Chattering and the Song: el-Rufai, FCT and land matters

By Chidiebere Nwanta

From an interpretative point of view Femi Osofisan’s The Chattering and the Song is an excursion into the coherent and incoherent, logical and illogical and rational and irrational nuances that define and determine social practice. The fact that the play deals with an ideological situation does not makes the choice of the title any less instructive in examining the more banal matters relating to the administration of the FCT between 199 – 2007.

There are two types of chattering and the song in the ongoing Senate investigation into the administration of the FCT, and the legion of serious and comical media reactions following in its wake, and it is not difficult to discern, describe and analyze these tendencies. From the Senate public hearing and news stories, commentaries, editorial page opinions, feature articles, letters to the editor and back page comments, it has become abundantly clear that no other era is worth talking about apart from the period Mallam Nasir El-Rufia held sway as the FCT Minister. Other periods appears as blank notes and dots, full of emptiness, and lacking in any substantial issue that would excite the imagination and elicit animated media responses and interventions.

The El-Rufai era, as virtually every commentator has noted, regardless of whether they adore the man or would rather have him demonized, was indeed the Golden Song in the life of the FCT, characterised by high tempo activism, revolutionary zeal in salvaging and transforming the city, and a single-minded, tenacious determination to restore its abused and violated master plan and reclaim its integrity and authenticity. Indeed, the inner logic of this transformational dialectics must carry with it a burden of contradictions and constant clarifications and rationalizations, in the context of its far-reaching successes and some of the pains and frustrations that such a revolutionary process must inevitably throw up.

The first song in the FCT, is thus the celebration of the El-Rufai era by minds substantially ennobled by objectivity, impartiality and decorum, and not by base sentiments and insensate emotion. The rest period under investigation constitutes the chattering in the life-cycle of the FCT; indistinct, incoherent and not worthy of examination.

There is yet a second level of cognition in our apprehension of the chattering and the song in the FCT. This level is defined by the song of those who celebrate El-Rufai’s bold strides in cleaning up the city; in redeeming its landscape; in restoring its green areas; in re-shaping its markets and shopping malls; in expanding intra-city roads beyond anybody’s wildest imagination; in ridding it of ugly, grotesque illegal structures, unsightly shanties and emerging slums and ghettoes; and in instituting a modern mass transit system that inevitably led to the welcome expulsion of Okada rider, together with their baggage of menace, from the city.

However, there is the chattering of the likes of Mohammed Al-Ghazali whose odious and cesspit imagination was celebrated in his inglorious “Requiem for an outlaw” in the back page of Daily Trust of Tuesday, 15 April, 2008; a piece as empty, loutish and primitive as the diseased mind who created it or Moddibo Kawu’s “El-Rufai, Obasanjo and Abuja Land Grab” which appeared on the back page of Daily Trust of Thursday, 17 April 2008; a piece which promised much but delivered so little, made up, as it was, of hear-say, tissues of lies and half-truth and a primitive and pseudo-scientific characterization of the psychological make-up of El-Rufai.

There is also the half-song and half-chattering of Emmanuel Aziken whose “El-Rufai: Entangled in an “Axis of Evil”, and which appeared on page 13 of Vanguard, Saturday April 19, 2008 devoted good space in examining the troubled and sometimes acrimonious relationship between El-Rufai and the Senate, underscored the political motivations of the Senate probe, but ended on the low note of inexplicable empathy for builders of illegal structures and possessors of fake C of Os and building plans, as well as the sentimental effusions of the Late Justice Sambo’s son who was being economical with the truth about his father’s property matter.

Gbade Ogunwale’s “sad echoes from Abuja Land Deals” which appeared on p.38 of the Nation of Thursday 17, 2008 is by far the deepest and most profound analysis of the class, political and ideological forces at work in the FCT probe; forces that are deliberately propelling its work to a pre-determined conclusion in favour of the ruling class. An objective assessment of El-Rufai’s role as FCT Minister, if allowance is made for the author’s occasional seduction by the sentimental effusions of those at the wrong end of El-Rufai’s revolutionary, “status blind” logic, to use Ogunwale’s term, the piece is a must read for all pro and anti-El-Rufai’s elements, as a good comment on the FCT chattering and the song.

One cannot say the same with regard to Ekeka Omeihe’s chattering on p.8 of Saturday Sun of April 19, 2008 entitled “The scandal on Abuja Plots” for the simple reason that he laboured for long portions in the essay, and all in vain to demystify and deconstruct El-Rufai’s sterling qualities as the Saviour of Abuja Master Plan. Rather than sing the song of Abuja survival under El-Rufai by placing in their objective contexts the far-reaching revolutionary changes he introduced, he succumbed to the lure of commonplace diatribe on the man’s integrity, transparency and probity on only one score: his alleged allocation of 18 plots out of the 27,000 he allocated, to himself and his family members. Omeihe’s descent into the lamentable world of weaver birds’ chattering is tragic given the usual poignant insight and maturity of vision that oftentimes characterize his analysis.

Nevertheless, if one can pardon Omeihe his unsubstantiated tantrums against El-Rufai, what can one make of the worst chattering of the lot, Emma Onwubuiko’s “What does El-Rufai want? which appeared on p.13 of Vanguard Saturday of April 19, 2008; a piece defined by haunting incoherence, poor use of language and all manners of illogicalities and irrationalities. In summary, for those able to read that virtually unreadable piece, what comes out from it is his close friendship and cozy working relationship with Senator Sodangi, on the basis of which he must defend his friend and demonize El-Rufai; his wrong notion about human rights and its applicability with regard to the FCT land situation, when he should know that as a living entity the only right I can see abused is that of Abuja City, raped, pillaged and violated by serial acquisitiors of fake C of Os and builders of illegal structures; and his quarrel that El-Rufai a Minister for 4 years seems to be in possession of “sensitive” documents that ordinarily he should not have access to! For a journalist who should know the meaning and significance of the freedom of information to official documents in a society desirous openness probity and accountability to make this charge, I simply give up.

Yet another piece that contains some songs: “observers concluded that the general purpose of cleaning up Abuja was a laudable one and the efforts to sanitize the city was well appreciated…”, and plenty of chattering, is Oluwole Josiah’s “Digging for Truth in FCT Probe”. In the piece, he spent about 90% of his time and effort rehashing various testimonies and only 10% on any discernable analysis and commentary on those testimonies.

As an investigative journalist, one would have expected him to go beneath the surface ramblings and bombastic cants dripping out of the mouth of all manners of people, and unearth the real, factual issues at play, yet he didn’t. He was content to paraphrase others opinion and prejudice in such a manner that his effort ended up containing a few bit of song and more of chattering.

What do we learn from the FCT Song and Chattering concerning El-Rufai, the Senate probe, land allocation and the restoration of the Abuja Master Plan? The plain facts that stare us in the face are that El-Rufai initiated and implemented a broad renovation and reclamation programme that turned the fortunes of the city for good; that he allocated over 27,000 plots of land during his tenure as Minister; and that in the course of executing this revolutionary programme he stepped on several powerful and not so powerful toes who are now having a field day at the Senate hearing attempting to garner public sympathy for their acts of illegality. We also have read how a pervasive crisis of credibility is currently rocking the Senate probe as the media became awash with the allegation of Senator Sodangi and family (cousins, in-laws, children, nephews, nieces, aunties, uncles, etc.) over 20 plots of land and Senator Smart Adeyemi and family’s 16 plots of land. All put together, the above situations, revelations and testimonies make up the picture of the chattering and the Song in the FCT.

Prince Nwanta, a public affairs commentator, lives in Abuja.