The Senate Committee Chairman on Federal Capital Territory, Senator Smart Adeyemi has expressed regret and disappointment over the doggedness with which cabals within real estate industry sabotage the signing into law a bill to control rent.
He said the bill, pending before President Jonathan for assent, was meant to do the nation good.
While speaking Wednesday immediately after plenary session with National Assembly correspondents, he recalled that immediately his Committee started work on a bill to regulate rents of properties in Abuja and other allied matters, he discovered that some stakeholders in the industry became indisposed to the bill and that before he know it, they began blocking the passage of that bill.
He added that at a point, the committee under his leadership had to devise a way of out-smarting them in the interest of the nation.
He noted that after much ado, the bill was passed, only for it to be denied assent by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Narrating reasons for their action, Adeyemi said, “these cabals in the guise of Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria saw the bill as a threat to their interest so that they can continue with spurious charges in order to recoup their financial investment in the industry.
“You know right now as we speak, anybody can charge any amount as rents and that is why you see so much houses constructed for a long time and there is nobody occupying it and also there is no effective property tax to generate income to the government in form of internally generated revenue”, he said.
He regretted that so much revenue that would have come into government treasury had been denied.
On the condition of the fallen Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the Senator said the party had become an opposition party in Nigeria with a new assignment of constructive criticism of government of the day.
According to him, there was no where in the world without opposition to government of the day.
“The only way opposition is bad is when they don’t see anything good in government of the day at all, but when the opposition is constructive, it serves them better because they would take cognisance of anomaly, correct themselves and move the nation forward from there”, he said.
“Therefore, I envisage the Peoples Democratic Party giving APC government constructive criticism because they have been in government in the last sixteen years and have seen it all. So, the APC government is lucky to have an opposition with pedigree and lofty background around to challenge them into action because if they get their policies right, it is not only for the party, but for all Nigerians”, he added.
He described President Jonathan as a great man, who placed national interest above self by the way he had conducted himself during and after elections.
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