Under­stand­ing Abuja mas­ter plan and neces­sity for its pro­tec­tion (I)

By: TPL. UMAR SHUAIBU FNITP

The slo­gan attached to Abuja as ‘The Centre of Unity’, or ‘A No-man’s Land’, is not uncon­nec­ted to the ori­ginal concept and the aspir­a­tion of the found­ing fath­ers for the cre­ation of a new Fed­eral Cap­ital for Nigeria. Many people, unfor­tu­nately, at times, includ­ing those charged with the respons­ib­il­ity of imple­ment­a­tion and pro­tec­tion of that dream of the found­ing fath­ers, dis­play ignor­ance of the mean­ings of these terms.

The slo­gan attached to Abuja as ‘The Centre of Unity’, or ‘A No-man’s Land’, is not uncon­nec­ted to the ori­ginal concept and the aspir­a­tion of the found­ing fath­ers for the cre­ation of a new Fed­eral Cap­ital for Nigeria. Many people, unfor­tu­nately, at times, includ­ing those charged with the respons­ib­il­ity of imple­ment­a­tion and pro­tec­tion of that dream of the found­ing fath­ers, dis­play ignor­ance of the mean­ings of these terms.

In a simple term Abuja must be under­stood to be ‘A Sym­bol of Unity’ for Nigeria. Hence its admin­is­tra­tion must not be saddled on just any per­son that seeks for the pos­i­tion, but those with the proven qual­ity and capa­city to imple­ment the plan in order to safe­guard the unity of our dear nation. One of the object­ives was

In a simple term Abuja must be under­stood to be ‘A Sym­bol of Unity’ for Nigeria. Hence its admin­is­tra­tion must not be saddled on just any per­son that seeks for the pos­i­tion, but those with the proven qual­ity and capa­city to imple­ment the plan in order to safe­guard the unity of our dear nation. One of the object­ives was

The neigh­bour­hood bound­ar­ies are defined by arter­ial roads, while neigh­bour­hood facil­it­ies include nurs­ery and primary schools, fam­ily clinic, shop­ping centre, com­munity hall, postal agency and police charge office. It is expec­ted that the res­id­ents obtain their basic needs without tra­vers­ing across major arter­ial roads

The neigh­bour­hood bound­ar­ies are defined by arter­ial roads, while neigh­bour­hood facil­it­ies include nurs­ery and primary schools, fam­ily clinic, shop­ping centre, com­munity hall, postal agency and police charge office. It is expec­ted that the res­id­ents obtain their basic needs without tra­vers­ing across major arter­ial roads

To have a com­fort­able and healthy base for urban devel­op­ment. Thus, there must be delib­er­ate effort to ensure har­mony with nature and also ensure eco­lo­gical bal­ance.

While pre­par­ing the mas­ter plan, it had been iden­ti­fied that the major short­com­ings in the past plan­nings for Nigerian cit­ies was the fail­ure to recog­nise and accom­mod­ate the indi­gen­ous pat­terns of urban organ­isa­tion and adapt­a­tion already present in the coun­try. Nigeria has an import­ant urban tra­di­tion. The tra­di­tion includes how people lived both in cit­ies with ancient roots dat­ing back cen­tur­ies, and in new towns cre­ated dur­ing the colo­nial peri­ods. The new cap­ital city of Nigeria must pre­serve and build on that which is unique and valu­able in Nigerian’s urban tra­di­tion.

While pre­par­ing the mas­ter plan, it had been iden­ti­fied that the major short­com­ings in the past plan­nings for Nigerian cit­ies was the fail­ure to recog­nise and accom­mod­ate the indi­gen­ous pat­terns of urban organ­isa­tion and adapt­a­tion already present in the coun­try. Nigeria has an import­ant urban tra­di­tion. The tra­di­tion includes how people lived both in cit­ies with ancient roots dat­ing back cen­tur­ies, and in new towns cre­ated dur­ing the colo­nial peri­ods. The new cap­ital city of Nigeria must pre­serve and build on that which is unique and valu­able in Nigerian’s urban tra­di­tion.

The plan was made for all the people. Also, the var­ied ways in which Nigerian cit­ies evolved and related was not ignored. These are the Savan­nah cit­ies in the north, the forest cit­ies in the south and the new towns, or GRA’s intro­duced by the colo­nial admin­is­tra­tion. The African neigh­bour­li­ness, broth­er­hood and fam­ily ties, which made us identify our close and dis­tant rela­tions, is unique, best and incom­par­able to any for­eign cul­ture.

The plan was made for all the people. Also, the var­ied ways in which Nigerian cit­ies evolved and related was not ignored. These are the Savan­nah cit­ies in the north, the forest cit­ies in the south and the new towns, or GRA’s intro­duced by the colo­nial admin­is­tra­tion. The African neigh­bour­li­ness, broth­er­hood and fam­ily ties, which made us identify our close and dis­tant rela­tions, is unique, best and incom­par­able to any for­eign cul­ture.

The cul­tural plur­al­ism of Nigeria sug­gests that the city plan must sim­ul­tan­eously per­mit the dif­fer­ent seg­ments of the Nigerian pop­u­la­tion to main­tain an import­ant degree of con­tinu­ity with their social and cul­tural tra­di­tions while encour­aging, where appro­pri­ate, amal­gam­a­tion of the vari­ous streams of urban tra­di­tion and life­style into a new and com­mon mod­ern Nigerian urban con­text.

