Save the Abuja dream

Abuja was conceived as a statement of national intent with orderliness, inclusiveness, functional infrastructure and future-ready. Carefully designed and deliberately built from scratch, Nigeria’s capital was meant to avoid the chaos that consumed Lagos and other rapidly growing cities.

Sadly, that founding vision is now under serious threat. The distortion of the Abuja Master Plan has become so blatant that it has triggered growing concern across professional, civic and resident fora. What is happening today in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is not urban development, it is controlled disorder.

Even the fiercest critics of the current FCT administration concede one thing – under Minister Nyesom Wike, road construction has been energetic and highly visible. But a city is far more than roads. Without strict adherence to planning rules, environmental safeguards and institutional checks, asphalt merely accelerates dysfunction.

In critical areas like urban planning discipline, utilities, environmental protection and governance balance, the FCT is failing woefully at a time it is receiving substantial financial resources.

A master plan is not a decorative document. It is an all-encompassing blueprint that defines land use, transport corridors, green areas, population density, utilities, growth phases and environmental safeguards. It answers where residential, commercial, recreational and utility zones must be located and where they must never be located. The maxim remains timeless – that if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. Abuja’s master plan was created precisely to prevent the anarchy now unfolding.

The legal position is clear. The FCT Act of 1976 explicitly provides for an authority to prepare and enforce the master plan for Abuja and its environs. That plan is a legal document backed by statute and recognised by the Nigerian constitution. Any administration that treats it casually is only postponing an inevitable reckoning because some future government will be forced at enormous social and financial cost to undo the damage.

The original Abuja master plan was no amateur exercise. International Planning Associates (IPA), supported by Nigerian experts led by Professor Akin Mabogunje and a team of 12 scientists conducted extensive studies of plains, topography, hydrology and settlement patterns.

The IPA was a consortium of three American firms: Planning Research Corporation (PRC), Wallace, McHarg, Roberts and Todd (WMRT), and Archisystems (a division of the Hughes Organization). The Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) commissioned the IPA in June 1977 to create the master plan for the new Federal Capital City and its regional grid. They submitted the final report in February 1979, which laid out the “Garden City” concept, the phasing of development and the major design elements of the city that are visible today.

The Gwagwa plains were deliberately chosen, and some phases were proposed for development, with phase one beginning from Tipper Garage. The goal was a seamless, orderly rollout.

But discipline weakened over time. Successive FCT ministers adopted varying implementation styles with some constructive and others destructive. Ring Road Two could only be realised after painful demolitions. Today, Ring Road Three has been encroached upon again, shrinking a vital transport corridor and worsening congestion. History is repeating itself, except that the violations are now more brazen and official.

The danger goes far beyond traffic as green areas meant for recreation, climate control and underground utilities are being defaced and reallocated for permanent structures. Storm water channels and sewage corridors have been sold off. This is urban recklessness. Abuja operates a central sewage system flowing to Wupa Treatment Plant as there are no soak-aways. Any infringement on this system will boomerang sooner than later through flooding, contamination and public health emergencies.

Residents are already raising the alarm. Protests in Zone 6 over the violation of a neighbourhood park are early warning signals. From Wuse to the Central Area, manholes designed for sewage management have been compromised. Near the Central Business District beside the NNPCL and close to the World Trade Centre, transport corridors and green areas preserved for decades have been fenced and allocated under the current administration. Once utilities are blocked, rerouting them will be prohibitively expensive and disruptive.

There was a time sanity prevailed. A former FCT minister, Nasir El-Rufai, perhaps aided by his professional grounding and reformist zeal, confronted vested interests head-on. He touched the untouchables. Illegal structures along Accra Street in Wuse, built on designated green and utility zones, were demolished without compensation, except where valid titles existed. Order was restored.

Sadly, some of those same areas are again being defaced by individuals trading on proximity to power. They should remember that the master plan does not forget.

Global examples offer sobering lessons.

In London, rail corridors laid down centuries ago still function despite massive development because they were never tampered with. In Abuja, corridors deliberately preserved for the future are casually violated. That is not development, it is vandalism dressed as progress.

Water infrastructure tells an equally troubling story. Lower Usman Dam was planned for the first phase of Abuja, while Upper Usman, fed from Gurara, was meant to complement it. Siltation, gas and power supply challenges now threaten this system. At one point, the AEDC even cut power supply to the Abuja Water Board, a decision with grave consequences. While the FCDA has expanded water reticulation, expansion without securing the source and existing facilities is putting the cart before the horse. Boreholes now litter the city, and water vendors have become a common sight in Gwarinpa, Wuse and Garki. This is a national embarrassment.

The satellite towns and neighbouring cities like Suleja, Keffi and others are also reeling. The FCT Act provides for Joint FCT-State Planning Districts, recognising that activities in the FCT affect contiguous states in security, health and environment. That framework is clearly failing.

Even grazing and settlement issues reveal institutional neglect. The FCT Act provides for grazing reserves and the settlement of Fulani communities that pre-dated the capital. Political expediency has turned them into perpetual outsiders, forcing continuous roaming and exploitation.

Ultimately, Abuja is being mismanaged because institutions meant to safeguard it have been sidelined. The Urban and Regional Planning Department, the custodian of the master plan, has had its mandate effectively usurped. Development Control, designed as a check, appears compromised. Residential areas have been converted to commercial use along Aminu Kano Crescent and Adetokunbo Ademola, creating dysfunctional multifunctional zones without proper environmental impact assessments.

Abuja is a precious national possession. It demands restraint, professionalism and respect for law. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must intervene decisively. From all indications, only the president can rein in an FCT administration operating on overdrive. The capital needs a reset now before correction becomes impossible.

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