They touted it as a city to be built on virgin land; a city on the hill, so to say. But not comparable to the holy city of Jerusalem, which the Bible talks about. However, the promoters of the Centenary City had a similar city in mind; a city that will blow our minds and punch a hole in our pockets. In the pockets of those that can afford it, that is.
The Centenary City was conceived as a monument to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1914 amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates from which present day Nigeria emerged. It was a lavish celebration on which billions of naira were spent. Then Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, was at the helm of the planning committee.
Abuja was virtually locked down for this once in a lifetime ceremony, which started in February, 2014 and ended in February, 2015. The idea behind the city’s conception may not be bad, but was it done with the purest of motives? This is the question now being asked amid the controversy over the city’s status. The Centenary City is not just a city, but a city within a city carved out of the capital city of Abuja. Some villages were sacked for the city. These are the villages of Baruwa, Kpaikpai, Gosa, Daiynna, Toge and Ruga.
Eventhough these communities initially kicked against the acquisition of their land for the project, they later acquiesced after being compensated. Then Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Bala Mohammed, also initially reportedly refused to buy into the project, claiming that the city is not captured in the Abuja masterplan. He also later changed his mind and signed the certificate of occupancy (C of O) following orders from above. Whether it was done on orders from above or not, the time for asking questions is here. And those behind the project are afraid that they may be called upon to give account.
Questions could not be asked in the past because we were under a government of anything goes. Former President Goodluck Jonathan was and still is a happy, jolly fellow, who did not want anything to disrupt the good life he was having in government. He allowed his lieutenants a free hand to do whatever they liked as long as his own interest was not affected. And some of these lieutenants used his name to perpetrate evil under the guise of working in the national interest. To rebuild the nation, we must probe the sordid deeds of the past to deter our future leaders. Otherwise, we will continue to move around in circles – all movement and motion. But they would have none of such probe; they want us as a people to pretend as if nothing went amiss under their watch. We know that a lot went wrong under Jonathan. The former president also know that many things went wrong under him, but he did not have, as they say, the liver to act.
With the Buhari administration determined to clean the Augean stable, these yesterday men have been running to the Abdulsalami Abubakar-led peace committee to help save their necks. The panel’s brief, I beg to say, does not include interfering in the due process of getting past public officers to account for their stewardship. The panel has done its best by getting President Muhammadu Buhari and former President Jonathan to accept the outcome of the March 28 election. It should not see this selfless service as a licence to dictate to the Buhari administration how to run the country. The panel has no hold over Buhari because it brokered peace between him Jonathan before the poll. If the government has decided to probe Jonathan, so be it.
Didn’t Jonathan tell the world before leaving office that he was not afraid of being probed? His plea, however, was that the probe should be extended to the governments before his. That was only a suggestion, which the present government can either accept or reject. His suggestion is not binding on Buhari. If Jonathan is so much interested in the probe of the governments before his, why didn’t he initiate it? He should not use this as a ploy to accuse the Buhari administration of witch hunting him. Why should the government do that? He needs not be afraid if his hands are clean.
The truth is there was nothing clean about the Jonathan administration and this is why those who served in it are jittery about being probed. No amount of blackmail should stop the Buhari administration from going ahead with the exercise. One of the projects that should be looked into is the Centenary City. Was due process followed in the acquisition of the vast land for the project? Were the displaced villagers duly compensated? How did it acquire its free zone status when it is not purely a commercial venture? Are such projects worldwide given such status? How do they acquire it? The project looks good on paper, but deep down it smells of a scam. Like everything Nigerian, some people have used it to con us. They have made a cut from the project and will still make more, if the government does not act fast to stop them.
There is something fishy about the Centenary City. If not, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Vice Chairman, Southsouth Cairo Ojougboh will not be crying foul. To Ojougboh, the Centenary City, which is expected to be completed in 10 years, is a scam. Why? He submits : “It is an elaborate scheme cunningly conceived to defraud the government and the good people of Nigeria”. Ojougboh should know because he was Nigeria Export Processing Zone Authority (NEPZA) Chairman when the city acquired its free zone status. Could the Centenary City have got that status without the NEPZA chairman’s knowledge? That is impossible except if it was done behind his back. If this is so, those who did it should answer for their actions.
Ojougboh, who is enraged that Anyim has taken him to court over the matter and also organised a protest, which he calls ‘’a show of shame’’ against him, insists that the project is “crime personified” because its C of O was obtained under false pretence. He adds that it was cunningly contrived to look like a public private partnership (PPP) management. The city, he maintains, was also “cunningly incorporated as a free zone without any authority whatsoever to do so. It is public knowledge that the only agency with the authority to designate any area as a free trade zone is NEPZA, where I served the nation as chairman. It is, therefore, inevitable that being a man of conscience, who would have no traffic with impunity or corruption, I would reveal this scam to the authorities and the general public.
“The Centenary City is indeed a project devised to trick the authorities into giving a huge chunk of land to one man under the guise of PPP”. What do those asking the present government to let sleeping dogs lie say of these allegations? Swept under the carpet? Is that what will ensure that the peace we now enjoy endure? No, it will rather shatter it because where there is no justice, there can be no peace. If we want peace, we should embrace justice first. Otherwise, what we will have, will be peace of the graveyard.
As for me, I cannot wait for Ojougboh to make good his promise to initiate “legal proceedings by way of sending petitions to the appropriate authorities as regards this issue”. It is only those whose hands are not clean that will be afraid of the impending probe of the past government, an exercise which many Nigerians are eagerly waiting for. Heavens will not fall over this probe whether some people like it or not.
NATION
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