Centenary City: All issues have been sorted out in the $18.5bn project, governing board assures Buhari

Governing board of the Centenary City headed by Abdusallami Abubakar, a former head of state, weekend, met with President Muhammadu Buhari and assured him that all issues concerning the city had been sorted out.

The City, which is a 100 percent private sector driven project, has generated a lot of controversy in recent times. The issues have degenerated into a subject of litigation between Anyim Pius Anyim, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), who spearheaded the initiative, and Cairo Ojuogboh, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Centenary City plc is owned by 40 Nigerians and international investors with Eagles Hill as its partner, which has over $12 million on the management under agreement with the FCDA and other extant agreements, Odenigwe Ike Michael, the managing director of Centenary City plc, told journalists after the closed door meeting with the president.

“We have paid all the interested holders the compensation for the Centenary City site. We are going ahead with their relocation, also being supervised by the FCDA,” Michael said.

President Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who also attended the meeting, welcomed an assurance from Centenary City that all the original inhabitants of the site had been fully compensated.

Speaking after being briefed by the chairman of the company’s board of directors, Abubakar and members of its management team, the Buhari praised the Centenary City’s main development partner from the United Arab Emirates for having enough confidence in Nigeria to agree to invest about $18.5 billion in the project.

According to a statement released by Garba Shehu, special assistant to the President, after the meeting, the president also welcomed the assertion by Abubakar and his team that the project will create about 250,000 more direct jobs in the Federal Capital Territory and about half a million indirect jobs.

The president noted that skills, expertise and vast experience that would be brought into the country to build the City on the Dubai model, would also be of immense benefit to Nigeria’s overall development.

He said he looked forward to regular updates on the Centenary City’s development.

On his part, Osibanjo said the issue of the rights of the original inhabitants of the site acquired for the City had been of concern to the administration.

“We are glad that it is being handled,” he said, while welcoming the assurance that compensation had been paid to those who would be displaced by the project and that the issue of their relocation was being addressed.

Abubakar and the management of the City also told Buhari and Osinbajo that the project would be totally private sector driven.