Wednesday, October 10, 2012
DAILY SUN
25
ABUJAMetro THE COMPREHENSIVE
FCT MAGAZINE
ABUJA: Flambouyant city of slums
•Unbelievable tale of Utako and Jabi shantytowns By CHINAZA ONOH
W
hen you hear of comedy of errors, what readily comes to mind is the theatre but that properly applies to the Abuja city. The signs are there all over the large and flashy city. But strictly speaking, what one sees in Abuja city is just the opposite of the pictures and stories that have been painted in the mind of an intending visitors. When you set feet on Abuja, move around for sometime to see places and it dawns on you that Abuja is as beautiful as it is ugly. The rude shock of slums, doting the beautiful city amid the splendour and wealth, is enough to trouble the mind. Abuja, long before now, was known for order, quietness and bustling with
affluence. But the city is presently struggling with the old fiend that Lagos is aiming at getting rid of; traffic congestion, filthy environment and the worst of them all - the slums in the major parts of the city. They exist just at the city centres. It is so out of place to juxtapose a sprawling highbrow city like the wide, wonderful architecture, paved streets of Utako and Jabi with the slums next door. Utako slum The major slums being referred to here are those of Utako and Jabi Villages because there are so many of such places all over Abuja. They are the traditional villages reserved for the natives in the course of the development of the city. These slums however are found right at the middle of the city. Despite the amount of money sunk into Abuja, the billions of naira swirling in the city, the populations of these shantytowns have not in any way been affected. They
remain poor, wretched slum dwellers. The common features of the slums in the big city are thatched houses littered everywhere, the pools of stagnant water found almost at every corner serving as fertile breeding grounds for mosquitoes and the piles of refuse found at every corner of the area which makes it difficult for both humans and animals to live. In addition to the non-conducive nature of this environment, the dwellers lack health centres for their healthcare needs. On a day of visit to the slums in Utako and Jabi, Abuja Metro was received warmly by an indigene who explained that the slums live in order and a particular mode of political and social control. The close-knit settlements are little in space but heavy in population density. Most migrants who storm Abuja for livelihood, at last end up in these places where the cost of living is at its lowest. The slum of Utako for instance seethes with leaders and chiefs – each for the
ethnic groups with population there. There are of Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Igala extractions in addition to the Esu of the Gbagyi, who are owners of the land. In an encounter with the traditional ruler he gave a brief history of the village saying that Kutako village now simply ‘Utako’ came into existence during the 1930’s and was originally handed down to him by his forefathers whom he said, came to the area in search for larger farmlands. The village that was mainly inhabited by the native Gbagyi then, has become a place where common Nigerians of different tribes find cheap abode as entre port to access the goodies and trappings of Abuja at little cost. The result is terrible congestion in the village the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) intentionally spared in the course of the FCT development as the natural niche of the natives of the land. Although the village is located in