The nagging question over FCT’s 8,000km2 land

Resettlement policy which initially was for total evacuation of people in the whole territory to create what was termed a No Man’s Land turned out to be impossible due to the exorbitant cost involved. The option was resettlement of the local inhabitants. This is also proving to be another herculean task. The vehement complaints from […]

Resettlement policy which initially was for total evacuation of people in the whole territory to create what was termed a No Man’s Land turned out to be impossible due to the exorbitant cost involved. The option was resettlement of the local inhabitants. This is also proving to be another herculean task. The vehement complaints from the original indigenes on the manner resettlement issues are handled, the recent ditching of the mayoralty for Abuja and complaints of statelessness again by the local indigenes, are other hot arguments.
The theme for this year’s Abuja Town Planner’s Day was “De-Leveraging Urban Bias and Imbalances in Cities”. Which Arc Ishaku Darius the Honourable Minister of State, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs chose to rename as “The Disadvantages between the Urban Rich and Urban Poor and How to Resolve the Associated Issues”. With such a theme, we should expect discussions to center on affordable housing, resettlements, forced evictions, integration and the plight of the impoverished local indigenes.
We have the problems of acquisition of large chunk of land by the powerful people without development, translating into more speculation than actual development. There is also the inability of the middle and low classes to reside within the earmarked area for the FCT. There is increase the number of empty houses relative to those that are occupied, due to exorbitant rents. This is coupled with the incessant desertion of the city on non-working days and hours. This is not forgetting land administration headaches and the emergence of slums, with the accompanying constant demolitions which result in heavy turnover of displaced persons.
With the barrage of heavy unresolved issues encountered while implementing the Abuja Master Plan, specifically the one related to the inability to evacuate the whole FCT, should we not wonder if the Akinola Aguda Committee had got the hindsight, would it have proposed this huge 8,000km2 land area for the FCT? More so that we have forgotten the fact that in the same report it was emphatically stated that on no account should the creation and development of the FCT render any community stateless.
It should be noted that for the more than 30 years Abuja development began, the Federal Government is yet to resettle the original inhabitants in many areas of Phase II of the city development, not to talk of the remaining Phases III & IV within the 250km2 earmarked for the city development only. Yet the FCTA is now extending the area of the city to a Fifth Phase. When will it finish with the compensation and resettlement for those occupying the city area, develop, and face the remaining 7,750km2 in the FCT. Another big question is do we need as much as the 8,000km2 for the FCT?
The Federal Government adopted the American standard of a capital city by earmarking 250km2 for Abuja which is similar to the 260km2 for Washington DC. For the Americans, this is the only area earmarked for the control of the federal authority, beyond that are territories of the states of Maryland and Virginia. It is not possible to plan and control the development of the region without a Metropolitan Authority approach. Nothing stops our government to take the next step to adopt yet a similar model. Already, with the Land Use Act in place, there is no limit to the landed area the Federal Government can acquire in any state of the federation.
Since the Abuja master plan is long overdue for review, we must start thinking of the possibility of reducing the 8,000km2 FCT size. Just as there was a committee that proposed this size, in the light of the emerging challenges at implementation, it is suggested that the Federal Government constitutes another committee to study the advantages of maintaining or reducing the size. Otherwise, we would not see the end of the continuous argument.