Abuja: Developing A Modern Capital City For Nigeria

Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was decreed into existence by the Federal Military Government of Nigeria led by the late Gen. Murtala Mohammed in 1976.

Part of the rationale behind the city’s creation was the need to have a central capital city that would exhibit all the features of a modern, cosmopolitan city.

Since the inception of Abuja, 14 ministers, including the current minister, have contributed in various ways to the development of the capital city, which has a master plan.

The vision of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) is to nurture Abuja into one of the best 20 capital cities in the world by the year 2020, while its mission is to provide good infrastructure, services and administration that will stimulate the city’s growth.

The Minister of FCT, Sen. Bala Mohammed, noted at the recent Ministerial Platform organised to commemorate the first anniversary of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, that a lot of achievements had been recorded in actualising the goals of the FCTA’s vision and mission in the last one year.

The minister, who assumed duty on April 8, 2010, nonetheless, conceded that his administration was confronted with some challenges, such as a chaotic and corrupt land administration system, abuse of the mass housing programme, endemic traffic congestion, threatening security situation, inadequate transportation infrastructure and services, sanitation problems, inadequate access to quality education, overstretched and inadequate health facilities, poor revenue collection and duplication of departmental responsibilities.

However, Mohammed stressed that  appreciable feats had been recorded in the areas of infrastructure development, districts’ development, satellite towns’ development, roads, water supply and urban renewal.

The minister added that some achievements were also witnessed in areas such as education, healthcare, arts and culture, city management, wealth creation, poverty alleviation, agriculture, micro credit scheme, security and environmental sanitation.

Going from the general to the specifics, Mohammed said that the FCTA had almost concluded plans to launch the new Abuja Land-Infrastructure Swap Model Initiative, which was aimed at opening up 10 new districts in the FCT between now and 2015.

The Land-Infrastructure Swap Model was initiated to tackle the housing problems in a holistic way by granting land to real estate developers who would, in turn, provide infrastructure, such as roads, electricity, portable water and drainage systems at no costs to the government.

To that end, the FCTA has commenced a pilot project, in which 222 hectares of land had been allocated to a firm for the development of the Caraway Dallas District, while the estate developer was expected to provide integrated infrastructure worth N26 billion”.

The minister envisaged that at least 100,000 jobs would be created via the development of the 10 new districts by 2015, adding that this would have positive multiplier effects on the economy.

Besides, the FCTA has converted the Customary Area Council Land Titles to statutory titles known as “Accelerated Area Council Titles Re-issuance Scheme (AACTRIS)’’ in December 2011, while the project implementation committee has cleared 170 cases regarding the issuance of Certificates of Occupancy and the figure would soon be increased to 1,000.

In the area of finance, the minister said that the FCTA had generated N2.7 billion as revenue in the first quarter of 2012, adding that work on capital projects had reached varying stages of completion.

He particularly noted that the rehabilitation and expansion of Airport Expressway Lot 1 and 2 had been quite successful, while the reconstruction of the Lower Usuma Dam and the Gurara Dam Road project had reached about 60-per-cent completion.

He added that the Gurara Dam Road would serve as an alternative route for vehicular movement from the FCT to Kaduna.

On rail transportation, Mohammed said that the FCTA had signed a 500-million dollar (about N75 billion) loan agreement with China for the first phase of the Abuja Rail Mass Transit Project, which would create about 430 jobs.

As part of efforts to ease road transportation in FCT, the minister said that dedicated lanes had been marked for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) operations on the Abuja-Keffi highway, from the Eagle Square in the city centre to Mararaba in Nasarawa State.

In the area of health care delivery, Mohammed said that FCTA had improved the capacity of three general hospitals, adding that the hospital in Nyanya now had 20 extra beds; the one in Gwarinpa had 10 more beds, while one in Kubwa now had 10 additional beds.

In education, the minister said that the FCTA had spent about N400 million on the education of 22, 468 indigent pupils within the last one year.

The FCTA has also established 28 new schools to decongest existing ones and accommodate new enrolments, while constructing 1,553 classrooms to accommodate 6,138 students at the primary and secondary school levels.

