The Accidental Public Servant
Page 72
"Empowerment" so we ended up with the acronym NEEDS. It stuck! The irony of this is that both the
strategy document and its name were largely conceived, written and developed in a London hotel!
[50]
Charles ran for governor of Anambra State on the PDP ticket and was almost certainly rigged out – a
sad thing indeed, because I believe he would have governed the state much better than the person that
ended up being declared the winner of the election.
[51]
At a meeting in July 2010 at Pastor Tunde Bakare's Ikeja residence, we debated these issues and five
of us - Ngozi, Oby, Fola Adeola, Donald Duke and I thought AC was not the best platform as an
alternative to PDP. Nuhu disagreed and assured us that four other opposition parties - factions of
ANPP, DPP, Labour Party, APGA and AC were in discussions to adopt him as the alliance candidate
and that was the way to go against the PDP. Subsequent events indicated that Nuhu was unduly
optimistic about this 'alliance'. Indeed, we later gathered that no such discussions between the parties
or with him were going on except with DPP.
[52]
These enabled me to meet with the entire top echelon – Assistant Directors and above – of the FCT
over a twelve-month period. For instance, on 30th June 2004, I had an interactive dinner with Mrs.
Helen Oloja, then Deputy Director – Legal, Francis Okuchukwu (Maintenance), Dr. A. M. Ahmed
(Health), E. E. Volka (Finance), Umar Lawal (Admin), Francis Chogudo (Primary Education Board),
J.O Fatigun (AEPB), Asma’u Usman (Education) and Engr. Obi Oduche (Engineering). I learnt a lot
from them, and about them. Asma’u and Helen got promoted to full director positions before I left the
FCT.
[53]
Kenzo Tange died in March 2005 as we were planning to celebrate 30 years of the creation of Abuja
as our nation's capital. The urban design of the central area district of Abuja is listed as one of his
principal design legacies. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenzo_Tange accessed December 30,
2011.
[54]
Based on the representations on the non-completion of the National Cathedral and the dilapidation of
the National Mosque, President Obasanjo launched two separate fund-raising efforts for the two
national monuments. The sum of N1.6 billion was raised for the National Mosque and I chaired the
Technical Committee for the rehabilitation and submitted a comprehensive report in October 2004.
Justice Bashir Sambo sued the government for excluding him from the committee, praying the court to
compel the FGN to hand over the monies raised to Jama’atu Nasril Islam or the National Mosque
Management Board. The suit was going through the courts by the time we left office.
[55]
See the back page of the Daily Times of Tuesday, 30 th March 2004 – “Live tortoise found on el-
Rufai’s seat” reported by Simon Timothy.
[56]
The markets in Garki and Mabushi had been completed and nearing completion respectively. The
other two markets had achieved remarkable progress by the time we left office. Access roads, water
and sewage infrastructure were provided to their locations on a priority basis.
[57]
Abuja became the first African city to have citywide Wi-Fi hotspots. In return for access to tower
sites allocated to Abuja Investment Compnay as the FCT’s contribution to the CTAccess joint-
venture, we persuaded the service-provider Suburban Telecommunications to give the service free to
the people for six months, and then start charging about $1 per day for the Wifi service. It was still
being built-out when we left office.
[58]
One of my friends from our Kaduna days, Dan Kunle, wrote me a congratulatory letter upon
assumption of duties in the FCT, suggesting that the motorcycle taxis had become a problem crying for
solution. I replied him promising to look into the situation. That was how the debate leading to the
“okada” ban began.
[59]
One of the first officials to try was the Director of Development Control, Ogunmola, who within days
of my resumption as minister approached me with a layout of corner shops carved out of a green area,
with a list of some 'dignitaries' including the wife of the VP. His assumption was that since I am
supposed to be Atiku's boy, I would jump at approving the layout for immediate allocation. I took the
layout from him to study. The next day, Atiku's wife called me to ask for a few corner shops for her
cronies! I realized that the whole thing was well-coordinated and meant to test my stated resolve to
'clean up Abuja and restore the master plan.' That was the day I decided that Ogunmola would be one
of the first to be disengaged from the services of the FCT administration once we settled down.
Months later he was fired. He challenged the firing in a lawsuit and lost two years later.
[60]
The FCT Director of SSS then was Mr. Ita Ekpenyong who proposed that we advanced a modest
amount of cash to investigate the incidents. I approved it without hesitation. Ekpenyong is now the DG
of the SSS. On July 2nd 2011, he ordered his operatives to arrest me on arrival at the Abuja airport
for writing articles critical of the Jonathan administration. According to him, my articles were aimed
at inciting people against the government, and I did so simply because Jonathan was a 'southern
president'! I marvelled at his transformation, and reminded him that inciting words do not constitute a
crime under Nigerian law and that the Constitution protected the right to free speech, however
inciting!
[61]
Investigations by FCT's Social Development Secretariat revealed that the orphanage received
financial support from British Airways-UNICEF Change for Good programme.
