For too long, we have watched in silence as the record of our administration has been subjected to deliberate distortion, political revisionism and increasingly desperate attempts to manufacture failure where the public record clearly establishes achievement.
Road projects whose histories are fully documented have been misrepresented. Bridges standing in concrete and steel have been discussed as though political rhetoric could demolish physical reality. A state-of-the-art 250-bed hospital brought to approximately 90 per cent completion as of May 2019, has been repeatedly dragged into a theatre of convenient falsehood.
We did not respond – not because the allegations possessed merit, nor because their authors had uncovered anything capable of unsettling our record. We remained silent because we considered the continuing peace, dignity and stability of our dear state more important than exchanging words with those who appear to require our name as an explanation for their own stewardship. We considered such engagement beneath the dignity of the offices we occupied and the responsibilities we continue to bear as statesmen.
However, when political mischief extends beyond the distortion of public records to the assault of personal integrity, silence ceases to be noble; it risks becoming an accomplice to deception. What cannot be disproved must not be disfigured, and what cannot be surpassed cannot be erased by propaganda.
Governance cannot remain a perpetual press conference about one’s predecessor. At some point, excuses expire, propaganda becomes threadbare, and every administration must stand before the people on the strength – or weakness-of its own record.
It is against this background that our attention has been drawn to a publication by the Ogun State Government concerning the commissioning of houses at the President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) Estate in Abeokuta.
There are pertinent questions to be asked about many of the governments’ claims therein. Such as, Who was threatening to take over the estate? What legal process had commenced? What obligation was allegedly outstanding? Who instituted the purported legal action, against whom, and on what legal basis?
Formerly named the Three Hills Estate, the PMB Estate, conceived as part of a comprehensive programme of infrastructure development of Ogun State, is situated on approximately 500 hectares of duly acquired land along the Abeokuta–Sagamu Expressway.
Of this expanse, approximately 170 hectares constituted the master-planned first phase, while about 50 hectares were developed as the pilot scheme. The Estate was to serve as a Three-Arms residential zone accommodating members of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial arms of government.
The new Ogun State Judicial Complex opposite the PMB Estate was designed for proximity to the new Judges’ quarters, while members of the Executive and Legislative arms were to equally move with them to the Three Arms Zone within the PMB Estate. In fact, a bypass is also planned from the judicial complex opposite the estate for easy access.
In addition, the estate was to provide high – brow accommodation for high-net worth individuals, many of whom were expected to throng Ogun State to take advantage of the state’s improved economic profile, occasioned by the emergence of Ogun State as the state with the highest Direct Foreign Investment(DFI) in the country under the Amosun Administration.
The concept of the estate is for government to provide infrastructure and build houses in the Three Arms Zone while subscribers build their respective houses.
It is important to note that virtually all the infrastructure listed by the Abiodun-led Administration were completed under the Amosun-led Administration and were duly commissioned as part of the 40th year anniversary of Ogun State by President Muhammadu Buhari on 3rd February 2016.
These included a network of 43 roads, already named after some of the founding fathers of the state, with street lighting, electricity grid, water distribution network, drainage networks, central sewage system, gas supply lines and fiber optic cable ducts.
In addition, there was a fully developed masterplan with commercial, multi-residential, school districts, and other locations properly delineated in the 170 hectares layout.
Contrary to the suggestion that the estate was largely undeveloped, infrastructure within the pilot area had reached approximately 95 per cent completion by the time our administration handed over in May 2019. This is not conjecture. It is verifiable and documented in the formal handover notes of the supervising ministry.
The infrastructure contract was valued at approximately ₦3.5 billion, and the contractor, ZCC, had been fully mobilised. More importantly, sufficient funding was available against the outstanding works to enable the contractor to complete the project.
That fact raises a fundamental question: if the contractor had been fully mobilised, the infrastructure was already approximately 95 per cent complete, and sufficient funds remained available for the outstanding work, who then took the government to court and threatened seizure/forfeiture, and for what reason?
This question becomes even more compelling because the current narrative refers to a legal dispute arising from unpaid obligations to the contractor and an alleged threat of forfeiture. If there was indeed such a dispute, the government should explain precisely when and how it arose, what sums were allegedly outstanding and how a contractor that had been adequately mobilised became the basis of an existential threat to the estate.
In 2016, when Ogun State marked the 40th anniversary of its creation, activities were held at the estate. President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the estate and drove round the tarred roads with all the street lights on. He was also hosted to a state banquet at the so-called abandoned estate. A location without roads, electricity, drainage, accsss, central water and sewage system and substantial infrastructure could hardly have hosted such major events.
There is also the unresolved matter of legitimate land purchasers, who already bought into the scheme. Before the change of administration, plots of land had been sold, Certificates of Occupancy had been issued, and some purchasers had obtained development approvals and commenced construction.
A significant proportion of these purchasers were reportedly Nigerians in the diaspora. What has happened to them? Some lawful allottees now face difficulties accessing, possessing or developing plots they legitimately acquired.
The government must explain to the public what new services it added to the project that had not been done before. Is it the road network, electricity, drainage, access, sewage system or what precisely?
What, then, has happened to the remainder? The 108 housing project being celebrated, good as it is, occupies less than one (1) hectare of the 50 hectares on which infrastructure had been provided by our administration. Unfortunately, the 108 Building project is on part of the zone designated for a Primary School.
Also, Access Bank Training school, which is very good, was actually conceived by our Administration and for which Land was already alloted and paid for by Access Bank at the Abeokuta City Centre, beside the GTB Training School Building. Again, that too, has now been relocated and is now being constructed at the Zone designated for the Executive Arm of Government – The Commissioners Quarters etc! This clearly has made nonsense of the Three Arms Zone and indeed the entire Master Plan.
If the estate has genuinely been “rescued,” the public deserves a comprehensive account of the condition of the entire 500 hectares. How much of the land remains intact? How much has been allocated? How much has been developed? How much has been redesignated? How much, if any, has been encroached upon or become the subject of dispute?
These questions are essential because rescuing a public asset must mean securing and protecting it in its entirety—not merely developing one portion, commissioning a cluster of houses and proclaiming victory while leaving the fate of hundreds of hectares unexplained.
Government is a continuum. Completing, improving or modifying an inherited project is not a weakness. It is what responsible governance should ordinarily look like. What is unnecessary—and entirely unacceptable—is the attempt to diminish what existed before merely to magnify what came after.
The record is clear: the President Muhammadu Buhari Estate had already been conceived, acquired, master-planned, funded, substantially developed and inaugurated before the present administration assumed office.
What is the status of the existing allottees whose plots and titles predated the present administration? And what has become of the remaining hundreds of hectares that constitute the greater part of the estate?
Until these questions are answered fully, factually and transparently, the claim that Governor Dapo Abiodun “rescued” the President Muhammadu Buhari Estate will remain less a faithful account of history than a political narrative deliberately constructed upon a false premise.
Ogun State deserves better than governance by historical revisionism. Its people are entitled to the truth, its institutions are bound by continuity, and its public record must not be manipulated to serve the temporary convenience of any administration.
We will no longer surrender facts to propaganda or permit restraint to be interpreted as consent or weakness.
*Senator Ibikunle Amosun Media Office