Moreover, 10 libraries, capable of accommodating 140 students each, had been constructed for some junior and senior secondary schools, while 16 modern toilets were provided for some junior secondary schools.

Mohammed said that some 1,300 teachers had received in-house training on the use of ICT for teaching and learning processes.

Stressing the need to comply with the Abuja Master Plan, the minister directed the Development Control Department of the FCTA to remove all shanties springing up across the FCT, adding that the existence of shanties was unacceptable.

Mohammed emphasised that a high-powered task force had been constituted to assist in clearing shanties and illegal structures in Abuja, underscoring the government’s determination to uphold the sanctity of the Abuja Master Plan.

On security, the minister said that three police stations and 11 police posts had been constructed to boost the security of the FCT, adding that the police stations were in Wuye, Durumi and Daki-Biyu districts of the FCT.

As part of efforts to sanitise Abuja and generate funds for the city’s maintenance, the FCTA has introduced the new “Park and Pay Order’’ and the project is managed by Mr Iliyasu Abdu, Managing Director, Integrated Parking Services Limited (IPS).

Abdu said that the company had remitted millions of naira to the coffers of the FCTA within the last three months of its operations.

The company is currently managing 10,000 parking lots within the city. Violators of the parking regulations are compelled to pay fines, ranging from N50 to N5000, and N10,000 if the vehicle is  towed away to IPS office.

As part of efforts to engender the even development of the FCT, the FCTA had constituted a committee to look into the revival of the Satellite Town Development Agency.

The agency, which was established in 2006 by the administration of former FCT Minister Nasir el-Rufai somewhat became moribund due to factors such as paucity of funds and neglect.

However, President Goodluck Jonathan pledged in November 2011 that the agency would be repositioned for the rapid development of the FCT’s Area Councils where the vast majority of Abuja residents resided.

He said that the agency would focus its attention on providing the relevant infrastructure such as schools, housing and health facilities for the satellite towns as part of a deliberate policy to decongest Abuja.

Stressing the need to fast-track the development of the FCT’s area councils and satellite towns, the FCT Minister of State, Ms. Olajumoke Akinjide, urged the committee to look into the resuscitation of the Satellite Town Development Agency to ensure the development of an efficient area council system that would measure up to international standards.

In order to boost the economic activities and empower women in the area councils, the minister recently inaugurated the “One Village, One Product’’ Shear butter value-chain project in Abaji Area Council.

Akinjide stressed, while inaugurating the N15 million shear butter processing cluster at Rima village, Abaji Area Council, that the project was aimed at enhancing the quality of the shear butter and thus empower the rural women economically.

The Minister of State also disclosed at the Ministerial Platform that the plans were underway to provide affordable houses for people in the area councils.

She said that under the project, lands would be allocated to individuals and corporate entities, while the infrastructure of the satellite towns would be developed.

She said that some neighbourhoods would also be declared as affordable housing districts, adding that the FCTA would partner with the private sector in efforts to provide houses in the areas.

Akinjide pledged that the design, price, quality and allocation of the houses would, however, be controlled by the administration so as to ensure that the houses were made available to those who really needed them.

Akinjide said that as part of strategies to improve the infrastructure of the FCT and ease the heavy traffic congestion on the roads, the FCTA had signed a N28-billion contract for the expansion of the infrastructure of Kubwa and Karashi satellite towns.

Akinjide said, during the signing of the contract, that the administration was set to provide a good master plan for the development of the area councils and the satellite towns.

She said that the contract signified the importance which the Jonathan-administration placed on the area councils as a pivot for FCT’s development.

The minister said that a Clean and Green Greater Abuja Initiative committee had been set up to improve the sanitation of communities in the area councils.

Akinjide said that the project was aimed at evacuating illegal refuse dumps in the satellite towns to ensure a clean environment.

“The clean and green initiative is a one-month cleanup campaign designed to evacuate illegal refuse dumps in the satellite towns. The effort is also directed at reclaiming such sites and establishing dumpsites to assist the residents.”

Oluyole & Bibilari write for News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)

Francisca Oluyole & Uche Bibilari