[62]
This was gazetted as Statutory Instrument No. 15 of 2005 and titled - Child Rights (Transfer of
Certain Statutory Functions) Order signed on 7th September, 2005. (See Appendix 9). It is still in
FCT's statute books, and effective from 13th September, 2005
[63]
Bola Onagoruwa, an experienced lawyer and administrative workhorse, as at the time of writing this
is the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises.
[64]
Under previous administrations, the Area Council chairmen were allowed to allocate 'rural land', i.e.
outside the FCC, but the landmark case of Ona v. Atenda (Court of Appeal ) held that the whole of the
FCT is federal land and an urban area, so local governments in the FCT had no jurisdiction to
allocate any land, and in any case, the Minister of FCT who exercised "delegated powers" of the
President in governing the FCT cannot delegate these powers to any other person or authority. All
Area Council allocations were accordingly invalidated in 2002. Any such subsisting ‘allocations’
needed to be regularized by the FCT Minister to be valid. Sadly, this process was not completed
within my tenure and the situation still remains the same.
[65]
In fact, I subsequently discovered that through various fictitious names and hastily-incorporated
companies, successive political leaders from all over Nigeria owned a disproportionate amount of
land in Abuja. It is not a violation of any rule, and officially not a problem if the plots were being
developed, creating jobs and providing facilities for our
citizens, but most are not. I threatened many
with revocation and got some of them developed, but did not fully succeed in revoking or getting all
of them developed.
[66]
And each case, no matter how controversial it may appear to be, based on one side of the story
(including the revocation of the plots of former governor Ahmed Makarfi, the late Abubakar Rimi and
others, which my successor in office mentioned in media interviews), was handled based on
documented contraventions, and not on the settling of any perceived personal scores. I have never
used my public position to pursue a person I am aggrieved with. I am no coward. In the unlikely event
that I feel the need to settle any personal grievance, I would prefer to confront the person and settle
the issue without the advantage of public office.
[67]
Appendix 5 contains correspondence between Senator Sodangi and the FCT administration, details of
plots allocated (and revoked) with respect to some of the senators that are members of the committee,
and the offers of plots and houses allocated by my successor to not only the committee but also the
Senate leadership & bureaucracy to influence the outcome of the ‘investigative public hearing’. As
lawyers say – ‘res ipsa loquitor’ – the documents speak for themselves!
[68]
Functus officio , Latin for "having performed his office," is a legal term used to describe a public
official, court, governing body, statute, or other legal instrument that retains no legal authority because
his or its duties and functions have been completed. The term is most commonly used by a higher
court as a justification for vacating or overruling all or part of a lower court's opinion.
[69]
Appendix 7 contains the list of beneficiaries of the false “functus officio” plot re-allocations
including Senate President David Mark, members of Senate Committee on FCT and Housing, several
ministers and other officials. This went ahead despite a letter from the Secretary to the Government of
the Federation debunking the lies!
[70]
Appendix 8 presents the attendance and the last two pages of the Conclusion of FCT EC (07) 18th
meeting of the FCT Executive Committee of Tuesday 22nd May 2007 – clear evidence that I was the
Minister of FCT after May 15th 2007!
[71]
See for instance: The Guardian of 24th November, 2008 - "Govt Recovers N46b from sale of FCT
Houses" by Mathias Okwe, on www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/article03//indexn2_html?p -
accessed on October 12, 2009. This was also reported by several national newspapers on the same
date - including Thisday, The Punch, Leadership and Vanguard. See The Daily Independent -
http://www.globe-expert.eu/quixplorer/filestorage/Interfocus/0-Societe/03-Territoires/030-
Urbanisation/030-SRCNL-
AllAfrica_News_Urban_Issues_and_Habitation/200811/Nigeria_FG_Recovers_N46b_From_Banks.html
accessed on 19th March 2012
[72] The correspondence between CCT, Justice Sambo and the FCT/Federal Government of Nigeria
are appended, in chronological order for review by the reader. Please refer to Appendix 10 and make
up your mind.
[73]
If we had any ulterior motives to avoid selling the house to Justice Sambo as he alleged, this simple
breach of payment terms was enough to withdraw the offer and request the highest bidder to pay up
and take possession. All these occurrences were lost in the cacophony of false accusations created by
Justice Sambo and his sympathizers.
[74]
I made the statement in response to a question about the Senate Public Accounts Committee
investigating the payment of accrued allowances of my two special assistants – Dr. Abdu Mukhtar
and Ms Aishetu Fatima Kolo. The ‘fool’ referred to was the chairman, Senator Mamman Ali, who
had visited my office a couple of weeks earlier to request for favours that I could not grant and had
promised retribution. The Senate took the reference to one fool to mean 109 fools, and went on strike
for two days, insisting that Obasanjo should fire me. He did not, instead he wrote an unprecedented
apology to the Senate for whatever offence they took from my “inappropriate language’. Appendix 11
reproduces the Obasanjo ‘letter of apology’. I later learnt that Obasanjo thought that I might quit if the
pressure became too much. I did not intend to resign, as that would mean buckling to political
blackmail and intimidation. I did not call ALL senators fools. At least two of them were former Vice
Chancellors of Ahmadu Bello University, but the politics of mischief prevailed over common sense. I
decided firmly that I would not submit to any sanction for what I had not said or done - their poor
understanding of clichés in the English language is their problem, was my attitude. I was invited to the
Senate in full session and I read a speech ending with I am sorry if you misconstrued what I said.
