From 1960 to date, Nigeria will be 65 by October this year. Out of these years that Nigeria became independent Abuja has been the effective Federal Capital of
Nigeria now for 34 years, from the transfer of Seat of power in 1991. And, from the 1976 date of the declaration it is 49, and by February 2026 Abuja will be 50. What it means is that it has surpassed the period that Lagos was the Capital of the country in the post independent Nigeria.
In describing what the Federal Capital Cities of nations represent, one of our indigenous resource persons who contributed to the debate in favour of the Capital City transfer U. G. Bena stated that “it represents an arena for frontal collision between dissimilar heritages and value systems; a melting pot of culture, a dominant focus of cultural transmission and dissemination as well as a hot bed of political fermentation”.
If successful plans are measured by the financial value of the product, one of the greatest achievement of planning in Nigeria was the planning and implementation of the Abuja Master plan. Abuja land today is the most sought for as such the most expensive. The Nigerian Government thus produced its biggest urban land asset in Abuja its Federal Capital City.
All these were achieved by transforming a wilderness into a modern capital city in less than half a century. This is supposed to be utilized for overriding public interest, for the benefit of all citizens. Revenues generated from land administration thus accounted for the highest collected by the FCT Administration over the years.
Against the daunting challenge of paucity of fund for financing infrastructure, any serious minded administration would give emphases to Internally Generated Revenue, since the major source of the finance was from Statutory Budgetary Allocation from the Federal Government. The FCTA must embrace the minutest opportunity provided for revenue generation. This being the case revenue from land charges would definitely provide the needed succour. These include the Premium charges on land and the annual ground rents.
The evolution of land charges collected as premium progressed from the period of encouraging citizen with minimal charges of N200 per square meter to N2,000 per meter square in year 2000 up to N18,000 at certain times previously for residential lands. All these are made to provide the funds for financing infrastructure. However the negative side of it was the misappropriation and fraudulent administration of the City’s land resources for selfish benefits and aggrandizement.
The cost of infrastructure in 2009 was at N11,810/m2, as estimated by the Abuja Infrastructure Investment Company, these land charges to some extent can out-rightly finance the provision of the city infrastructure. If we convert to the prevailing currency value we can arrive at the present relative cost.
The reasons always advanced for the frequent increase of land fees in Abuja has always been to enable the government finance the provision of the most needed infrastructure to service the thousands of plots allocated to individuals and organizations across the length and breadth of the city, the cost of which is continuously becoming unbearable for the government to shoulder independently.
Ironically, as desperate as the FCTA was in need of funding for infrastructure, it at the same time had the habit of dishing out waivers on land premium and rent charges on selected allocations, akin to a Father Christmas. Depending on the sizes of the allocations and districts, the waivers are in hundreds of millions of naira. As if that was not enough the allocations were immediately routed to the property markets for speculations.
Meanwhile, there has never been any time in the history of the FCT Administration that the size requirements for land allocations were grossly violated than the prevailing administration. The allocations were in hundreds of hectares. Not only that, the premium charges on the allocations were again crashed to allow the beneficiaries to pay the minimum charges possible, if not waived, while they obtain their Certificate of Occupancy.
In the year 2015 we made very strong presentation against a 30.42Ha allocation that it was too big to be allocated to a single beneficiary. Also that its premium was charged at N2,000 per meter square we considered it as puzzling, ridiculous and callous. But today we have hundreds of hectares up to size of a whole district, being allocated to single beneficiary. While the premium were charged at N500 per meter square.
The premium charge for the normal residential plot at Maitama II District is N8,000/meter sq. while rent /annum is N40/meter sq. Therefore, 1000m sq. plot will pay N8m, which is considered as part of the plot holder’s equity contribution for provision of infrastructure to his plot. 
Considering the above, payable premium for 100Ha of land at N8,000 per meter sq. will be N8Billion. But when the charge is crashed to N500/msq, which was the grossly crashed rate, it will be only N0.5Billion. In comparison with our condemnation of 2015, what we are now witnessing is gross abuse of official responsibility.
