Battle of First Ladies In Nigeria

Widow of late President Umaru Yar’Adua and former First Lady of Nigeria, Mrs. Turai Yar’Adua, and incumbent First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, have been in the news for some days now on account of an embarrassing legal tussle over a choice parcel of land at the high brow Cadastral Zone in the Federal Capital City, (FCT), Abuja. 

Mrs. Yar’Adua’s non-governmental organization (NGO), Women and Youth Empowerment Foundation (WAYE), and the Patience Jonathan-sponsored organisation, African First Ladies Peace Centre, have been fighting a protracted legal battle over the ownership of the land identified as Plot 1,347 of Cadastral Zone. 

Court records available to the media on the case which came up at the Abuja High Court on July 20 indicate that the disputed plot of land was first allocated to Yar’Adua’s WAYE by the Minister of FCT, Bala Muhammed, with a Right of Occupancy duly issued to the NGO. The registered trustees of the organisation had applied for the land and were allocated the plot in question after paying N184,529,438 as Statutory Right of Occupancy, which was issued to it.

Yar’Adua’s WAYE also reportedly paid various levies and an additional N76,936,210 as building plan fees after which the grant and approval of the building plans were obtained in line with the master plan for the FCT. The organisation was given three years to develop the land based on approved building plans and it then mobilised a civil construction company, All-Cooks Nigeria Limited, to site to develop the property for the sum of N13.5 billion.

On November 1, 2011, the FCT Administration further billed Yar’Adua’s NGO, N18,529,438 as additional charges under the grant, which it promptly paid on November 2, the day after it received the bill. But the Minister of FCT, shortly afterwards, revoked the allocation to Yar’Adua’s WAYE with a letter allegedly backdated to October 27, 2011.

The revocation was said to have been done in the overriding public interest, specifically, for the purpose of building a public institution identified as a training/vocational centre. But, this appeared not to be the case because instead of a public institution, the land was immediately re-allocated to the Patience Jonathan-sponsored African First Ladies Peace Centre.

Turai Yar’Adua’s organisation thereafter sought and obtained a restraining order from an Abuja High Court presided over by Justice Peter Affen barring the FCT Minister, FCT Administration, the Abuja Geographical Information Systems (AGIS) and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) from carrying out any activities on the land. 

But, Patience Jonathan’s African First Ladies Peace Centre mobilised construction workers to the site to begin work. Yar’Adua’s NGO, then, initiated contempt proceedings against the defendants but the Office of   the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) reportedly tried to frustrate the hearing of the contempt proceedings, on July 20, when it approached the court with a motion seeking to vacate the restraining order.

Justice Affen directed the AGF to put the necessary parties on notice but when the matter came up last Tuesday, July 24, to which it was adjourned, a lawyer from office of the AGF told the court that the government would settle the matter amicably out of court. The case was thereafter adjourned to September 24, 2012 for report of settlement.

The revocation of allocation of plot 1,347 Cadastral Zone to Yar’Adua’s WAYE and its subsequent re-allocation to the incumbent First Lady’s organisation, African First Ladies Peace Centre, is in bad taste. The bid to take the land from WAYE is not only wrong, it smacks of impunity and flagrant disregard for rule of law. The plan is also patently dishonest, as the land was not allocated for any public building, but for a pet project of an organisation linked to the incumbent First Lady. 

The attempt by the office of the AGF to frustrate contempt proceedings initiated by WAYE against the defendants for flouting the restraining order, via a motion seeking to vacate the restraining order, is unbecoming of  that office.

The same applies to the reported decision of the First Lady to lead other African First Ladies who came to the country for the 7th Summit of the African First Ladies Peace Mission (AFLPM) to the controversial plot under heavy security, and lay the foundation stone of the project under heavy security. This is an act of impunity and totally deplorable.

The FCT has also not given a good account of itself on this controversy. There is no justification for the revocation of the allocation to Yar’Adua when she was not said to have been deficient in fulfilling her obligations on the land.

Even if she was, she should only have been required to meet up, and another plot promptly allocated to the African First Ladies Peace Centre. The show of power over this land by the First Lady over this plot of landing is bad.

However, it is good that the Federal Government has opted to settle this matter amicably out of court. Let the government do this by resolving the controversy in favour of Turai Yar’Adua’s NGO, because the land was initially allocated to the organisation. Let another plot be allocated to the African First Ladies Peace Centre to carry out its activities.

This controversy has, however, once again confirmed the sharing of choice land in the FCT among political office holders and their families and cronies. But, even in doing this, there ought to be some honour, which is missing in the handling of the allocation of Plot 1,347.

The FCT Administration and the minister, Bala Mohammed, should strive to be transparent in the handling of land matters in the FCT to avoid controversies of this nature.