Senator Mamman Ali went on to become the governor of Yobe State in 2007, but died of leukaemia in
a Miami, Florida hospital in January 2009. I pray that his soul finds peace, Amen.
[75]
Alhaji Muhammad Musa Isma is the deceased father of my wife, Hadiza El-Rufai that I never got to
meet. He died in an automobile accident in 1976, a few months after completion of the assignment as
member of the Akinola Aguda Panel. Our family continues to pray for the repose of his gentle soul.
Amen
[76]
Dr. Babangida Aliyu has been the governor of neighbouring Niger State since May 29, 2007, and
chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum – the regional club of governors of the nineteen northern
states.
[77]
This show of political will by Obasanjo, and his unqualified support for the enforcement of
development control regulations in Abuja, sent a very clear message and was widely reported in the
media. See “FCT: Obasanjo Leads Demolition of Houses” in ThisDay , 31stAugust, 2003 and “El-
Rufai Goes to War” – Godwin Agboroko , ThisDay, 2nd September, 2003.
[78]
Those affected, whose houses were mistakenly built on trunk water lines, were former Inspector-
General of Police Musliu Smith and former Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ibrahim Ogohi. Minister
of Defence Rabiu Kwankwaso and Senator Daisy Danjuma had the fencing built on these lines
removed. The proposed removals were leaked by our staff, and wrongly reported (See ThisDay ,
1stSeptember, 2003 – “Demolition: FG Targets Retired Generals’ Houses ” - ostensibly to cause
problems, but everything went smoothly. All these allottees had proper titles and building plan
approvals and had to be paid huge sums by way of compensation and replacement plots. Sadly, for
some inexplicable reasons, the compensation payment took more than two years to settle.
[79]
The task force was chaired by Mr. O. S. Ogunmola, the Director of Development Control. The
members were Dr. L. I. Ofoegbu (Education), Dr. M. O. Ayo (Health), Mrs. Maimuna Ajanah
(Municipal Affairs), Mr. Nosa Ukponmwan (Water Board), Mr. Emmanuel Ovbiebo (Sewage), Mr.
Emmanuel Chukwuocha (AEPB), Dr. Abdu Mukhtar (Special Assistant to Minister), Mr. Danjuma
Ibrahim (FCT Police Command) and other staff of the Legal, Quantity Surveying and Survey &
Mapping departments. The Task Force was inaugurated on 16th September, 2003.
&n
bsp; [80]
The two companies we granted the right to develop the two shores of Jabi Lake into recreational and
tourism facilities – Suburban Ltd and Duval Properties Ltd eventually failed to develop the facilities
within the timeline we envisaged. One of our successors in office attempted to revoke the title to the
land; and the matter has been in court since 2009, delaying the development even further.
[81]
Sadly, the transit ways are now being allocated to senior government officials to “build temporary
structures”, with the Nigerian hope of these then becoming permanent, and the risk that Abuja Rail
system may never ever get built.
[82]
Two of the gas stations were in fact owned by a former minister of FCT, and were seized by the
Federal Government in an asset recovery deal to avoid prosecution in 2001. This reduced our
compensation payments substantially.
[83]
The only exception that was allowed was the naming of the Pope John Paul II Street and Close in
Maitama A5 to commemorate the Pope’s visit to Nigeria during the tenure of Lt.-Gen. J.T. Useni as
Minister of FCT.
[84]
As part of my familiarization meetings with selected former ministers of Abuja, I had a two-hour
meeting with Major-General Muhammadu Gado Nasko on 24th February, 2004. He explained the
rationale behind the decision to relocate the Presidential Complex from the Three-Arms Zone to a
corner of Asokoro District near the National Arboretum. He also explained the basis of his ill-fated
‘integration’ of Garki Village, and introduction of corner shops in the Federal Capital City. He then
mentioned for my intervention issues related to two farmlands in Kubwa, allocated to his company
and Fresh Fruits Limited, owned by his predecessor in office, AVM Hamza Abdullahi, which had
been illegally converted by MFCT/FCDA staff for residential purposes.
[85]
Ms Jummai Kwanashie, then Director of Development Control, chaired the committee. Other
members were Kabir Maina, Jimmy Cheto, A. C. Ike, Isah Shuaibu, Hadiza Abdullahi and Tijjani
Abdullahi. Messrs. A. I. Achu, B. E. Oteri and J. Agbonhense were the secretaries.
[86]
See page 61, ThisDay of 13th August, 2004 for Public Notice signed by Akumazi Martins, my special