Making a city better for everyone is the clear goal of urban government and it is why cities elect mayors to pilot the city governance. Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital constitutionally cannot have a mayor but an appointed minister with delegated powers of the president.
The recent nomination and swearing-in of the new Minister of FCT has been greeted with mixed feeling; on the positive side; Nyesom Wike nicknamed Mr. Projects has an antecedent of delivering on his promises to deliver infrastructural development and it didn’t come as a surprise that the minister’s first press briefing came with a lot of promise, renewed hope, passion and enthusiasm to make Abuja better. Conversely, the minister during his inaugural speech also issued subtle threats with audacious words like “I will do it and nothing will happen, heaven will not fall, I don’t care what the media writes about me” creating perceived fear that the minister might act with impunity (I sincerely hope he doesn’t).
However, the minister made commitments to consult with stakeholders before taking actions which is a beter approach to leading and governing a city like Abuja.
These being said, let us consider the commitments of the minister and offer some recommendations.
Security
The minister acknowledged that security in Abuja is poor and rightly so; therefore, he has made commitment to support the security agencies to do their jobs.
I recommend that beyond supporting the security agencies of government alone, the minister should go further to ensure that the various self-help security groups (Vigilantes) providing security services and guarding numerous communities, estates in Abuja be identified, captured and provided some level of security trainings to support the state-owned security agencies. This will strengthen community policing across the entire city and forestall any future security risks by any of these groups.
Abuja master plan
Like his predecessor, the minister harped on the distortion of the Abuja Masterplan with a need to restore the city back to the plan designs. While this is plausible, the minister must also be reminded that the master plan he intends to use as a development tool has outlived its life span, realities have changed, population has increased alongside other dynamics and because change is constant, the city cannot remain static; therefore, he must be critical on what approach to adopt and in my expert opinion; demolition is not always the solution.
The Abuja Master plan is long overdue for review; at the creation of Abuja, the designers of Abuja didn’t envisage such a time when many Nigerians will migrate to the city without adequate preparations, which is the situation today due to insecurity in many parts of the country forcing many displaced Nigerians to find succour in the nation’s capital. It is expedient and imperative that the minister speedily set up a multi-sectorial, multi-disciplinary committee consisting of the government, professional groups, CSOs, traditional leaders etc to critically review the master plan in line with current realities and design a master plan that is reflective of our African heritage embedded with innovation against a westernized, modernistic master plan that is exclusionary and caters for the elites only. Abuja needs an inclusive master plan that addresses the need of the rich, poor, women, youth, persons with disability and the elderly.
The minister should also ensure that the master plan is accessible and available to the public and efforts must be put in place to sensitize and educate the masses on what the city master plan is. If done appropriately, this will curb land racketeering, land speculation and other planning issues associated with the lack of knowledge of government development plans.
Restoration of green areas
The restoration of green areas will benefit the city in so many ways; for one; green areas foster inclusion and community. Many of our parks are exclusionary especially for the elderly and children as they cannot take a walk freely and interact with their peers and enjoy nature. Many developed estates within the cities build with little enforcement to create green areas within their built environment.
Beyond the health benefits, fostering community and inclusion for all to have access to a recreational space, parks are also considered “knowledge hubs” as a lot of young person’s network, share ideas, innovate and shape their creativity with their peers in these places. As such, it is a welcome idea for the restoration of parks.
It is recommended that parks shouldn’t be open areas with only well-lawned grasses but should be shaped by creativity and innovation blending together nature, our cultural heritage and social activities. Designated green areas within the city should be published on the FCTA websites with communities and companies encouraged to invest in parks development as their corporate social responsibility.
Waste management
The minister duly observed the poor management of waste within the Federal Capital City and satellite towns. One would say that waste collection at satellite towns is near absent as residents and communities have been forced to dump their waste indiscriminately at street corners due to the lack of adequate provision of waste dumpsters in designated places. Abuja as a global city should by now take lessons from countries that are excelling in waste management and have created a huge economy from waste. For example, Japan has an excellent waste management pedigree with little of its municipal waste sent to its landfills.
No city can pride itself to be healthy if waste is not properly managed. Waste management remains a huge challenge across states in Nigeria and has remained so due to the lack of investment in waste management.
Adequate investment needs to be made in recycling plant either through a public-private partnership or sole ownership by government to recycle most of the city’s waste which are recyclable.
Encouragement and support for waste recycling start-ups and companies in Abuja as this will create jobs for youths.
Enforcement of the law on single-use plastics and encourage other eco-friendly packages.
Decentralize waste management operations from the claws of a few business people who are more concerned with what they get from the government rather than doing the actual jobs. We need better strategy of managing waste at various levels (neighbourhood, community, sector, district level), with roles clearly defined with less stringent conditions to encourage multi-players in the waste management sector.
Work with CSOs and NGOs to sensitize the public on waste management education.
The government need to construct more sanitary landfills across the six Area Councils to safely manage the city’s waste to curtail public health crisis.
The personal commitments of the minister are quite germane and commendable and one can only wish he succeeds. However; there are other issues that are as important as those enumerated by the minister and one of such is the urgent need to halt the duplication of roles by sister agencies of FCDA and FCTA by ensuring that each department and agencies have up-to-date review operational policies and guides. Contestation of roles by sister agencies of the FCDA, FCTA is in the area of land administration, land use design and documentation. There are reports of Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS) designing layout and meddling into other land matters distinct from its core responsibility of documenting and digitizing all lands allocation in Abuja. These actions dampen the government public credibility/trust as members of the public are often the biggest victims of these administrative/bureaucratic tussles
Secondly, developed cities of the world have online repositories of information pertaining to city governance and management and access to information is simple, easy and seamless without hassles; this is largely unavailable in Abuja. To access simple information from the FCDA or FCTA is a herculean task that often involves writing multiple hardcopy letters and regular visits to offices to get the needed acknowledgement and treatment of request. This is not befitting of a potential global city like Abuja.
It is the desire of all Abuja residents and Nigerians that Abuja becomes truly that capital where every Nigerian has equal citizenship, rights to basic services and other urban resources.
•Bassey Bassey, an urban development enthusiast, writes via [email protected].
