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 created 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 President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga. According to the statement, the dissolution took effect from November 5, 2025.
The Presidency further disclosed that the committee’s former Secretary, B. S. Dutsin-Ma, has been instructed to immediately stop representing both the committee and the Federal Government in all matters relating to its activities.
According to the statement, the decision followed a review by the Federal Government, which concluded that the committee had exceeded the scope of its original mandate and that its operations had led to numerous legal disputes 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 read.
The Presidential Implementation Committee was established in 2000 under the Obasanjo administration to supervise the privatisation, sale and lease of Federal Government landed assets as part of the government’s monetisation policy.
The policy formed part of a broad public sector reform aimed at converting government-owned assets, including residential houses and official vehicles, into revenue while ending the long-standing practice of providing such benefits in kind to public servants.
Membership of the committee included the then Minister of Housing as chairperson, representatives of 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 the committee’s pioneer Secretary.
On March 22, 2001, the Federal Executive Council approved the establishment of a Panel of Inquiry tasked with producing a White Paper to guide the implementation of the committee’s recommendations. The panel completed its assignment after 21 months and subsequently submitted its report.
The monetisation policy later became one of the defining administrative reforms of the Obasanjo administration.
However, its implementation remained contentious over the years, triggering thousands of disputes over the valuation and disposal of government properties, allegations of undervaluation, claims that assets were sold irregularly to political insiders, and numerous court cases.