The Abuja mountain ranges: Asset and violations
From the ancient Abuja city during the pre-colonial era to the modern Abuja city, at the advent of the new federal capital, mountain ranges play significant roles in the determination of the cities locations, development and the activities of the local and new communities. One of the major considerations of establishing cities during the pre-colonial […]
From the ancient Abuja city during the pre-colonial era to the modern Abuja city, at the advent of the new federal capital, mountain ranges play significant roles in the determination of the cities locations, development and the activities of the local and new communities.
One of the major considerations of establishing cities during the pre-colonial era and the ancient tribal wars was security of the ancient kingdoms against aggressions from other powerful kingdoms. Thus, the availability of mountain ranges served as observation towers, which assisted in the aspect of detection of approaching external forces and prevention of surprise external attacks. It enabled a very long distance view of approaching forces and prevented surprise external attacks.
As a result of the circumstances that necessitated the establishment of a new Zazzau Kingdom, the ancient kingdom made security considerations paramount. This was one of the important reasons for the location of the ancient Abuja town now Suleja in a valley, flanked by mountains in all the directions. One of its popular Hausa maxim was “Kwari ba ruwa kin ci mutum”. Meaning, “A valley without water but drowns a man”. Truly, the founders of original Abuja were able to wade-off all external aggressions prior to the advent of colonialism.
Coincidentally, the new federal capital city that later took over the name of Abuja as a result of the acceptance of the request from the federal government, is also surrounded by mountain ranges on all directions, in a way similar to the ancient city. However, the circumstances changed in our modern era. Because, the reasons were never attributed to any security against any external aggression. Rather, they were targeted towards obtaining the most suitable site for the federal capital city of a strong Nigeria.
When the 8,000 square kilometer size and the boundary beacons of the new Federal Capital Territory were established, the next task was the determination of the actual federal capital city site within the territory. According to the Abuja master plan, the planners made analysis and identified three possible sites for the establishment of the city.
Various sub-areas of the Federal Capital Territory have physical aspects which gave them characteristic visual qualities, quite different from each other. These qualities include degree of topographical, geological and vegetative variety. Others were, background relationships, horizon distance and configuration, apparent landscape contrasts, and special and interesting geological or surface water features. Such qualities offer the potential for more or less interesting attractive settings for the new capital. Each of the alternative sites identified in the urban suitability analysis was compared for visual amenities.
The Gwagwa plains chosen as the best, among the three locations for the new federal capital city by the International Planning Associates (IPA), is entirely surrounded by mountain ranges. To the north and north-east, the very conspicuous Bwari-Aso hills. It continues on a stretch to the Zuma Hills monument area, centered on Zuma Rock, one of the distinctive and easily recognised inselberg on the FCT boundary with Niger State. To the south and south-east the city is bounded by the Kanu-Agwai escarpments.
In particular, the area adjacent to the Bwari-Aso Hills is perhaps the most visually interesting section of the territory. The prominent granite inselberg called Aso Hill, located in these hills, where new the FCT border is, aside from Zuma Rock near Suleja, the most dramatic and easily recognised feature in the territory. Its visual presence, dominating views for as much as 32 kilometers, clearly marks the north-east quadrant of the Gwagwa Plains as a site of particular visual merit.
The combination of the visual amenity attributed to this location within the Gwagwa Plains, and the low residential density land use status, gave the Asokoro and Maitama Districts their highbrow status in comparison with Garki and Wuse districts, despite being the districts to be later developed.
The Abuja mountain ranges provided the basis for the planning of the city. The Aso Rock, as the highest geographical point of the federal capital city, and the most imposing figure visible from any part of the city, was used as the reference point while drawing the first concept plan for the development of the city by the International Planning Associates (IPA), while producing the Abuja Master Plan. Subsequently, the Zuma-Bwari-Aso mountain ranges and the Kanu-Agwai and the Zongo-Kuku hills provided the alignments of the Outer Northern and Outer Southern expressways, as the outermost limits of the City development.
The mountain ranges also provided the city with opportunities for the establishments of extractive industries which minimise the cost of long distance travel for supply of aggregate and crushed stones for construction activities while building the city. The city planners recognised the stabilising function of the mountain ranges by earmarking the areas for preservation. It is very clear, that the salient functions performed by these mountain ranges are not recognised or comprehended.
Presently, most of the areas around the mountainous grounds are where quarries and mines were established, with frequent rock blasting. Also, notorious land grabbers of all kinds, swamp the hilly environment, trying to illegally create residential lands, by using dynamites to blast the surrounding rocks.
The implications, as we earlier presented, were the earth vibrations frequently witnessed within the surrounding neighbourhood, leading to development of cracks in the walls of some of the surrounding houses.