A City Of Villages

SIMBO OLORUNFEMI 

It is easy to run with the assumption that all that there is to Abuja is the 10-lane highway that takes one from the Airport into the City, or the well-paved roads around different parts of the city, and even the Estates here and there where the Elite reside. But that would be an erroneous assumption.

Abuja is a city of many parts and different faces. As with many cities, it finds a way to keep the not-so-pretty parts out of sight. Well, in the technical sense of it, there is Abuja, there is the Federal Capital Territory. Integrating the satellite towns into the picture, given that a sizeable portion of those who live in the city reside there, one might be right to conclude that Abuja is a city of Villages.

From what one can see, it doesn’t appear that there has been sufficient thought put into the management of many these Satellite towns and villages, as well as integrating them in a non-obtrusive manner into the overall development and future of the city.

If the master plan for the city has plans, it might then be that there is a lag in catching up with the growth being witnessed in the satellite and development needs of the people there. There is little to show as indication of purposeful and planned development in many of these places, with haphazard development, building without regard for planning and control, even as authorities might say these are illegal settlements.

While Estates springing up here and there, public educational and health institutions are clearly struggling to catch up. While many residents of some of these Estates might have gotten accustomed to the use of private facilities for education and health, what of the existing communities and those on the lowest rung of the ladder who cannot afford anything else.

The first time I paid a visit to the school with photographs here attached, I was shocked. This school sits next to an Estate in which highly-placed people live. Children of their guards and domestic staff school here. The state of the school is an eyesore. Difficult to believe this is Abuja. I feel sorry for the Teachers who work under this kind of condition and Students who have to ‘learn’ in this environment.

AMAC and FCT need to do something about this and urgently too.