uncompleted buildings: That Abuja may be secured

It is common to see buildings that are 90 percent complete left unattended to in some highbrow areas in the city. The locations of these buildings lend credence to the fact that the owners are not average Nigerians. Most of them are near completion, just for people to move in. But in most cases, they are not vacant either, as people do move in, though they are usually not the owners or regular tenants. Rather, they are beggars, street urchins known as alimajiris and others in similar strata.

Just like his predecessor, the incumbent minister, Muhammad Bello is also talking tough on security in the FCT vis-a-vis the menace of uncompleted buildings among other issues. Though he did not mention issues surrounding uncompleted buildings in his maiden interaction with the media on January 25, but he did raise concern on insecurity in the FCT and part of his plans in addressing it is to do an appraisal of allocated lands that are not developed within the legally required time frame.

His prescribed remedy is for such lands to be revoked and given to more serious minded people, who are ready to develop their lands on time. Bello insisted at the event that no stone would be left unturned in order to ensure that FCT residents can sleep with their two eyes closed.

“As required by the law governing the allocation of land, all beneficiaries of undeveloped lands within Phase 1 and Phase 2 stand the risk of forfeiting the land to government for reallocation to more able and willing developers,” he said.

Scattered in and around the city are uncompleted buildings with threat marks of the department of development control. Such markings usually read, ‘Stop Work’,’ Demolish Within So And So Time Frame’, Or ‘Complete Or Risk Demolition.’

It is, however, instructive to know that those signs are usually ignored and owners of such buildings carry on as if nothing is at stake. This, of course, raises the question as to whether the department is just a fancy arm of the federal capital development agency (FCDA) or maybe the department’s personnel are so friendly with offenders that they mutually ignore one another’s mistakes. Of course, there are some ‘offenders’ that are not so lucky with the department.