Land swap: ‘There’s great consideration for original inhabitants’

Do you think you’ve done adequate enlightenment on the land swap programme? Developers seem not to understand it.We’ve done a lot of sensitization but the fact is, no matter how much sensitization you’ve done, if somebody elects not to understand, there’s nothing you can do.The land swap programme is not new. Two things are involved […]

Do you think you’ve done adequate enlightenment on the land swap programme? Developers seem not to understand it.
We’ve done a lot of sensitization but the fact is, no matter how much sensitization you’ve done, if somebody elects not to understand, there’s nothing you can do.
The land swap programme is not new. Two things are involved – infrastructure provision which everybody knows how they are provided. Second, the payment for the infrastructure – we know that the payment for infrastructure is usually through budgetary allocation. This time, instead of budgetary allocation for payment of infrastructure, we’re using the land to pay for the infrastructure. I don’t know what’s difficult about understanding it.

There’s this feeling that a new government will come and reverse the policy. The developer will then lose.
We have to go back to the reasons the minister came up with the land swap programme. If there’s [enough] money from budgetary allocation, nobody will talk about land swap. Because there’s not enough money, because there’re a lot of liabilities, there’s the liability like the resettlement and compensation which is over N200 billion as at today and increasing – that’s why the minister thought outside the box to say how can I provide infrastructure not withstanding these problems.
If the next administration comes in and says no land swap, then it should be able to come up with a better idea of funding the infrastructure.
We believe it’s not going to change. When the accelerated housing development came, there was a hue and cry about it. We allocated land in service areas where there were infrastructure. When we exhausted that, we created the mass housing programme. The mass housing programme is still on.
We realized that even in the mass housing programme, there was still that problem of dearth of infrastructure and that’s why we came up with land swap. Instead of another administration coming to say no to land swap programme…it will further deepen it.
If you look at the history of Britain after the World War, that’s what they did – using land swap in building about 23 new towns. Now, if you go there, you don’t hear about land swap but if you go to their development control department, there’s land swap because there’s provision for infrastructure contribution. Infrastructure contribution is land swap.

Developers say you charge them as much as N350 million.
We’re not charging them. Under our framework, we say make available the sum of N350 million. This N350 million is not paid into the account of the FCT administration or any agency of the FCT administration. It’s project account opened by the developers and solely maintained by the developers.

What’s the idea?
The idea is to ensure that those we’re partnering with have the requisite financial resources to do the preliminary activities. The only thing we have is oversight function – that this N350 million you have put down is there and you’re utilizing it for the purpose you brought it.
 It’s with this N350 million they’re able to do the things we asked them to do: detailed survey, planning, design and the engineering design which are necessary before you start.
The rationale is that if you’re truly a serious investor and you want to make proposal, you’ll engage the right competences to draw up the proposal for you. These are the things we expect to do with this N350 million.

When you ask developers to do infrastructure, they will factor these in the houses they’ll sell. This is the same as saying consumers should bear the yoke of building infrastructure. Does this encourage mass housing?
Yes it does! First, we have to realize that this is the capital city of Nigeria. It’s like any other capital city in the world. If the developer factors the cost of infrastructure in the price of their houses, certainly the prices will be high. Even in the service area, we expect a plot of land to go between N20,000 and N23,000 per square meter. This is inclusive of financing cost and return on investment.
In other words, a plot of land in a service area where there are infrastructure will cost about N20 million to N23 million. This amount includes about 15 percent return on investment for the developer.
Now, the question is, is a plot of land where there’re infrastructure like in Maitama costing N20 million to N23 million reasonable? How much is a plot in Asokoro? Yes, N23 million is a whole lot of money but when you look at this capital city of Nigeria, you’re looking at the place with infrastructure, that’s reasonable.

Around 2005, government gave land to developers hoping that these developers would do mass housing but most of them carved up the land and sold it. What has government done about that?
It’s one of the problems we recognized while coming up with land swap framework. There are obligations on the part of the developer, there are obligations on the part of government. Some developers put up houses in line with the agreement. They went ahead to put secondary infrastructure in line with the agreement. But we found that some of the houses were below standard, some of the infrastructure were below standard. Some developers did not start anything but in a way speculated on the land — selling to people.
What can you do? The obligations are mutual. FCTA was expected to provide the primary infrastructure to these places. So long as you don’t provide infrastructure, the developer can always say I was unable to do anything because your obligation to provide has not been met. Provide infrastructure today, I’ll develop.
 We didn’t meet our obligation under the agreement because there was no money to do that. That’s why this time, we say the primary and secondary infrastructure should be done.

There are concerns by the original inhabitants of Abuja. They’ve promised to undermine land swap policy implementation because they have nothing to gain from it.
I’m surprised they say they don’t have anything to gain from it. If there’s any group that stands to benefit from land swap, it’s the original inhabitants of Abuja. The constitution has already vested all the land in the federal capital territory to government. Notwithstanding, it has recognized that there must be compensation to them. Over the years, we’ve been promising them compensation. Have they got it? Was it adequate?
When this minister came in, he said, “Look, I can’t close my eyes to the plight of the indigenes. The administration must treat them the way it treats all Nigerians. We must recognise that they have special status, therefore, whatever we do, their interest must come first.”
We have resettlement and compensation liability of over N200 billion today. Where’s the money to pay that? If we’re to start new projects, there’s always the issue of compensation and resettlement.  
The minister said the first thing we need do in this land swap programme is to talk about resettlement and compensation. There has never been a minister that sits down with the original inhabitants to ask what resettlement and compensation policy they want. That’s one.
Second, he gave assurances and these are what we’re working on. That there won’t be commencement of infrastructure work until compensation is paid. Before, compensations were promised but due to lack of budgetary allocations, they would not be paid. This time, the investors are paying the compensation.

So you give a district to a developer with a charge to pay compensation to original inhabitants?
We’re working out the framework. It’s not only compensation. There’s the issue of resettlement. We agreed with all the investors.
Now, we’re pandering to what they [original inhabitants] want. We’re looking at the possibility of realistic integration which is what they prefer. Which previous administration has ever done that? If there’s any group that should be thankful to this minister, I think it’s the original inhabitants. In public and in private, he has never hidden his love and concern for the original inhabitants.
We’re working toward that. In the end, they’ll get a better deal.