Sen. Bala Mohammed’s Responses To Senate Committee On FCT Misinformed Directives On Abuja Plots

Our attention has been drawn to various media reports in which
the Senate Committee on FCT accused the previous
administration of illegally converting the green areas of Maitama
District into developable lands and allocating same to named
individuals.

While we had not wanted to join issues with the Senate
Committee, however, the exuberance of the Committee’s
Chairman that borders on ignorance of the limitations of the
doctrine of separation of powers under the constitution has
necessitated us to set the records straight:

1. 1. Throughout the tenure of the previous administration, all
   allocations of land in the FCT were based on professional advice,
   availability of layouts and the provisions of the Land Use Act. In
   reference to the Ministerial Hill, which the Senate Committee
   gave the Department of Development Control directive to stop
   work, we state as follows:
2. That sometimes in 2010, the FCTA under Senator Adamu
   Aliero commissioned Messrs. Fola Consult Limited to advise the FCT Administration on the extent of the area in Maitama
   Ministerial Hill that could be converted for residential use;

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3. That Messrs. Fola Consult Limited submitted its report
   highlighting the history of the area and rationale for its
   development as follows:
4. The redesign of Plot 2278 was carried out during the regime
   of Air Vice Marshall Hamza Abdullahi in 1998 to
   accommodate the Federal Ministers who moved from
   Lagos into the FCT;
5. That the change in land use was captured by the Land use
   plan produced in June 1989 by Messrs. Dynasys Resource
   Company in association with Alpha Consult Rome;
6. That the redesign of Messrs. Dynasys Company was not
   comprehensive since the sole aim of the design was just to
   create plots to accommodate some few Ministers’ houses;
7. That the area was not designated as recreational area or
   park but was designated as undevelopable area based on
   its difficult terrain and that the level of technology at the
   time was the major consideration for its classification as
   undevelopable;
8. That Fola Consult Limited advised the Aliero Administration
   that additional plots should be created to justify existing
   underutilized infrastructure In line with its land use

categorization as a low-density residential area;

5. That sometimes in 2014, the Department of Urban & Regional
   Panning also made recommendations that additional plots

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should be created on plot 2180 to justify existing underutilized
infrastructure around the Mississippi street of Maitama;

6. That the immediate past FCT administration was fully
   convinced that the master plan is a dynamic road map for the
   city’s land use and infrastructure development, guided by the
   demands of change and time. Hence, on the basis of the above
   recommendations, and in recognition of its responsibility to
   ensure full utilization of resources, the administration approved
   the redesigns and subsequently, allocations were made in line
   with the Land Use Act;
7. That the FCT Administration allowed for commencement of
   work on the plots after the allottees got due building plan
   approvals from the Department of Development Control which
   approval, needless to add, can only be reversed by the authority
   of the Hon. Minister;
8. Apart from insisting that such new developments were based
   on the green city concept, the approval process was predicated
   on a robust environmental impact assessment conducted by a
   team of professionals within the FCT Administration.
9. That the Senate Committee is advised to seek adequate
   information from the FCT Administration before issuing
   wrongful directives.

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With the above said, we consider it imperative, at this juncture,
to make some clarifications on the concept of the master plan,
green areas and the dynamism of city development.

The Master Plan Concept

I am not a Town Planner, but a Master plan has been defined by
professionals as that broad policy document meant to guide the
growth and development of a town or city.

May I add that the life span of a master plan which is not less
than Ten years minimum, is so wide that there is no way changes
will not occur for a document based on assumptions,
predications and projections. As soon as gaps are observed
between these proposals and realities, as is the case of the Abuja
master plan over time, a review or redesign becomes imperative.

Above all, nowhere in the world and on any town or city is a
master plan implementation achieved at 100 percent level even
in developed countries.

Concept of Green Areas and the Dynamism – of City
Development

Green area is a land use provision within the master plan for
recreation, flood drains, city buffers, urban farming, reserved
lands and contextually undevelopable area. However, for
reasons of population growth, expansion in infrastructural

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facilities, security concerns and logistical demands, city
development all over the world has never remained static.
Rather, it has been a dynamic process. Abuja has not been an
exception.

Thus, long before the advent of the last FCT Administration,
Ministers had reviewed and re-conceptualized green area
provisions in the Abuja Master plan. For instance, part of the
Presidential Villa was a green area in the master plan. So also
were the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), the High
Court, the residence of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and
recently, the residences of the presiding officers of the National
Assembly. Military formations such as Camp Wu Bassey and
Niger barracks, and urban fringes including Usuma, Maitama
Extension and Mpape Districts etc. were part of the changes
made to the master plan. Many other examples abound of green
areas being converted to other uses by previous ministers based
on need of the time to make the city more functional and more
socio-economically viable.