An import­ant ingredi­ent in the devel­op­ment of the mas­ter plan, there­fore, has been a review of the rela­tion­ships that have developed between social and phys­ical aspects in exist­ing Nigerian cit­ies. Three key urban plan­ning and design issues were con­sidered. These are over­all urban form, role of cent­ral pub­lic spaces and organ­isa­tion of res­id­en­tial areas.

One of the devel­op­ment guidelines issued to Inter­na­tional Plan­ning Asso­ciates (IPA) by the FCDA was to have a city that will be per­mit­ted to grow to a max­imum pop­u­la­tion of approx­im­ately three mil­lion, after which, pop­u­la­tion growth will be accom­mod­ated in satel­lite towns. Thus, IPA was left with the task of determ­in­ing the total land size to accom­mod­ate the pop­u­la­tion, vari­ous land uses and land budget, in line with the inter­na­tional best prac­tice.

One of the devel­op­ment guidelines issued to Inter­na­tional Plan­ning Asso­ciates (IPA) by the FCDA was to have a city that will be per­mit­ted to grow to a max­imum pop­u­la­tion of approx­im­ately three mil­lion, after which, pop­u­la­tion growth will be accom­mod­ated in satel­lite towns. Thus, IPA was left with the task of determ­in­ing the total land size to accom­mod­ate the pop­u­la­tion, vari­ous land uses and land budget, in line with the inter­na­tional best prac­tice.

All human endeav­ours have stand­ard require­ments. The struc­ture of the Nigerian tra­di­tional cit­ies from the savanna to the forest region bears sim­ilar pat­tern and recog­nises the tra­di­tional kin­ship ties, with neigh­bour­hood pop­u­la­tion ran­ging from 1,000 to 1,200 among those cit­ies sur­veyed, where both the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak co-habit in peace.

All human endeav­ours have stand­ard require­ments. The struc­ture of the Nigerian tra­di­tional cit­ies from the savanna to the forest region bears sim­ilar pat­tern and recog­nises the tra­di­tional kin­ship ties, with neigh­bour­hood pop­u­la­tion ran­ging from 1,000 to 1,200 among those cit­ies sur­veyed, where both the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak co-habit in peace.

The res­ult of this ana­lysis led to the adop­tion of the neigh­bour­hood concept by the IPA, in the plan­ning of Abuja. The neigh­bour­hood pop­u­la­tion, ran­ging from 4,000 to 5,000 is the smal­lest unit in plan­ning of the cap­ital city, while the neigh­bour­hood centre is its nuc­leus.

The neigh­bour­hood bound­ar­ies are defined by arter­ial roads, while neigh­bour­hood facil­it­ies include nurs­ery and primary schools, fam­ily clinic, shop­ping centre, com­munity hall, postal agency and police charge office. It is expec­ted that the res­id­ents obtain their basic needs without tra­vers­ing across major arter­ial roads. The ser­vices at the neigh­bour­hood level are primary, now provided by both the pub­lic and private sec­tors. Typ­ical example of this set up could be found in the first neigh­bour­hoods developed in the city. These are the Area 1 and Area 2 neigh­bour­hood centres in the Garki Dis­trict.

The neigh­bour­hood bound­ar­ies are defined by arter­ial roads, while neigh­bour­hood facil­it­ies include nurs­ery and primary schools, fam­ily clinic, shop­ping centre, com­munity hall, postal agency and police charge office. It is expec­ted that the res­id­ents obtain their basic needs without tra­vers­ing across major arter­ial roads. The ser­vices at the neigh­bour­hood level are primary, now provided by both the pub­lic and private sec­tors. Typ­ical example of this set up could be found in the first neigh­bour­hoods developed in the city. These are the Area 1 and Area 2 neigh­bour­hood centres in the Garki Dis­trict.

Cal­cu­la­tions were made for all the sec­tors. These are res­id­en­tial, health, edu­ca­tion, secur­ity, com­mer­cial, indus­trial, recre­ational and the city green­ing com­pon­ents. All, have their vari­ous and indi­vidual stand­ard require­ments in line with the inter­na­tional best prac­tice. Any change that would tamper with the cal­cu­la­tions, will dis­tort the spa­tial arrange­ments and the stand­ard plan for achiev­ing that needed city of sym­bol of Nigeria’s aspir­a­tion for unity and great­ness.

Cal­cu­la­tions were made for all the sec­tors. These are res­id­en­tial, health, edu­ca­tion, secur­ity, com­mer­cial, indus­trial, recre­ational and the city green­ing com­pon­ents. All, have their vari­ous and indi­vidual stand­ard require­ments in line with the inter­na­tional best prac­tice. Any change that would tamper with the cal­cu­la­tions, will dis­tort the spa­tial arrange­ments and the stand­ard plan for achiev­ing that needed city of sym­bol of Nigeria’s aspir­a­tion for unity and great­ness.

No any FCT min­is­ter should agree to any pro­posal that dis­torts the spa­tial arrange­ments of all these sec­tors in the plan. Rather, the pro­moters of those evil pro­pos­als must be chas­tised. Suc­cumb­ing to such is tan­tamount to derel­ic­tion on his stat­utory respons­ib­il­ity to defend the plan.

No any FCT min­is­ter should agree to any pro­posal that dis­torts the spa­tial arrange­ments of all these sec­tors in the plan. Rather, the pro­moters of those evil pro­pos­als must be chas­tised. Suc­cumb­ing to such is tan­tamount to derel­ic­tion on his stat­utory respons­ib­il­ity to defend the plan.

To be con­tin­ued.