El-Rufa'is Demolition Exercise: Issues and Observations for Policy

By

Hassan Garba

hgpella@yahoo.com   

In a recent interview conducted by Weekly Trust of Feb. 14 – 20 2004 , The Honorable Minister of the Capital , Mal. Nasir El-Rufa’I stated some of the reasons why it has become necessary for the Federal Government to carry out massive demolition of some ‘illegal” properties within the Federal Capital.    

Prominent among the reasons he proffered are the choice of Abuja as an alternative capital to Lagos , which had become overcrowded for a capital city befitting it’s status, the violation of the “master plan” and the fact that some of the buildings were constructed on water or sewage lines, roadways, and under overhead electric lines. These reasons we understand pose great dangers to the shelf life of the buildings, the occupants and even the general public. It is based on these statements and other issues as raised by the Honorable Minister that I wish to express my views and observations which I hope will help policy makers in taking a final decision on this matter.  

I must commend the Honorable Minister for his honesty in admitting that “a lot has gone wrong in phase one of the Federal Capital development plan” and that he is looking into it. The steps he is taking is in the right direction, as it is his duty as the custodian of the Federal Capital to safeguard and protect the sanctity of the Abuja master plan in order to give Nigerians a Capital City is a planned city, not virtually everything about was being constructed, there was an influx of laborers / construction workers, petty traders, food vendors and small time business men into the city, which presented better opportunities for them in form of work and business. 

This category of people did not come into Abuja along side the civil servants for which Abuja was originally planned. This reality is what the Government is finding very difficult to grapple with, as they foresee a situation reminiscent of the Lagos scenario. I wish to state also that as much as we agree that the Abuja with the sole intention of doing violence to the Abuja master plan. Most of these people whose houses have been marked for demolition wanted nothing more than a place to conduct their legitimate businesses and a place in which to lay their tired heads after the day’s struggles. Most of them were deceived by corrupt government officials or their “agents”, who taking advantage of their ignorance about Government regulations on building in , sold to them endangered plots of land. Many of these people acquired the money with which they built these houses through sheer hard work, some even through manual labor. Surely, this ongoing demolition exercise would impose untold hardship and psychological stress on these people and their families. On the strength of these observations, I wish to suggest to the Honorable Minister of the Federal Territory , Mal. Nasir El-Rufa’I, as the intelligent estate surveyor that he is, to set aside new development areas within the Federal Capital Territory and allocate it legally to people willing to construct personal Houses. 

I also implore him to temper justice with mercy by paying compensation to all deserving victims of the demolition (i.e. those with genuine certificates of occupancy or other legal proof of ownership of land) before their houses are pulled down. This compensation should be in form of money and the allocation of alternative plot of lands in the proposed new development areas. This step will go along way in alleviating the sufferings of these people and also promote the spirit of private sector ownership / initiative that our new democracy preaches. The Honorable Minister should also use all the powers at his disposals to dig deep into the past record of the FCDA with a view to investigating all the cases of corruption / illegal land deals that took place there and to identify the people involved and their levels of involvement. Such people should also be prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to other people, whose only interest in the FCT is to sell off every inch of the land in order to acquire ill-gotten wealth. If possible, the anti-corruption commission or the economic and financial crime commission EFCC should come in handy in helping to achieve the desired objectives. This way we can be sure that our future development plans are not tempered with.    

HASSAN GARBA

PELLA GOVT. COLLEGE ,  

MALALI – KADUNA hgpella@yahoo.com