Dimeji Bankole Buys Speaker’s Residence, Wants to Rent It - To Speaker

Reports from Abuja indicate that Dimeji Bankole, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, having been allowed to “buy” the palatial official residence of the Speaker, for a meager N45 million, wants to let the property to the current Speaker, for N40 million per annum.
Vanguard newspaper reported today that the current Speaker, Mr. Aminu Tambuwa, has not enjoyed the official residence since he assumed that position, apparently because Mr. Bankole would not let it go.
 But strangely, it is Mr. Tambuwal himself who recently informed members of the House of the rental proposal. 

On November November 30, 2010, President Goodluck Jonathan gave leave to the Senate President, the Deputy Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, to “purchase” their official quarters.  Reporting that story, NEXT newspaper said that N1.5 billion had been made available in the 2011 budget for the construction of replacements for those properties.  The largesse, which was denied at the time by presidential Special Adviser Ima Niboro, was thought to be Mr. Jonathan’s way of garnering wide-ranging support for his April 2010 presidential bid. 
Perennial “palatialization” and privatization of official quarters is a popular government game in Abuja.  In 2007, Patricia Etteh, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, awarded mouth-watering contracts of about N628 million for the renovation of her official residence and that of the Deputy Speaker.  The uproar which arose eventually forced her out of office
Months later, in 2008, President Umaru Yar’Adua approved N200 million in the budget of the Federal Capital Territory for renovating the renovations that were begun under Mrs. Etteh. 
In 2009, the sum of N200 million was again provided in the budget to renovate the accommodations being occupied by her successor, Bankole, and Deputy Speaker Usman Nafada.  The excuse was that the 2008 provision meant for the upgrade had not been “accessed”. 
Jonathan’s November 2010 decision to allow the official occupiers of federal property to convert them to private ownership meant that the Senate President, Mr. David Mark, would be enjoying such largesse for the second time since he became a Senator in 1999.  He was one of those Senators who benefitted from the sale of the Apo legislative residence quarters of Senators between 2003 and 2007. 
As a member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Bankole had also benefitted from that sale, and it was in that Apo house he lived until he moved to the massive official residence of the Speaker last year.  
It would also be recalled that in December 2009, the Federal Government awarded a contract for the construction of a N7.5 billion “permanent residence” for then Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan.