Abuja masterplan review too long

With every change of government, we wake up to the regular slogan by the new administration, of the declaration for the defence of the Abuja Master Plan. Hardly do we hear the pronouncement of the review or updating the 1979 Master Plan to conform to the present realities. It is now 47 years from the […]

With every change of government, we wake up to the regular slogan by the new administration, of the declaration for the defence of the Abuja Master Plan. Hardly do we hear the pronouncement of the review or updating the 1979 Master Plan to conform to the present realities. It is now 47 years from the declaration for the creation of the New Capital in 1976. The world has made many giant lifts ever since, and a lot of water must have gone down the bridge, we must not be left behind. 

As with all human endeavours, we are aware that all values, standards and interests undergo constant changes with time. The Abuja Plan had never been mentioned to be immune to fallibility. At the time of the production of the Abuja Master Plan, city, architectural and engineering plans were completely different from those of today, globally. According to the standard, all master plans are subject to reviews every 25 years. Thus, the defence of the Abuja Master Plan among others, must also include the periodic reviews, and their formalisation as new rules to govern the implementation. 

The optimum population projection of 3.1 million targeted by the Abuja Master plan has already been exceeded by far and is still soaring. According to the original concept, the city was to be developed in four phases, but due to the skyrocketing demand for land by developers, specifically residential, a fifth phase was introduced. Also, according to the original concept of the Master Plan, the outermost limits of the city were the Outer Northern Expressway (ONEX) and Outer Southern Expressway (OSEX) on the north and south of the city respectively. But many big districts have already been developed outside these limits. The areas that were originally considered as regions were integrated into the City. 

It will be interesting to know that IPA was formed by a consortium of three American firms: Planning Research Corporation; Wallace, McHarg, Roberts and Todd; and Archisystems. Their aim was solely to win the worldwide competitive bidding by FCDA for the preparation of the Abuja Master Plan. After winning the bid and the successful completion of the project, they disbanded. 

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Between November and December 1999, the first conference for the review of the Abuja Master Plan was held, and the proceedings were documented and published. Interestingly, among the scores of professionals in the International Planning Associates (IPA) team that prepared the Master Plan only Prof. M. L. McNulty, from the University of Iowa could be found by FCDA to participate in the 1999 review.  

Unlike from the beginning when we had a comprehensive plan and programme, with a specified number of population projections, plots, land uses and percentages, with all engineering calculations, these components are hardly determined in all these integrated areas. We must also be mindful of the expected traffic to be generated, and the sizes of local, collector and arterial roads to service them in order to prevent unbearable traffic bottlenecks at peak hours for future residents. More so, these are the areas presently bedevilled with the unwholesome activities of land grabbing, with various developments without proper allocations and building plan approval.   

Land is an exhaustive commodity, and we are now in a world of new ideas and innovations, with very attractive and complex engineering designs of monumental buildings, roads and metro line corridors as we witness in other world-class cities. With the increasing housing demand, we must graduate from the era of high-rise residential buildings of only 2 to 4 floors for our high-density residential areas to the condominiums we witness in other peer cities like Kuala Lumpur, Nairobi and others.  

Based on the 1999 observations, the Development Standards and Regulations were not reviewed until eight years later in 2007. Since then, no further review. Consequently, the authority is presently confronted with numerous requests for approvals of developments of innovative modern designs in many districts, with old-fashioned development standards and regulations. 

If we fail to plan, we will be planning to fail. With the exception of the foregoing observations, we have so far done very well in the City development programme. The expected period for the second review of the Abuja Master Plan is 50 years from creation. We would urge the FCT administration to give priority to the ongoing review of the Abuja Master Plan by the FCDA, so that it can be completed and approved before, or in 2026, to tally with the Golden Jubilee for the City creation.