Abuja: Going back to better forgotten days

Abuja is gradually losing its allure. Unlike Washington DC in the United States of America and Pretoria in South Africa which Abuja was fashioned after, the once serene and beautiful administrative city in the days of one time Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nasir el-Rufai, is now chasing Lagos in irregular commercial development […]

Abuja is gradually losing its allure. Unlike Washington DC in the United States of America and Pretoria in South Africa which Abuja was fashioned after, the once serene and beautiful administrative city in the days of one time Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nasir el-Rufai, is now chasing Lagos in irregular commercial development and impunity.

In no distant time the city is likely to become one of the most unkempt and unruly in the world. The tell-tale signs are already glaring. From the reckless traffic situation to indiscriminate and sporadic erection of illegal structures all over the place, madness is gradually returning to the city and slums are springing up even in the most sacred of places. It is just a matter of time and the city will explode in gargantuan decay; and when that happens, it will be difficult to bring back sanity.

Although there is a concentration of both development and security agencies in Abuja much more than anywhere else in the country, it seems from their ineffectual disposition that they largely exist as welfare organs for people who collect salaries at the end of the month without any clear evidence of earning it. Motor parks are springing up anywhere you find movement of persons. Major roads within the city, particularly in the Garki and Wuse areas, have been taken over by commercial vehicle operators who do not give a hoot about other road users. Nobody seems to be checking this while it is still checkable.

The Abuja Municipal Area Council Development Control does not seem to mind all these infractions which, apart from the social and health implications, more than anything else, pose grave security challenges for a very critical and fast growing city like Abuja.

The once beautiful city, well-designed and executed by its founding fathers, is fast descending into a bedlam where motorists run haywire with absolute disdain for traffic signs, especially traffic lights. The horde of taxi drivers with all kinds of contraptions and the ubiquitous Keke NAPEP operators have no business with traffic laws; and they roam free without any form of reprimand.

Even in the highbrow Asokoro, Maitama and Jabi districts, this madness has found a home without landlords. This is one city where motorcyclists no longer bother about registering their automobiles. Motorcycles in Abuja do not have number plates and a good number of private vehicles ply public motorways with their number plates covered. Number plates of many of the commercial vehicles have dropped off and they do not care. These vehicles are freely picking passengers and plying the roads despite security implications.

Traffic signs in Abuja are routinely defaced with utter recklessness. Advertisement bills and public notices are pasted on signposts that are supposed to assist and direct motorists. Coupled with the recklessness and lack of traffic control in the city, accidents have become common place. It has become a nightmare driving on Abuja roads, even in the Central Business District.

Garki, especially Area 1, is a mad house. Reckless driving, illegal and irregular structures, massive roadside trading, hawking, touting, impunity and related vices have found a permanent abode there.   

Government spent huge sums of money to erect traffic lights in most parts of the city but motorists obey the lights only in areas where there is a complimentary presence of either traffic wardens or policemen. Commercial drivers now create loading points wherever it suits them, including on overhead bridges. These operators who are only interested in picking passengers wherever they are found care less about the obstructions caused to the flow of traffic as they, in some areas, occupy more than two of a three-lane road: and nothing happens. Even the area around the Police Force Headquarters is not spared this madness: and no one seems to really care.

The level of insecurity in the city has in recent times challenged Lagos; and the reason is not far-fetched. The large number of uncompleted buildings and abandoned structures strewn all over the city provide ready accommodation and hideouts for criminal elements.

All manner of persons take up residence in the uncompleted public and private structures in the Central Business District, an area usually deserted after official work hours, thus making the zone a very dangerous stretch to be in the wee hours of the day. Same with the high profile areas of Asokoro, Maitama, Guzape, and in particular, Katampe, part of which has been turned into a sprawling slum right in the middle of the FCT. All over, erectors of illegal structures battle the development control agency for supremacy. And all these happen within the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).

It takes more than a passing effort to build great cities. Discipline is the bedrock of great cities. Tepid attempt at developing a city seldom yields appreciable results. Rebuilding a city is usually at a greater cost than maintaining it. Anyone in doubt should ask the Lagos State Government. Abuja was well conceived, well designed and well constructed. The city which was salvaged from complete degeneration in the hands of a rampaging one time Minister of the FCT, Lt. Gen. Jeremiah Useni (Jerry Boy), by Nasir el’Rufai is fast returning to the better forgotten days when impunity and madness walked the streets unmolested. The time to rescue it is now.

Atu Ikot is a commentator on contemporary issues.