How cabinet stopped Obasanjo from demolishing Aso Rock villa
Save for the adamant refusal by his ministers, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo would have demolished Aso Rock presidential villa.
But why?
The presidential lodge was not built where the Abuja master plan said it should, Obansojo reminded his cabinet one time during his eight-year democratic reign.
Obasanjo reportedly said he wanted to “make it right” only for several members of his cabinet to tell him to knock it off.
Presidents are usually allowed to “arrange” the villa as they deem fit, but demolishing it for “not being erected where it should” would be something else.
Politician Frank Nweke Jr., who was a minister under Obasanjo, “revealed” the botched plan on Thursday.
“Obasanjo almost ordered for the presidential villa in Abuja to be demolished because it was not where it ought to be in the original Abuja master plan,” Nweke said while addressing The Strategic Executive Retreat for officials of the Delta State government in Asaba.
“Obasanjo was however overruled by cabinet members,” Nweke said.
We recall Obasanjo embarked on a massive demolition of unauthorised structures in Abuja during his democratic tenure.
Current Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, who was then minister of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja, spare-headed the demolition “struggle.”
El-Rufai would later be referred to as “the demolition man.”
It is unclear whether Obasanjo expressed his desire to demolish and rebuild the presidential villa while El-Rufai was FCT minister.
