Akwa Ibom Ex-Governor backs Wike on Abuja Masterplan Reclamation

By Obiabin Onukwugha

Former Governor of Akwa Ibom State and renowned architect, Obong Victor Attah, has backed the drive by FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike to restore the original master plan and land scape of Abuja.

Barrister Wike, who was governor of Rivers State from 2019 to 2023, had on resumption of office as FCT Minister promised to restore the Abuja Master plan.

The Minister who swung into action had authorised the demolition of houses, shanties and markets, a decision that has pitched him against some landlords and vested interest in the Federal Capital Territory.

But Attah, who is also a renowned Town Planner, in an exclusive interview with NatureNews Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, Aliu Akoshile, in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital last week, described Wike’s action as a welcome development.

The former Governor, who highlighted the importance of open and green spaces for habitable living said proper urban planning is desirable for climate change and global warming mitigation.

He said: “As a town planner, even in our profession we are told to value green spaces. Even as an architect, a landscape architect, we know that the outdoor is just as important as the indoor. The space outside is just as important as the space inside the house.

Emphasising the imperatives of a green environment, Obong Attah said: “even if you take the best building and plant it in an environment that is not salubrious, it won’t look as elegant as it ought to and it won’t be as healthy to live in as it ought to be.

The former Governor who noted that “we were taught in science that the trees take in the carbon dioxide and give us the oxygen”, added that “we must thank Wike for coming back and insisting that he wants to restore the master plan”.

He expressed regret that “though to a very large extent, it’s abit too late because so many of what was meant to be open spaces in Abuja had been destroyed, and taken over by land grabbers”.

Obong Attah noted that “some of those FCDA officials are just greedy about selling lands because there’s a surety people will buy and build whatever they want to build on what was meant to be a free space”.

“If you don’t balance the ratio of open spaces and built areas you will end up with polluted cities, polluted that are just not healthy and not habitable. That’s really the truth”, he reiterated.

“So again I have to make reference to Wike, because he’s demolished a few houses and people are shouting, shouting, shouting. But some of these houses were marked ‘X’ but they ignored the ‘X’ mark, they continued to build thinking that it will not be enforced.

“He has come, he has enforced it so what has he done wrong. He is helping to clean up the environment and he is absolutely correct.”

Former Governor Attah who disclosed that Abuja, as the Federal Capital Territory, does not have a City Centre, said the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) stopped the move by Dr. Aliyu Modibbo to build a city centre for Abuja when he was FCT Minister.

Obong Attah who said the Federal Government should go back to the initial plan as envisioned by Dr. Modibbo in order to fully restore the city status of FCT, explained that Abuja has six cities in the plan but only two have been developed, thereby resulting in congestion.

“I will strongly recommend that we go back and look at what Dr. Aliyu Modibbo had started that was wrongly stopped. It is very unfortunate because you cannot look at Abuja and say oh, that is the city centre,” he said.

The renowned architect, who said he planned the city of Uyo long before becoming governor, emphasised on the need for green spaces and citing of industries and firms where the wind will not blow into the city as smokes contribute to ill-health of the people.

“And these open spaces when I talk about it I feel saddened by Nigerian Administrators. I say this because when you refer to Europe in all the gatherings that we have, even in London, small pocket paths, you know, with fence around, little greens and so on. They say oh, that’s Europe.

“But I went to Nairobi and at lunch time, you see all the people from government and private offices sat in the parks sunning themselves. It is also an African city.

“We must emphasise the need for recreation. It is not always that we are going to be killing ourselves, busy doing certain things not so important. Recreation is critically important and you recreate outdoors and these open spaces and suitable for that.

“And one striking thing that happened many years ago, there was a cement factory called CACEMCO, Calabar Cement Company. It was sited by the water but the wind direction was coming off the sea into the town so all the soot that was coming out from there was being blown into town. And clearly medically, and this is scientific, there was a rise in asthma cases to about 15 percent because of this soot. So when you are siting industries you have to think of the wind direction so it blows all the soot and polluted away from the population not into where people live. People don’t pay attention to that any more”.

Read the full exclusive interview in NatureNews edition on Friday