The immediate past FCT Chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, Tpl. Lami A. Ayuba, made several attempts beginning from 26th April 2024 to get approval for a courtesy visit to the FCT Minister, but was not granted. On the 3rd of February 2025, when all attempts failed, she submitted a formal letter to the FCT Minister, detailing the dire consequences of conversions and redesign of green areas to mixed use/ estate/ residential and commercial uses.
Accordingly, she stressed that, most places designed as green areas may have certain physical, natural or manmade encumbrances that determine their designation to be reserved as green areas. These include serving as district storm drainage waterways. Any permanent development will block the storm ways and cause flooding with time. Some serve as paths for underground sewer lines. Any heavy construction over, will damage them underneath.
Some serve as paths for national grid power lines. Development cannot take place under power lines, due to the hazards and risks associated with them. Some of these areas have heavy rocks outcrops that are part of larger underground basement complex. Construction work on them can cause pseudo earth tremor around the area and expose other residents to the risks of building collapse. This was exactly what is already experienced in the Mpape area as we have previously discussed.
Other economic consequences of these conversions would be the refusal to grant building plan approvals as a result of the violations of development control standard and regulations. Certainly, the allottees are liable to losing the allocations in the event of change or reversal of government policies, and will be a colossal waste to the investors, who spent billions in the inappropriate land purchase. She ended the submission with the request for the reversal of these conversions in order to protect the environment, protect investors and assure the integrity of land tenure and administration in the FCT.
As previously discussed, the three principles of “environmental conservation”, “city beautiful” and “functional city” were adequately factored in the formulation of the Abuja Master Plan, in order to ensure the production of a new city much better by far than Lagos. What it means is that the violations of the plan would take us back to where we earlier belonged or even worst. This exactly is what we must avoid.
It was due to the significance of the landscaping components in city management and functionality that informed the master planners to devote 33 per cent of the total land budget of Abuja City for greening. Unfortunately, the wanton greed for land acquisition for material benefit overshadowed the minds of the people in authority to convert most of these provisions for other uses. The results are the dire consequences of the environmental challenges being unfolded, and could dramatically deteriorate if not addressed.
The repercussion of the violations can only emerge when the developments were effected. Already, even before the advanced implementation of the violated areas, the floods have started, in less than 2 years. Guzafe and Asokoro are neighbouring districts and are the epicenter of the latest waves of land use violations perpetrated by the current FCT Administration. They never experienced any floods similar to the one during the last heavy downpour about 2 weeks ago. The truth is more and more should be expected as the developments continue, if the violations are not reviewed.
It could be recalled that Trademore Estate along the Airport Road is notoriously known for constant floods recurrence with devastating consequences every year. If not addressed, the backlash of land use violations at Asokoro and Guzafe has the tendency of rendering the Trademore situation a child play.
Recounting the experience, areas along the airport road, running along Lokogoma District and Galadimawa, to areas constituting the Trademore estate and the other surrounding developments were bunch of violations of land uses with impunity. Due to the surrounding higher grounds, runoff as a result of torrential rainfall increase in speed and volume as it races along the smaller streams with humongous expansion in no time, with high speed to the lower grounds. Loss of lives and property are constant reoccurrence every raining season.
The natural ground has its in-built capacity for the absorption of the rain water through infiltration. This capacity is lost due to surface pavements, hence the astronomical increase in the surface runoffs. The natural solution is, no developments at all in areas constituting natural runways for precipitation. Hence the designations of such areas for green developments only. The wisdom was for the plants to aid absorption thereby minimizing runoffs. And, in the absence of human residences no life is threatened in case of any emergency.
It is instructive to note that in almost all the areas where lives and property were lost as a result of floods, development were made in violations of the rules and regulations. In some instances some of the culprits with so-called high profile, would have the temerity to take legal actions against the Authority, to prevent enforcements. According to Gilbert White, “Floods are acts of God, but flood losses are largely acts of man.”
