The enormous land acquired by the Federal Government for use as the Federal Capital Territory is beyond the immediate needs of the function of Abuja as the Federal City and it’s supporting regional areas. But, as explained last week, the founding fathers made it up to 8,000sq km, large enough in order “to accommodate all our needs in the forseeable future”.
In reality, there are many needs in our contemporary era that were unforeseeable at the time of the conception of the New FCT. For example, at the time of the creation of the new capital we had a Federation of 19, against the present 36 States. If we planned to provide lands for 19 States Liaison Offices with their State Government Lodges, that concept must have changed many years ago. Because presently we have 36 States and the FCT.
Over the years Abuja has transformed from a Capital City where people were being encouraged to apply for land and develop with radio and television jingles, to a Capital turned to a den of land grabbers making illicit money out of land speculations and property related frauds.
Those of us in the lands and physical development departments of the Authority remember the time that land allocations were sent via the post office, and all responses to developers from Land, Planning and Survey Department were accompanied with the slogan of “Thank you for your active participation in the development of Abuja”.
Without any doubt, the founding fathers made their proposals, specifically the huge 8,000sq km for the FCT in good faith, without any intention of acquiring any square meter of Abuja land for themselves. To our knowledge, all the committee members of the FCT creation and the initial boards of the FCDA who oversaw the creation of the Abuja Master plan departed without a single meter square allocation of Abuja Land.
Prof Akin Mabogunje committee with 12 members, undertook its assignment between 1976 and 1978. They were tasked with the Ecological Survey of the territory after the 1976 delimitation of the 8,000sq km FCT by the Justice Akinola Aguda Committee. To our knowledge the only surviving member of the Mabogunje committee is Professor K. O. Ologe, the former Head of Geography Department ABU Zaria.
Prof. Ologe served as the chief geomorphologistsfor the Ecological Survey. He is presently, an octogenarian, quietly, residing in his Lokogomaresidence, bought for him by his caring children. Those of us that were his former students 40 years ago in ABU Zaria, only recently rediscovered him in Abuja, not quite two years ago. He was not remembered for a single meter square allocation in the FCT. It was alsoon record that Alhaji Shehu Shagari, the first Presidentto commence the actual physical construction activities in Abuja, and his immediate successor, General Muhammadu Buhari, of blessed memories, did nothave any structure within the city.
Meanwhile, all other categories of persons and organizations now reap the benefits of the founding fathers’ patriotic services, with many and humongous lands allocation in the City today. The fact is having a lucrative commodity in abundance, beyond actual needs, leads to abuse and mismanagement. Hundreds of hectares are now being allocated, not for the actual development but for sale in billions of Naira for private financial gains.
Yet, as presented last week, the City can only consume barely five percent of the land size earmarked for the FCT. Leaving a very vast land susceptible to exploitation by successive corrupt leaderships. The land administration in the FCT is witnessing its worst era today.
The debate for excessive size of the FCT is as old as the commencement of the Capital City development. Apart from the Niger State complains of 1982 as presented in the A D Rufa’i Committee Report, other observations were made by resource persons. Some were directly involved in securing the vast land at the onset.
Professor Mabogunje was among the resource persons invited to make presentation during an International Workshop for the review of the Abuja Master plan in 1999. That was more than 20 years after his FCT Ecological Survey led assignment. He made the following statements in his presentation “I believe it is important to revisit the question of whether the Federal Capital requires the huge amount of territorythat it now placed under its jurisdiction. In this connection, it is instructive to remember that with its 8,000sq km, the Federal Capital is presently larger in area than a number of states, especially in the southern parts of the country”.
He further stated, “For all practical purposes, the southern part of the territory which used to be part of the former Kwara State, serves no particular purpose as part of the Federal Capital. The same is true of those part of Niger State west of Gurara River. Is it not possible to reconsider the area of the Federal Capital Territory and reduce it to a more manageable extent of, say, half its present size, within which the principles of equal access and equal citizenship can be truly fostered?”
All seriously minded stakeholders would agree thatin addition to other factors, the vast land size of the FCT today provided the salient incentive for the ever increasing land abuse and exploitations for illicit wealth acquisition. Truly, it is high time for this huge size to be reconsidered.
