Of Jonathan and Ebele Integrated Farms interest

One of the requirements of assuring decency and good governance is the rule that a public employee may not use his official position to unduly acquire wealth and property. For many years that rule has been observed in the breach. Of recent, such unwholesome acquisitiveness has assumed gargantuan dimension. Sadly, in quarters where examples should be set, such rules do not seem to exist.

Last week, this newspaper ran details of an extensive investigation into a case of possible land grabbing in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) by top political office holders, including President Goodluck Jonathan.

According to the account, residents of six villages in the FCT were forced to abandon their homes and land to pave way for a farm that Jonathan apparently planned to establish. The report revealed documents that showed that the unusually large piece of land, 95.88 hectares, in the Cadastral Zone in an area known as Aviation Village, was allocated to Goodluck Jonathan and his mother, Madam Afeni Eunice, in the name of Ebele Integrated Farms Limited, on March 8, 2012, two days after the company applied for the land, and less than three months after it was incorporated by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

The newspaper’s probe was launched after a nongovernmental organisation, Purpose Driven Human Initiative, published an advertorial suggesting that President Jonathan’s farm project was a reason his administration had been unable to fight corruption. According to the NGO, the president’s farm transaction contravened the Fifth Schedule, Part I (Code of Conduct for Public Officers) of the 1999 Constitution. Section I of the Schedule states, “A public officer shall not put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicts with his duties and responsibilities”. The administration’s tolerance level for corruption is widely acknowledged to be very low, as various indices, including those provided by the global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International have consistently shown. The FCT Minister, Alhaji Bala Mohammed, was reported to have approved a separate piece of land adjacent to the same area as Jonathan’s, for himself.

The explanations given by President Jonathan’s aides underscored the veracity of the newspaper’s investigation. A pro-Jonathan New Generation Coalition claimed that the president had not done anything wrong because similar land deals were done by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo when he was president. The notion that one wrong justifies another is offensive and cannot be applicable in any situation, not least a matter that touches on the provisions of the code of conduct for public officers.

The issue goes beyond a public officer having the authorization to engage in farming. There is, in this instance, a case of conflict of interest and suspected one of breach of the oath of office. While the Constitution does not frown on public office holders engaging in farming, it prohibits them from taking any appointment as directors of companies and other paid employment.

The procedure for allocation, the purpose for which it was allocated and the size of the land and its location raise legal and moral questions for the president. The speed at which the application for the land was processed and approved for the said company in which Jonathan is named as a director gives a reasonable ground for action for a case of abuse of office by both the president and the minister of the FCT.

Moreover, according to officials at the Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS), no part of Abuja Municipal Area Council, including the Aviation Village, is meant to be used for farming. The Aviation Village is officially part of the Phase 5 of the Federal Capital Citty designed to accommodate aviation company needs including hangers, fuelling, maintenance facilities, housing and hotels, etc, which explains why the land is contiguous with the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. Given what is in the Abuja master plan, farmlands are located outside the city, in places like Kuje Gwagwalada and Kwali. The land allocated to Ebele Integrated Farms Limited is therefore in violation of provisions of Abuja master plan, and title to it should be revoked forthwith.

The Code of Conduct Bureau should by now be swinging into action and calling those involved to account for breaching their oaths of office.