In fact, all of what is termed the “Urban Fringe” including Usuma
and Mpape Districts, was a green area and was supposed to
constitute a buffer zone between the city on the one hand and
the regional space, on the other. However, it was utilized by
previous administrations for the building of the various barracks,
Asokoro District, Guzape District, Sunrise Hills Estate and parts

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of Apo. These urban fringes were redesigned by previous
ministers in accordance with the powers conferred on them by
the Land Use Act.

For emphasis, it is important to note that even part of the
present Presidential Villa and the Eagle Square were changed
from Transportation Center to what they are today, while under
the Master Plan, what is now known as Maitama Extension was
supposed to be a Sports Center but was redesigned by previous
administrations. Even in the city center occasions arose where
the Boulevard Project in the Central Business District area led to
redesign of many plots in the original master plan.

For the enlightenment of all stakeholders and members of the
public who are ignorant of the historical background to this
matter, it was Mallam Nasir EI-Rufai as FCT minister who, seeing
the lack of capacity on the part of the FCT Administration, to
maintain the green areas, started allocating them to individuals
in the hope that the allottees would live up to expectation.
Unfortunately, they did not. Instead, most of the park allottees
converted the green areas to commercial uses thereby placing
them on a collision course with the Development Control
Department. Overnight, restaurants, hotels, showrooms, beer
parlours, pubs etc. sprang up in these areas, in complete negation
of the master plan. In some cases these unapproved conversions

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constituted not only a nuisance to the public but a grave security
threat. To tackle the deplorable situation, the immediate past
leadership of the FCT set up a committee headed by former
Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development
Commission, Otunba Segun Runsewe which, in the course of its
activities, established that most of the beneficiaries had made
heavy investments in the green areas. It was therefore decided,
that in deserving cases, the allottees should retain only 10 of
the green areas while the remaining should be developed for
public use with the firm belief that if the administration needed
to recover the whole land, it could do so since it was not covered
by deeds and titles.

We have gone to this extent to explain dynamics of the
transformation of the green areas to prove the point that the
immediate past FCT administration was simply following
precedents in adopting out-of-the-box strategies that would
guarantee more effective land use management. The truth is
that the previous administration drew immensely from both the
Accelerated Development Program of EI-Rufai and the Sunshine
Hills Estate of Abba Gana, in prosecuting its highly ambitious
mass housing programs. It is on record that the administration,
under Senator Bala Mohammed, collaborated with estate
developers and institutions like the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC
and the Trade Union Congress, TUC to develop districts for

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workers while the administration itself conceived three social
and affordable housing schemes in Wasa and Mamusa Districts
which were allocated to co-operatives to provide housing to the
lower cadre.

Conclusion

From the above, we want to conclude as:

1. The Minister never acted outside the limits of his powers in
   the matter of land management in the FCT.
2. The Abuja Master Plan has never been inviolable. At various
   times in the past, Senator Bala Mohammed’s predecessors
   had managed the plan to achieve a functional and
   harmonious development in the city. For all his actions in
   the area of land management, there were precedents by his
   predecessors some of whom are still serving the nation in
   various capacities.
3. What we do not understand is the Senate Committee
   Chairman’s unusual interest in the Minister’s Hill. The
   committee needs no reminding that all the beneficiaries of
   plots at the redesigned Minister’s Hill are Nigerians who are
   legitimately and eminently qualified to receive the
   allocations that were made within the constitutional
   powers of the minister following laid down procedures and
   precedence set by his predecessors. Some of these

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Predecessors are not just around they are still very much in
the service of the nation

4. We recognize the prerogative of the Chairman of the Senate
   Committee on FCT to carry out his oversight functions in
   any manner he chooses but that should never include
   making unguarded statements that tend to ridicule those
   who served to the best of their ability or derogate the
   powers of the executive to carry out their normal
   constitutional duties.
5. The committee will need to be reminded that a similar
   effort to revoke the last minute allocations by EI-Rufai on
   the eve of his departure could not stand. Ironically, it fell on
   Senator Bala Mohammed to resolve the matter and restore
   the status quo, which led to massive development in the
   FCT and alleviate unnecessary litigation.
6. The former minister is available at all times to clarify his
   actions in the area of land management thereby avoiding
   unnecessary dramatization of ignorance or grandstanding
   for media attention.

Emma Agu

Media Consultant to Senator Bala Mohammed, CON
Former Minister of the FCT