issues or set up a probe then. Given this background, it is strongly believed that the probe is more of a vindictive witch hunting exercise than a good faith accountability venture.
The essence of the probe has not been made very clear and the desired outcomes have not been spelt out. Because of these missing basic parameters, we do not have an idea when the probe will come to an end and whether those that perpetuated wrong doing during the last administration will be punished by the law. Again, if the minister actually followed due process and obeyed the law, what we should do rather than setting up endless probes would be to compensate all those affected by through administrative means.
If at the end of this probe, all we have witnessed is the plethora of personal stories of pain, disappointment and frustration, this probe would have achieved nothing. The parameters and basis for which those that had their houses wrongfully demolished should have compensation should have been prepared before the probe. The expose of the wrong doings of the last administration in Abuja is not enough; the expectation is that something will be done and be seen to be done will make this probe a successful one.
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