There is a looming danger in Abuja and its satellite towns over the health and physical
dangers posed by the near collapse of infrastructure leading to filth and blocked drainages.
The dilapidation which caused outrage over how the Abuja city and its satellite towns are increasingly failing over what is generally attributed to mismanagement of the capital city, over the last few years, has degenerated into a blame game between the FCT Administration and residents.
Faced with population explosion and what some residents referred as “administrative laxity,” the beautiful scenery that once characterised the city is gradually giving way to deplorable social amenities, filth and disorder, as city’s administrators look the other way.
In many junctions, traffic lights work erratically resulting in several avoidable roads accidents, especially at night, according to Blueprint’s survey.
The FCT administration, which acknowledged the myriad of environmental problems facing the city, however, heaved the blame on residents for their poor attitude to refuse disposal, vandalism of traffic lights and reckless driving.
Our correspondents, who visited many parts of the FCT, report how refuse and rubble have taken over the streets which, in many areas, were dotted with potholes.
Blueprint observed that what stand for access roads in most parts of the satellite towns and suburbs of the Federal Capital Territory are un-tarred pathways that are a nightmare for motorists.
A correspondent, however, sighted some ongoing asphalt overlay on some streets in Wuse Zone 2 and Zone 3 which, according to a source, were awarded by the last administration.
Several drainages and sewer lines have been blocked, thus forcing them to discharge their contents onto the roads. This situation is spotted at many parts of the city centre, including at Obafemi Awolowo Way, opposite the Mobil Filling Station, and at some spots in the highbrow Maitama neighbourhood.
“As you can see the entirety of this area is flooded. The culverts are blocked so the water couldn’t pass. We are now the ones paying for it,” said a motorist in Jabi who gave his name simply as Moses.
A town planner, Mohammed Ibrahim, said the problem facing the FCT “especially the city centre is that of strained infrastructure and other amenities because of the burst in population.”
“The designers of the city never envisaged such a situation where a place designed for some 500, 000 residents now brim of about three million people,” he said.
A cross-section of residents interviewed by Blueprint, however, flayed the current Minister of the FCT, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, for what they called “poor management of the city.”
Commenting on the state of the Territory, a resident of Bwari, Ahmad Wali, said:
“Yes, I know it’s hard to catch up to an over-achiever like Malam Nasir El-Rufai, when he was the FCT minister some years ago. Then, Abuja was a superb city where almost everything worked and every service was given properly. Streets were clean, lights were on and there were no illegal structures.
“Today, all I can do is be shocked: Filthy roads, dry lawns, dilapidated infrastructure and so much more have left me heart-broken for our once-great Abuja. The current minister should please wake up to his responsibilities as soon as possible.”
Another resident, Hauwa Suleiman, lamented that: “Abuja is a total mess.
For some of us who said the former FCT minister did very little, it is shameful to watch the present minister make him look like a fantastic hero. To show how much the present minister is underperforming, I don’t even recall his name as I am speaking to you.
“This clumsy environment is just sickening; non-functional street lights and a smelly environment with overflowing gutters caused by illegal drainages and bleeding manholes. Anyone in doubt should take a drive from Berger Junction to Utako Motor Park.”
But speaking to our correspondent on the broken and blocked sewage, the Special Assistant on Media to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Abubakar Sani, acknowledged that it was a great concern to the FCT Administration, but added that residents were not to blame for the rot.
On the leaking sewages in Jabi and Utako, he said: “There are two factors affecting that area; number one, there is an indigenous settlement there.
That settlement is right in the middle of a district that has already been fully developed. So, you can see that there is a clear de-alignment between the village and the existing infrastructure because there are no infrastructure in that village.
“Secondly, we cannot get that desired beautiful city if all we do is to litter the environment every now and then. You find people in residences, commercial and shopping centres not maintaining refuse bins within their premises.
What they do more often is that once refuse are collected, instead of them to look for designated areas where refuse dumps can be accessed and collected by officials of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), they will just dump them in the nearest open space they find around them. Some of them even dump them in drainages and all these lead to blockage of drainages and before you know it you will see floods all over the city.”
The minster’s spokesman also explained that the FCT administration was working with the local councils for them to deploy their resources in turning around the conditions of the satellite towns.
Speaking on the malfunctioning traffic lights in the city, Sani blamed it on the activities of drivers and vandals, which he described as “a menace.”
He appealed to residents “to please imbibe the culture of maintaining their environment, ensure that their refuse are properly put in the refuse bins designated by the government.”
“People who do not know that this administration is working, challenges it daily giving the impression that nothing is being done.
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