The minister, the Liutenant, and the Land
DAMIMOLA OLAWUYI
On the 11th of November 2025, a video surfaced on social media of a confrontation between the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barr. Nyesom Wike, his entourage, staff of the Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS) and a group of military personnel led by Lt. AM Yerima of the Nigerian Navy.
The dispute centred on a land which was being developed by a retired senior military officer, identified in news reports as former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Zubairu Gambo (rtd.). While the altercation persisted, the video showed the minister hurling vitriol and insults at the officer, who maintained a measured determination despite the verbal attacks from the minister and security personnel on his entourage. Due to the resistance of the naval team, the minister and his entourage were forced to vacate the premises.
Naturally, the clash generated strong responses across all strata of society. While the military promised no unjust retribution for personnel carrying out legitimate duty, retired senior military officers condemned the minister for his disrespect of the institution of the military and demanded a public apology. Social media was awash with both main actors trending for several hours, skitmakers releasing videos reprising the event and the general public weighing in on the matter.
It is important to note that this incident did not happen in a vacuum, but occurred in the context of the ongoing demolition of properties alleged to be built either without the permission of the FCT Administration (FCTA) or in contravention of the Abuja master plan. One of the reported victims of the demolition is Air Commodore Abayomi Balogun (rtd.), a former officer of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF).
The revoking of Certificates of Occupancy, as well as the destruction of private property under the enforcement of the Abuja Master Plan, has become a feature of urban development in Abuja, dating back to the ministership of Nasir El-Rufai. The FCT minister has also been accused of revoking land allocations and awarding the same to entities owned by personalities related to him. Some prominent personalities allegedly affected include a former president, multiple governors, and legislators. These accusations, while persistent, have been denied.
That a conflict over land and occupation rights exploded in the FCT is ironic considering that land and land use are the biggest sources of conflicts across the country. From the menace of land grabbers in the south west, the farmer-herder conflict in the north and middle belt, illegal mining across the country, and agitation for resource control in the Niger-Delta, the fallout from demands for land (and its resources) to generate equitable wealth continues to task our security institutions. Even within Abuja, indigenes displaced for the establishment of the new FCT continue to call for compensation and resettlement almost 50 years after the creation of the territory and more than three decades after the seat of power was moved from Lagos.
Conflicts between agencies of the same federal government are not uncommon in Nigeria. Some more notable encounters include allegations of assault of aviation security by personnel of multiple security and law enforcement agencies at various airports, an attack of policemen by airmen of the Nigerian Air Force in Delta state and an altercation between personnel of the State Security Service and Nigeria Correctional Service over the incarceration of former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele. It is not clear that any of the men involved in these fracases were punished to serve as a deterrence to future occurrences.
At higher levels, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, as Chair of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, engaged in a Twitter exchange with Dr Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, over office space for her agency. Barrister Maimuna Abubakar, as Chair of the Nigerian Postal Service, called out the Federal Inland Revenue Service over the collection of stamp duty.
The inability of government agencies and personalities to resolve differences via bureaucratic channels calls into question the availability of conflict resolution mechanisms within the government. That the minister felt it necessary to physically confront armed men whose identity he hadn’t fully established calls into question his willingness to de-escalate and follow peaceful channels in resolving conflicts.
It must also be noted that the minister’s outburst is on-brand for his interactions with the military. As the governor of Rivers state, Barr. Wike, on multiple occasions, made inflammatory accusations against military officers. In 2019, he accused the GOC of the 6 Division of running an illegal oil bunkering squad in the state.
In 2021, he alleged that the problem of oil theft was exacerbated by the involvement of senior military, security and law enforcement officers. Again, in 2022, during the handover of gunboats donated to the navy, he accused the same agencies of involvement in illegal oil bunkering. All these allegations were made without evidence, and no follow-up was reported to have been carried out to substantiate these charges or bring erring persons to book. These public interactions demonstrate a low regard for civil engagement with the armed services of the country.
This event also occurred in the context of very pressing matters of national urgency. That the FCT minister felt it was wise to antagonise the military at a time when the United States president, Donald Trump, threatened to take military action in response to an ongoing crisis of insecurity across the country caused by the failure of key civilian security institutions calls into question his discernment in managing the territory.
In a society that has a problem with mob justice, the inability of our leaders to show better examples endangers us all. A “fire-for-fire” approach, where brute force supersedes due process and bombastic eruptions outweigh measured and reasoned discourse, attempts to engage in the quiet, bureaucratic government functions that sustain real change will be seen as weakness.
When government agencies and personalities openly challenge themselves in a display of arms, citizens question the ability of the same government to serve as an impartial arbiter of conflicts. The elevation of rule by force and domination by threat of aggression over a rule-based system means that those who are able and ruthless enough have an incentive to employ carnage to secure what they consider to be rightfully theirs. The result is that private militias are raised absence of state control and metamorphose into bandits and other criminal organisations.
The public conduct of the minister in this matter calls into question the willingness of political officeholders to maintain public decorum and retain the dignity expected of their offices. It also exposes the need to review the Code of Conduct for Public Officers as regards the expected behaviour and deportment of political officeholders. They must rise above petty squabbles, demonstrate restraint and eschew provocative actions capable of breaching the public peace while faithfully implementing the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
It is also important to reexamine the question of land management in Nigeria. The uncertainties over land ownership, arising from the powers granted to the Minister of the FCT, as well as the 36 state governors under the Land Use Act of 1978, must be reviewed. While the right of eminent domain cannot be overridden, the abuses of the powers of the executive branch to grant and revoke land titles are well-documented. Providing legal clarity over the rights of land owners will go a long way in unlocking the inherent value of real estate and resource control. Returning land control to the people, with reasonable regulation and adequate legal protections, is the only path forward. Anything less further imperils us all.
Damimola Olawuyi is a current affairs commentator in Lagos
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