By Willie Amadi
The attached video sounded like President BAT’s announcement on his inauguration day that “FUEL SUBSIDY IS GONE”.
NYESOM EZENWO WIKE (NEW) in his inaugural speech as Minister of Federal Capital Territory also said that “ILLEGAL STRUCTURES ARE GONE”.
While BAT is calm in implementation, NEW will be harsh if he is to succeed.
TO SUCCEED, BAT only needed to provide enough palliatives while NEW must provide unavoidable pain. But above all, the root cause to end the later is to pass a law that will severely punish the civil servants and former accounting officers of the FCDA who for one reason or the other directed and or aided the heartless distortion of the master plan after El Rufai sanitised the FCT. I believe that if El Rufai had survived the DSS trap he would have handled the FCT the second time and only God knows what would have happened having traversed that route before. Wike luckily is the best option.
My insistence on punishing officers of the Ministry, Federal Capital Development Authority and Abuja Geographical Information Services is for the simple reason that their official schedule being to protect the Master Plan deliberately decided to rather cease the insider opportunity to manipulate and alter the master for unsuspecting and vulnerable land and Estate Developers to buy with its painful loss of future demolition. So as long as they are not punished the distortion of the master plan will continue after Wike as in El Rufai too.
My experience as the Special Adviser, Sanitation & Transport and Pioneer General Manager of Imo State Environmental Transformation Commission, ENTRACO under Ohakim administration in 2007-2011 is quite instructive. Imo State under my charge won the award of the cleanest State Capital in Nigeria for three consecutive years back to back in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Today I weep for the State.
Civil or ‘Evil’ servants connived with the succeeding administration deliberately altered the Master Plan of Owerri that was almost gradually emerging as a modern model State including destroying the entire embankment of the beautiful Nworie River and Otamiri river Bank covering over 11 hectares of green verge land. This river Bank demarcated the ‘Twin-City’ Master Plan into OLD & NEW with a 50 years habitat expansionist provision designed by the world renowned city planner, Messrs Fingerhourt & Partners of Holland. I eternally give thumbs up to TPL Steve Onu, who as the Director of Town Planning and later Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands vehemently resisted multiple intimidations by the Rochas administration to compromise professional ethics and connive in the heartless distortion and destruction of the Owerri Twin-City Master Plan. Painfully, the administration unfortunately found a willing ally in the Director of Lands Mr, Ugwunga and systematically destroyed the entire master plan of the Owerri Capital Territory just for selfish land grabbing greed. No doubt, Posterity will definitely reward each of these actors according to their deeds as long as the city continues to bleed from the distortion.
In the foregoing therefore, the need for strong institutions and appointees with strength of character is definitely required for these mould of responsibilities otherwise the restoration efforts of master plans will become a circus show with the buyers reeling in severe pains and losses after demolitions by successive administration while the conscious violators will smile to the banks with their heads high.
Willie Amadi is a Lawyer, Environmentalist and Professional in Politics.
NIGERIA NEWSPOINT
