Reallocating green areas is disaster waiting to happen – Lami Ayuba
Lami Ayuba is the immediate past chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Abuja chapter. In this interview, she explains the implications of allocating lands originally reserved as green areas, waterways, among others, for residential or business purposes What is your take on the alleged reallocation of green areas for other purposes […]
lami ayuba
Lami Ayuba is the immediate past chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Abuja chapter. In this interview, she explains the implications of allocating lands originally reserved as green areas, waterways, among others, for residential or business purposes
What is your take on the alleged reallocation of green areas for other purposes in the nation’s capital?
Yes, it is true that some green areas are being reallocated for other uses. So far, about 70 hectares of green space have been converted to mixed-use in Guzape district alone. There are issues around green areas that I want you to understand. When you are given a green area to develop, you are not given a title. What you have is a letter of intent and a lease agreement with the Department of Park and Recreation for 35 years.
It means that after 35 years, the government will take back that land because on the lease agreement, there is a clause that the land belongs to the FCT and the minister has the right to collect that land any time they want to use it. So, some of those green areas are undevelopable areas.
Therefore, those undevelopable areas are areas that you cannot build on – areas that have rocks and mountains and areas that have storm drainage. An example is what happened in Trademore Estate – where water is supposed to pass, people built houses on it, causing flooding annually.
Those areas are supposed to be left open. They are allocated as green areas so that somebody will tend to the surroundings and allow the waterway to pass through.
There are also areas that have power lines passing above them. Therefore, when you have power lines and waterways where you are building, there is a setback and you are supposed to keep a distance of about 15 to 45 meters. Thus, those power lines are allocated as plant nursery and cannot have any human activity there for one’s health because of radiation. So, it can now be left as a plant nursery.
Similarly, there are other areas known as land banks. These areas have not yet been apportioned any use because it is land for future development. They are designated as a green area until there is a need for it. Then there are other areas called road service corridors.
Can you name some of these green areas where residential development is taking place?
Guzape is a critical example. There is a stretch in Guzape, it’s a stream and waterway as well as a park. So, most of the land was divided into green areas. There are rock outcrops and there are also sewer lines passing through and there are areas that have storm drainage. Based on the topography of the area, there is a natural waterway that water moves out of and discharges out of the area. So, these are now the areas that are threatened with this kind of approval and allocation.
Another issue is that when you have converted this place to a mixed-use development and allocated it, pertinent questions, like what happens to the lease agreement that you had? Has the 35 years expired? Have you contacted the Department of Parks and Recreation to find out who is the owner of this place? Can we relocate? Nothing like that is done.
The immediate past parks director told us that now all green areas are under the control of the Department of Parks and Recreation. So, Parks and Recreation now owns the tenure of the document and the title. They will just lease it to you depending on the use of the place. What they do now is to tell people to fill forms. Many people have filled the forms, paid bills, and so on, so that they will be allocated green areas.
Before, green areas were allocated in chunks, you can have 13 hectares, five hectares, 10 hectares, but now, they now cut them into 1 or 1.5 hectares. Even when there are issues like people having the same paper, what they do sometimes is to just divide it.
So why are they not developed?
There are many issues. Some of them have litigation going on based on double or triple allocation. Some of them don’t want to develop until they get approval, and getting approval for parks takes a long time because it has to go to parks to be confirmed. Before, it was the Director of Parks and Recreation that allocates parks to individuals and corporate organisations, but now all allocations are domiciled in the Department of Land Administration.
Personally, I’ve written a letter to the Office of the Minister of FCT calling his attention to this trend of converting green areas into mixed use and stating the consequences that are likely going to occur and also the risks to owners and builders. If you go to one park that has been converted, you will see power lines above, and river courses under.
The government officials will give you hope and also give you allocation but development control cannot give you approval because there are standards for approval. I was party to a ministry that bought land in Kubwa for a church. They bought 8,400 square meters to develop. When we went for approval, they said they can only develop 4,200 square meters. Why? Because there’s a power line behind that place and so you need to give a setback of 30 to 35 meters. They are supposed to go for replacement or compensation because they cannot even park cars there.
