President Bola Tinubu has approved the immediate dissolution of the Presidential Implementation Committee (PIC) on the Alienation of Federal Government Properties, bringing to an end the operations of a committee established 25 years ago during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The President also directed that all responsibilities previously handled by the committee be transferred to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi.
The directive was announced in a statement issued on Thursday by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
According to the statement, the dissolution takes effect from November 5, 2025, while the committee’s Secretary, B. S. Dutsin-Ma, has been instructed to immediately stop acting on behalf of both the committee and the federal government on all matters relating to its former mandate.
The presidency explained that the decision followed a comprehensive review of the committee’s activities, which found that it had exceeded the scope of its original assignment.
It noted that the committee’s expanded operations had resulted in numerous court cases across the country, making its continued existence unnecessary.
“After careful consideration, the government has noted that the activities of the PIC had extended beyond its original mandate, resulting in multiple litigations across the country, and the continued existence of the committee is no longer justified,” the statement said.
The Presidential Implementation Committee was established in 2000 under the Obasanjo administration to oversee the privatisation, sale and lease of Federal Government landed assets as part of the government’s monetisation policy.
The policy was introduced to convert government-owned assets, including residential houses and official vehicles, into cash while ending the practice of providing non-cash benefits to public officials.
At its inception, the committee was chaired by the Minister of Housing and included representatives from the Ministries of Transportation, Justice, Health and Agriculture, as well as the Nigeria Police Force.
Professor P. T. Ahire, then a Deputy Director in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, served as its pioneer secretary.
In March 2001, the Federal Executive Council approved the establishment of a Panel of Inquiry to prepare a White Paper that would guide the implementation of the committee’s recommendations.
The panel spent 21 months on the assignment before submitting its report.
Although the monetisation programme became one of the landmark public sector reforms of the Obasanjo administration, its implementation remained contentious for years.
The sale and valuation of government properties generated thousands of disputes, with allegations of undervaluation, irregular allocations to politically connected individuals and prolonged litigation over ownership and transaction processes.
With the committee now dissolved, the Federal Government says the Attorney-General’s office will assume responsibility for all outstanding matters relating to the alienation of Federal Government properties.
