President Bola Tinubu has approved the immediate dissolution of the Presidential Implementation Committee (PIC) on the Alienation of Federal Government Properties, bringing an end to the 25-year-old body established during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Alongside the dissolution, the President transferred all responsibilities and functions of the committee to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi.
In a statement issued on Thursday by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, the Presidency clarified that the directive took retrospective effect from November 5, 2025.
Additionally, the committee’s former Secretary, B. S. Dutsin-Ma, has been ordered to immediately stop acting on behalf of the committee or the Federal Government on any related matters.
According to the Presidency, the decision followed a thorough administrative review which revealed that the PIC had strayed from its initial mandate.
The committee’s extended operations triggered numerous lawsuits nationwide, prompting the government to conclude that its continued existence was no longer justified.
“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.
Originally established in 2000 under Obasanjo’s administration, the PIC was tasked with overseeing the privatization, sale, and lease of federal landed assets as part of a broader monetization policy.
That sweeping reform aimed to phase out in-kind perks for public servants by converting government-owned residential housing, vehicles, and other assets into cash.
The committee initially functioned under the leadership of the then-Minister of Housing as chairperson, joined by representatives from key ministries, the Nigeria Police Force, and pioneer Secretary Professor P. T. Ahire.
Following a 21-month review by a Panel of Inquiry established in March 2001, the monetization policy became one of the most impactful structural reforms of the Obasanjo era.
Despite its initial goals, the implementation of the policy courted decades of controversy, marked by thousands of legal disputes over property valuation, allegations of underpricing, controversial sales to political insiders, and a protracted trail of court cases that ultimately culminated in the committee’s scrapping.
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