2012 was a very difficult year for me, personally. But it was a difficult year for Nigeria, too. It was the year of Occupy Nigeria, I mean, the year in which people woke up to discover that their savings (if any) have just been wiped out on account of the government’s removal of subsidy on the import of petroleum products without guaranteeing internal production. Then it was the year of scams: Police Pension, Hon. Herman Hembe’s hunter-becoming-the-hunted and of course Farouk Lawal and his Otedolagate. It was also the year of expensive things: remember Arunma Otteh’s lunch bill? Remember Aso Rock’s kitchen bill? Then of course, there was Oritsejeafor’s anniversary present.
It was in 2012 that SURE-P was created and, it did not work. By the way, have you seen any of those subsidy buses on the road? In 2012, Okada, the famous motorcycle taxi service was banned in Lagos and we heard stories of Lagosians losing weight faster than those on Doctor Oz’s therapy. But you know, 2012 was the year of demolitions too. It was the year Mpape was reduced from a flourishing Abuja ghetto into a pile of rubble to pave way for the rich people. It was not only Mpape, there was Makoko in Lagos and the Port Harcourt water front; they used to be home for the poor, now they are not. By all means, 2012 was NOT a good year to be poor and, I am guessing I am not the only one who is glad to have left 2012 behind.
Some months ago a friend gave me a copy of the new glossy Metropole magazine which until that day in July 2012 I never heard of. Metropole had many beautiful stories and pictures, but it was the story about the ‘Abuja Light Rail’ that got my imagination running like a TGV. Since beautiful projects are known to have been schemed and abandoned by the same or succeeding governments long before I was born, I cautioned myself not to be prodigal in my hope for taking trains in Abuja; but the story is compelling, so I decided to believe it. Obviously, the fellows at Metropole know something I don’t, so I was looking forward.
Then in January 2013 I read again from the Metropole, this time they are a little cautious. They reported that the project is only 22% completed and the trains will be going nowhere until 2015. The project will cost about $820 million (only? How much was that Otedola-Farouk bribe again?). Thankfully, China has loaned $500 million upfront. Well, I was doubtful about the project, but I still had hope.
That was until the proposed FCT budget for 2013 was published.
So you thought that Abuja is a capital city where the authorities live on the same wavelength with poor folks and are concerned to see them living decent lives and being able to shuttle across the city to earn their daily breads? Think again. If the Mpape demolition did not give you a sense of the workings of the mind of Abuja authorities, the 253 billion Naira 2013 budget of the FCT probably would. Here is a summary of some sections of the budget. Note, I have used my telescope, periscope and microscope to examine the budget and my comments and questions are in parentheses:
- Rehabilitation of prostitutes: 150 million Naira (how many prostitutes are there in Abuja [who counted?] and how many of them will benefit from this ‘rehab’? What does ‘rehabilitation’ really mean in the FCTA? Who wants this rehabilitation, the prostitutes or the government? Why is this project priority for the 2013 budget?).
- 2 Abuja City Gates: 7.5 billion Naira (is there a fence linking the gates? Why build gates to a city where residents who build gates and fences round their homes still sleep with one eye opened? What could happen if the new gates are not built?).
- Renovation of Vice President’s Guest House: 150 million Naira (curiously, the same amount is needed to rehabilitate Abuja’s prostitutes. Is the equation VP’s guest house = prostitutes correct to the FCTA?).
- Construction of African First Ladies Peace Mission office complex: 4 billion Naira (Mathematically, the office complex = 1 city gate; inversely: 1 gate = 1 office complex. Why is this office complex, if truly needed, the burden and the priority of the FCTA?).
I don’t know if the concerns I raised here ought to have been addressed in the budget proposal. But they should be answered in some sort of policy document that discusses government strategy and directions from which budgets could be drawn (remember Obasanjo’s NEEDS?). In case you have not noticed, the Abuja budget will not fix that light rail I told you about, it is the Chinese who would pay for that and it comes on stream in 2015 (if a new Minister is not appointed in FCT who would re-award the contract).
I think the trouble with the First Lady’s office goes beyond constitutionalism as discussed by The Punch. For me, it begins with ownership. It was never clear to me whether the ‘Better Life’ projects were really owned by the Nigerian state. Could the Federal Government now use the offices of the Better Life project? Not too long ago, there was the dream of “the biggest” cancer treatment hospital being built along the Umaru Yar’Adua Way in Abuja. Who owns it? It is the same question we must ask of the African First Ladies Peace Mission. Who owns this mission and who will own the office complex to be built? The FCT Minister must know since he wants to build an office for them. Yet the 2013 budget of the FCT is clearly indicative of the thinking of Nigerian politicians – a.k.a. the today’s men. The budget and public policy are clearly designed to cater for the interests of the rich. It is not that the FCT authority is harsh to the hardworking poor; no, it does not see them.
To the extent that it is legal, prostitution is a business (specifically, a ‘service’ within the hospitality industry) to which individuals could enter or leave willingly. Consider the case of 2 young women named ‘Angela’ and ‘Angelina’ to illuminate the minds of the FCTA. Both women are young and without education or prospects of gainful employment. Angela becomes a prostitute prowling Gimbiya Street in Area 11 of Abuja while Angelina goes to work crushing rocks in a quarry in Lugbe, Abuja. Today, Angela stands in line for government ‘rehabilitation’ programme while Angelina will slowly choke her lungs to death in Lugbe. The same story could be told between the boy that goes to school in Karamajiji, in Abuja where there is only one volunteer teacher to 100 pupils and the boy who begs for money in Wuse market.
In the 2013 budget, the prostitutes stand out; why shouldn’t they? The emphasis on prostitutes in this budget is not strange; the affinity and working relations between politics and prostitution is age-old. Perhaps it is after years of going to bed with the prostitutes that the benevolent political class of Abuja now wants provide them a retirement pension, we will never know. But there are better ways to handle prostitution: criminalize demand and hunt after the buyer and not the sellers of sex – that is the Swedish model (or paradox).
One knows that Abuja is not a city for the poor; this fact is etched even into the air you breathe in Abuja. But I have always considered that the city’s management was still human[e] at heart. Now I just don’t know – and how the National Assembly treats this budget proposal from the FCTA will greatly affect my conclusion. Of course, there is a lot that the FCTA is teaching us about priorities and prioritization.
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Daniel Nengak
Nengak Daniel Gondyi is presently a post-graduate student in International Migration and Ethnic Relations at Malmö Högskola inSweden. He is also a Senior Programme Officer of the Abuja based Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD. He holds a Bachelors’ in International Studies from the Ahmadu Bello University. Read his full profile here.
