Impunity and Abuja infrastructure challenge

Certainly, that would have been praiseworthy, if the administration had at least a year or two to its demise. Unfortunately, to all intent this could only translate to laying a booby trap on the new Buhari Government, since the Jonathan Government’s tenure had expired, thus, it shall not be the one responsible for sourcing for […]

Certainly, that would have been praiseworthy, if the administration had at least a year or two to its demise. Unfortunately, to all intent this could only translate to laying a booby trap on the new Buhari Government, since the Jonathan Government’s tenure had expired, thus, it shall not be the one responsible for sourcing for the fund for the project’s implementation. Paradoxically, during the Jonathan’s tenure, FCTA complained of lack of funds for financing of infrastructure.
In response to one of our earlier articles, sometime in March 2013, the FCT administration in an article entitled “The Legality, Beauty and Desirability of Land Swap Option in Abuja” stated that “as at December 2012, it had an infrastructure liability of over N420 billion. This did not include the N150 billion liabilities for resettlement and compensation. These liabilities should be juxtaposed against the annual national budgetary allocations to the FCT Administration, which had not averaged more than N50 billion. In fact, in 2011, it was not more than N46 billion while in 2012, the actual money released to the FCTA was just N33 billion”.
The prevailing situation is a worse than what was obtained two years earlier, because both the states and Federal Government are grappling to pay staff salary. It was abundantly clear that the administration that awarded the contract was only marginally trying to survive prior to its demise. That was an administration that could not provide more than N33 billion in an annual budget allocation for the whole of the FCT two years earlier. Yet it went ahead to approve a contract of up to N60 billion for provision of infrastructure for only a single district on the eve of its departure.
Against the daunting challenge of paucity of fund for financing infrastructure, any serious minded administration would give emphases on 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. Premium at the area councils used to be N500/m2, but within the city it ranges from N2,000 to N10,000/m2 depending on the district. There was a time that the rate was raised up to N18,000/m2, but was brought down due to public outcry. With the rated cost of infrastructure at N11,810/m2, as estimated by the Abuja Infrastructure Investment Company, these land charges to some extent can outright finance the provision of the city infrastructure.
Ironically, as desperate as the FCTA was in need of funding for infrastructure, it at the same time had the habit of ditching 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 market for speculations.
One of such cases was the allocation to the President, Abuja Original Inhabitant Youth Empowerment Organization, 14 Waziri Ibrahim Crescent Apo, Abuja. The land size is 30.42Ha on Plot no. 3992 Cadastral Zone E27 Apo District. File Number is Misc. 128965. The date of allocation was 5th May, 2015, that was less than a month from the end of the Jonathan Administration. A letter granting request for waiver in respect of the Statutory Right of Occupancy Bills payment, up to the sum N611,818,259.00, was dated 1st June 2015, signed on behalf of the Hon. Minister FCT. In order to further lower the bill due to the special interest on the allocation it was calculated based on the lowest rate of N2,000/m2. Yet the amount was that much.
It should be noted that the date of 1st June 2015, was outside the tenure of the last administration. Another very amusing issue was  that the request for the waiver was made on 23rd October 2014. Puzzlingly, the land allocation was dated 5th May 2015. This document is now in the property market with the asking price of N2 billion.
This is only a tip of the iceberg, because we are sure that there are many yet to be exposed. When the bills of all these type of exemptions are summed up they surely substantially augment the funding for infrastructure. Such impunity should be subjected to thorough investigation by this new government.