4 November 2009
editorial
Abuja — First-time visitors may be forgiven if they wonder whether Abuja is truly the administrative and political capital of Black Africa's most populous country. The growing mountain of garbage in virtually every street is astonishing.
Do the Ministry of Federal Capital Territory and municipals officials really care about the environmental, to say nothing of the aesthetic condition, of the city? In spite of its monthly environmental sanitation exercise, the state of cleanliness of the nation's capital is scandalous, given the resources at the disposal of municipal officials. Social and infrastructural services and facilities, which used to distinguish the FCT from other chaotic and unkempt capitals, are fast deteriorating. Everywhere one turns, one notices weeds that have overgrown the city, garbage piles up on every corner. Even where refuse is neatly gathered, those in charge of its disposal are simply not doing their job, or not doing it well.
Gradually, once easily navigable streets are becoming increasingly difficult to drive or walk through since the erection of speed bumps which do more damage to the suspension of vehicles, build up traffic and are a major cause of sometimes fatal accidents.
The city's drainage system is perennially blocked, constraining roads and constituting a menace to motorists, pedestrians and residents alike. Unattended burst waste pipes disgorge their contents all over the streets constituting a health hazard to residents and those obliged to wade through them. Hitherto busy corner shops demolished to give the city a face-lift are now overgrown with weeds, providing breeding grounds for snakes and rodents, and hide-outs for criminals. Security is at its lowest level, leaving residents with no alternative but to engage the services of vigilantes. Projects conceived to make life easier for residents are either abandoned or postponed indefinitely while new ones with no immediate significant impact are being pursued in their stead. The rate at which things are going, the FCT may end up becoming a capital spotted with abandoned projects.
Public water supply to a city that prohibits the digging of wells and the operation of local water sellers is scanty. The Lower Usuma Dam, designed to boost supply and scheduled for commissioning last year is now billed to come on stream in 2011, a clear two years away. As a result, the FCT Water Board is still laying pipes while supply comes in short bursts and usually when residents are at work. This exposes residents to commercial water supply and water-borne diseases at a time when appropriation for health and education has been diverted to the construction of mega road projects.
Perhaps the most disturbing is the propensity of officials of the FCT administration to disobey lawful orders in spite of the minister being a one-time governor and senator. Without recourse to the National Assembly, which serves as its statutory law-making body for FCT, the ministry arbitrarily imposed a 900 per cent increase in land fees within the city centre, unabashedly asserting it could not wait for the tortuous process of legislation. Secondly, it awarded contracts for the erection of speed bumps on the city's streets, and has blatantly refused to heed an injunction to remove them because of their hazards. It is amazing that in spite of these shortcomings, President Umaru Musa Yar'adua has been unable, or is unwilling to call the FCT administration to order.
The Federal Capital Territory is the window through which most people, citizens and foreigners, alike look at Nigeria. We cannot allow it to degenerate as it is evidently doing. We therefore call on the FCT Minister to sit up and be alive to his responsibilities to the people and restore the environmental and corporate beauty of Abuja.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Daily Trust. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
