This is a commendable development, because the developers rejected the repeated advice of some individuals and organisations urging the adoption of the hardline, and legally correct, position of telling everyone off. Instead the wise step of calling everyone to sit round a table and present all their issues was the preferred approach. A hardline position would have been insensitive, ill-advised and bound to create more problems than it could have possibly solved. The authorities sat down and listened to those who said they were yet to see the import or impact of the assurances given to them by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, last December. Anyim had assured Nigerians at the time that the Centenary City project would not commence unless adequate compensation was paid to the original inhabitants and other property owners on the site.
The most recent of the meetings and consultations was held at the palace of the Sa’Peyi of Garki, Alhaji Usman Nga Kupi. It emerged during the meeting that the landowners were actually being misled by one man working with some members of the Original Inhabitants Development Association of Abuja (OIDA). As all the issues were tabled and explained, the people became better informed and the Village Head of Baruwa Village, Monday Kogi, among others, apologised to the Sa’Peyi for complaining about the amount he received at the commencement of the payment and for speaking to journalists without getting all the facts and also without bringing any complaints to the traditional ruler.
Present at this meeting were the aggrieved land owners, FCDA officials and the managing director of Centenary City Plc. The meeting was a quick response to what looked like a harvest of complaints when some villagers protested during the beginning of compensation by the FCDA and the Centenary City Plc., on February 21. A handful of the land owners came to the event with advertised protest, which a casual observer could read as indicating they had been ripped off by the authorities. But their initial wrong assumptions about the intentions and actions of government, to the effect that they were not getting a fair deal have since collapsed. Some of the misguided land owners who initially complained that the amount being paid to them individually was not commensurate with what they expected as their entitlements found out they were totally mistaken. Taking the specific case of Mr. Monday Kogi, this gentlemen complained about receiving less than N150,000, whereas he was expecting to be paid N1.5 million. Meanwhile, he was penciled down to be paid a total of N1.6 million as his entitlement, and not the N1.5 million he was expecting.
In fact, the first thing that emerged, reading from reports and also listening to the comments of some of the aggrieved protesters, was that several issues were badly mixed up. Whereas the SGF’s assurance some of them referred to was given at the event calling for evidence on the Centenary City project to the Ad Hoc Committee on Land Racketeering, Land Swap and Improper Allocations in the Federal Capital Territory, many of the protesters said it was given during a special meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in Aso Rock. But as the facts emerged, the people were sobered by the realisation that the FCDA has actually been very generous to the land owners in its compensation package offered.
When, in addition, the judicious process adopted by the authorities for arriving at the payment being made to the indigenes by the shareholders of the Centenary City Plc. was further broken down all stakeholders accepted and endorsed what they were told. Then there was also the clarification of the entire compensation package by the Managing Director of Centenary City Plc. He explained that the compensation package is two-pronged. The first, which is on the table at the moment, is payment to the land owners for the crops and economic trees they have on their land. Thus the N1.6 million due Mr. Kogi at the moment, for instance, does not include the value or cost of his land. It is only meant for the crops and economic trees on his land. He, along with the rest of the land owners, will still be resettled and the FCDA will provide adequate land for the buildings and other facilities to be developed by the Centenary City Plc. for their resettlement. This means that once the FCDA provides the land, the Centenary City Plc., under the guidance of the FCDA and at its own expense, will build adequate housing with infrastructure for the displaced land owners.
It is a matter of relief that in his final comment, the Sa’Peyi urged his people to beware of “farmers who come in through the window” to cause confusion. He urged everyone to accept their compensation payments, whilst eliciting the commitment of the FCDA and the Managing Director of Centenary City Plc to review genuine cases of underpayment in the interest of equity and justice. His views on the need for a joint committee between the authorities and on skills acquisition should be taken very seriously, even as the FCDA is poised to resume the payment of compensation tomorrow, starting with Toge village.
For the record though, and just in case the developer does not know, last year’s ruling of Justice Yusuf Halilu of the FCT High Court shows that the Land Use Act does not apply to the FCT. While the Act vests all lands in a state on the state government to hold in trust for the people, Section 49 of the Act specifically excludes the application of its provisions to title land held by the federal government. Thus it made sense for Halilu to rule that there is no way anyone can claim ownership of one square metre of land in the FCT, without allocation or grant by the FCT Minister. In his words: “Were the Land Use Act meant to apply to the FCT, the original inhabitants would have been granted deemed grant to remain on their land”.
Taking account of the military barracks, quarry sites, natural features, other private property and roads on the original site of 1,264 hectares, the estimated land for farming on the site is no more than 400 hectares. With the proposed compensation of N319 million, this comes to nearly N800,000 per hectare. This is arguably one of the highest recorded such compensation per hectare in the FCDA. That is when you take into account the location, economic value and originally projected time for developing such and similar areas around Abuja.
Also for the record, and the information of the general reader, the Centenary City was incorporated in April 2013 by interested private sector investors that responded to the call by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) for potential investors willing to commit to an investment of not less than US$100 million towards the development of the city. Following the incorporation of the Special Purpose Company (SPC) that will promote and drive the investment in the city, a total of 19 companies subscribed to the company’s Articles and Memorandum of Understanding; having met the initial capital call (of not more than USD5 million and no less than USD250,000). These 19 firms as such became its foundation shareholders:
The Board of Directors of the company was inaugurated by President Goodluck Jonathan in October 2013 with the following members: General Abdulsalami Abubakar, (Chairman), Mr. Victor Udeh, Mr. Monabee Mitee, Dr. Pamela Obaze, Mr. Olatunde Ayeni, Mr. Adetokunbo Kayode (SAN), Mr. Ugochukwu Nkwocha, Mr. George Marks, Mr. Hani Tanois Saliba, representative of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), representative of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade & Investment.
The week marking the grand finale of the centenary celebrations brought with it the resolution of the compensation controversy. This is not bad at all.
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