For all these whole converted green spaces, none is less than N2 billion. Some are sold for N6bn depending on the size. I saw one that is about 7,000 square meters, and they said N3bn.
Do you think the problem is arising due to lack of interaction or synergy between the different departments?
There is no synergy. When it comes to these issues of land conversion and allocations, synergy is not applied because some of them are done without recourse to existing standards of allocation.
The procedure is that when you are first allocated a piece of land, you are issued R of O. After one or two months, you are given a C of O. It is that C of O that many people are now using to sell to gullible individuals. And once some people see the C of O, they will start erecting permanent structures.
What is normally stated in the C of O?
Clear standards are stated there. It’s a residential area, it’s a residential plot, mixed use, density and other details. They tell all the necessary things pertaining to that kind of land use. But for a green area, clearly, they say it’s green. Unfortunately, now, they don’t say it is green anymore. The Land Department in the FCDA is responsible for this. What I learned is that the Department of Urban and Regional Planning does what is called redesign of various areas.
Once in a while, they identify an area that is, a particular land use, then they commission a redesign. They redesign the place and change the land uses and then do the cadastral map of that area. They now do what is called redesign, the land use is converted and then a new layout plan is printed for that area. If that area, in the land use maps, represented a green area before, you will now see the place as brown in the new plan.
Did the minister receive the advisory you sent?
Well, I also made a copy to SERVICOM and I told them that at least I want them to follow it up. So, I’m waiting for SERVICOM to answer me. I wrote that in my capacity as the chairperson of town planners in the FCT and a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planning.
Can you tell us the repercussions of erecting permanent structures on some of these green areas?
There are many repercussions. Number one is that you have changed the ecosystem of that place because the green areas are supposed to reduce heat, regulate the microclimate of that area. When there is a stream passing through, there are bushes, there is grass, and then you have temperature control.
Secondly, there is no recreation in the neighbourhood. Guzape is a high-density, medium-density neighbourhood. Most of the buildings you see are high-rise, congested. Because of how much it costs to acquire the land, they build clustered houses. For one hectare of land, you can have almost 50 housing units there.
So, there is even no place for children to ride bicycles, no place for them to play; then the economic loss for the person who bought it and thirdly, the government policies. What if another government comes and reverses the policy? Then the person who bought the land has lost his money. The person who built it has lost his money. The person who buys, who is the end user, has also lost.
Economic loss is astronomical. Then, during the rainy season, the allocation has blocked the waterway because you’ve constructed and diverted the storm drainage, and then you have tampered with the natural draining topography of that area.
What will happen? The water will come back. Then you will now hear flooding. Guzape is a Trademore waiting to happen. That’s exactly what is going to happen in Guzape.
Do you think Trademore Estate should not have been erected?
I think Trademore should be there, but with some adjustments. It’s already a failed project of planning because it was not even planned in the first place. The question I keep asking is: Where are the people who the government employed to regulate activities in these areas? Where are the people paid and given infrastructure daily to monitor developments?
C of O is only signed by the minister, do you think he is being misled?
The minister is a politician and he’s a lawyer, not a town planner, so he doesn’t know anything about town planning. He depends on his staff, from different departments, to advise him. I don’t know whether they do because as chairman of Town Planners Abuja Chapter, I wrote seven letters requesting an audience with the minister and I did not get any response.
What facilities ordinarily should be erected in some green areas?
For green areas, first of all, the development should be 20 percent structure, then the remaining 80 percent will be market, walkways or playgrounds.
Then there are other parts called theme parks. Those parks that are themed, you can do 40 percent built-up area and 60 percent farm activities.
For instance, in Magicland, they do a lot of magical adventures there so they are eligible to upscale the structures there because of the kind of theme they have chosen.
Once it is a theme park, it will be permitted. Then there are district recreational parks. There are also event centres. In some of those event centres, you can erect markets. You should have parking space. Then, of course, you have a restaurant, swimming spot, probably a golf course, and also a designated district park.
Lastly, what is your advice to those buying green area lands in Abuja?
First of all, they should verify and be sure that the land is genuine and set for the purpose. Secondly, they should seek professional advice to guarantee the authenticity of the land they are purchasing.