Mr Adeyemi in his usual daily routine wakes up very early in the morning before the first ray of sunlight hits the earth, hurriedly rushes outside his single room apartment, straight into the single bathroom and toilet that is about 50 metres from the main building which is also used by his other eight neighbours and their families.
If he does not do this, no way he meets up the resumption time at his work place in town because once the other neighbours get to use the bathroom first and a queue builds, the morning rush does not ease till 8.30 am.
You will be forgiven for thinking that Mr Adeyemi resides in one of the shanties in Lagos State or other states in the country, but no, his residence is in Waru, a small settlement community just after Apo Mechanic which is only a 20 minutes drive from the main city of the Federal Capital Territory.
With the high cost of rent in many of the major towns in the FCT, areas in the outskirts of the nation’s capital such as Waru are becoming safe havens for Abuja residents however, the standard of housing in this areas leaves more to be desired.
For starters, the only major road in the whole community is now so damaged and the incessant rains this year has made it a serious distress to motorists and other road users. It is not uncommon to find cars break down in the middle of the road; even tricycles operators are not spared.
Other interconnected streets are prone to floods and due to the muddy nature of the area means it is a trip hazard for residents who have amongst other challenges they have to cope with, now have to masterfully trend to avoid falling in these muddy streets as they make their way to the homes.
Generally, many of the buildings in Waru are unfenced, with boundaries interlapping which would make an inquisitive mind ask if the owners of these buildings employed surveyors and had the needed permission from the relevant authorities before they started developing the properties.
The buildings themselves which are majorly single rooms, self contains and at best one bed rooms apartments often lack running water with occupants having to rely on young boys who sell waters via jerrycans on wheelbarrows called ‘meruwa’ for their daily supply of water.
While the better and modern building will have functional toilets and sewage system, it is not the same for all of the houses in Waru.
Some residents of the area resort to open defecation while others have invented other conventional ways to do their ‘business’ when they feel the need to.
Waste in the community are all dropping on the major road, the refuge dump stretches over 200 metres at the moment.
With the apparent disadvantages in housing units like this, why do people still resort to living in these areas and buildings?
One of the residents in the Waru who simply identified herself as Mimi said high cost of rent in others areas informed her decision to settle for herself contain apartment in the area. She said that she was able to get a new apartment which is relatively modern for about N200,000 yearly rent.
According to her, similar and lesser looking apartment than the one she stays in Waru in other areas would go for twice or even triple that amount.
In her words, “When I was looking for an apartment, the agent took me to see apartments in Lokogoma, Apo resettlement and other areas and the money they were quoting for these apartments were so high, some were N400,000, N500,000, in fact I saw one for about N600,000 if I am to include agency fees and other payments required before I move in.
“Once the agent took me to my place in Waru, and the landlord said he would take N200,000, I immediately paid because my current room though not too big is even wider than some of those apartment that were priced at higher amount.”
Pressed on how she copes with the general challenges of the area she said, “Well, thankfully I live in the better houses in the area because it is new one so the major challenges I have is water which I spend money for daily and sometimes electricity.”
She revealed that due to overload on the community’s transformer, it often get bad and residents of the areas have to contribute money to summon the power distribution company AEDC technicians to fix it.
When asked if she sees herself living long term in the area, she said, “I do not even think I will renew my rent once it expires to be honest. Even though my apartment is not bad, leaving in Waru is tough, I even pity and wonder how those who live in some of these older buildings manage.”
Mimi’s sentiments on the living condition in Waru are also shared by a small business owner in the area who gave her name as Mummy Kylie.
For her, she had to relocate from Kaduna with three kids to come join her husband whom had been in Abuja for some years and did not really expect to that such housing situations in areas so close the FCT.
She added, “I have decided not dwell on it but use staying in this place is temporary and a stepping stone towards something great I believe.”
One of the landlords of the better houses in the area who spoke strictly on the condition of anonymity said he chose to build in Waru due to the price he got the land, adding that “it was almost like a giveaway if you compare it to other major areas”.
Ask if there is a landlords’ union that is geared towards providing or at least lobbying for better living conditions for their tenants, he replied, “The truth is many of the house owners in Waru just like myself do not live there.
“Once a while, I get call from the chairman of the area for some contribution and try my best to contribute, but that is it.”
He however decline to comment when asked if he got government’s approval for his building and if he thinks other landlords do get their governmental approvals too which makes it easy to conclude that such approvals were not gotten.
This is an issue that has the ability to create issues for residents in the future. The current dualization of the Apo road has mirrored some of the issues that residences of Waru might face in future.
It was noticed that a good portion of the Apo mechanic and other residential buildings down had to be destroyed even as others are currently marked to be demolished soon as they were built on the road path.
With how narrow the major road into Waru is due to houses so close the road, any decision to construction a proper road with a good drainage system would mean that some of these buildings will have to be demolished.
Even if there is none of such constructions, who is to say that if the FCTA visits these areas, many of these houses would survive due to their substandard nature and lack of governmental permits and approval.
It can be recalled that the FCTA demolished over 1,800 shops, shanties in Apo-Dutse pantaker market in June this year and in July, another demolition was carried out in Kwali area of Abuja.
Residents in Waru however, do not care much for all of these, for now, all they are thankful for is that they have houses they rest their head after the day’s business, shops to trade their little business and still be associated with being in the nation’s capital, after all, this is Abuja where one lucky move can change your life forever.
