the abuja slums

If you are new in Abuja, and  fortunate to drive through the city at night, it will not be out of place to compare it with great cities in the developed world. That is one side of Abuja. 

There is another side of the city that will break your heart. These are the slums scattered across major highbrow districts in the city. Unfortunately, majority of the dwellers in these slums are original settlers at  the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Like their counterparts in the restive Niger Delta region, they have been robbed of their  prized assets; their lands.

According to Wikipedia, “a slum is a heavily populated urban informal settlement characterised by substandard housing and squalor. While slums differ in size and other characteristics from country to country, most slums lack reliable sanitation services, supply of clean water, reliable electricity, timely law enforcement and other basic services. Slum residences vary from shanty to poorly built, deteriorated buildings.”

United Nations Habitat records indicate that around 33% of the urban population in the developing world in 2012, or about 863 million people, lived in slums. The proportion of urban population living in slums was highest in sub-Saharan Africa (61.7%), followed by South Asia (35%), Southeast Asia (31%), East Asia (28.2%), West Asia (24.6%), Oceania (24.1%), Latin America, the Caribbean (23.5%), and North Africa (13.3%).

Although the word ‘slums’ in Abuja city may sound alien to many Nigerians, findings by Abuja Metro during visits to some of them left little to be desired. One question that is begging for an answer from many Nigerians is whether the government is aware of the existence of these slum and the dwellers?

Garki, Utako, Mabushi, Gwarinpa, all highbrow districts of the city, top the list of areas within the Abuja city centre where slum dwellers live side by side the rich and opulent.

A visit to Garki Village was an eye opener. Garki Village is about three kilometres away from the secretariat of the FCT Administration, yet, basic amenities still appear so far away from them. Interestingly, the slum houses people of all tribes and religion. There is a mosque located at the centre of the village. There are over three churches. The population of the slum may be a little above 2,000 dwellers.

There are also spare part dealers and a booming market in the slum. Sadly, there are no schools, healthcare centres or other basic amenities that will meet the immediate needs of the dwellers. No police or any security post located there. The dwellers are left to provide security for themselves.

At night, the slum wears a different look. The dwellers ply all manner of trade, ranging from food vending to prostitution. Lagos Street located in Garki II District and notorious for prostitution stretches to into the slum. At night, ‘women of easy virtues’ flaunt their natural gifts. One unique feature about prostitutes in this slum is that they are dressed in long robes with their heads covered, the way a good Muslim lady should dress.  Many of them are from the northern part of Nigeria, and the dressing, people say, is to deceive customers to make them believe they are just homely and religious ladies, unlike the others that dress half nude.

Garki

A hair dresser who gave her name as Grace, said she earned a National Diploma certificate before enlisting for the trade had lived in the area since 2010. She had a brief chat with Abuja Metro.

“Many dwellers in this village come from many parts of Nigeria. You have Igbo, Yoruba and Hausas here. There are also people from other parts. We live here as brothers and sisters. But the people that originally came here are indigenes of Abuja. So, they own many of the houses. Some of us just find a place to lay our heads at night.

“Life here is funny and there are many sides to it. During the day, you see spare parts dealers and other people plying their trade. There are water vendors and people even come from town to patronise us here. But in the night, life is different here. While many of us are usually busy, trying to make a living, some people are involved in dirty things. Prostitution is big business here.

“At night, people have sex behind some of the shops you see now. If you do not look well, you might not even be able to tell who is a prostitute. But we know because we live here. Sale of ‘morocco’ (marijuana) is very common. It is not really a big deal anymore in this area. Almost every young man does it. Even women smoke it too, especially at night when people are not watching.

“When I came here four years ago, the population was very small. But since 2011, things have changed. So many people from the north have moved here because of insecurity. A night, you might not even have a space to even move your legs because all these boys you see now hawking and selling water will just occupy even places where people walk through. The population is growing everyday.

“Since there is no security here, anything can happen. You might just be sleeping and when you wake up at night, everything is gone. Sometimes, people are attacked by a group of boys and they run away with their belongings. Since there is no police station, nobody stops them and there is no one to complain to. This is the life we live here. Only God will help us.”

Utako

Utako, one of Abuja’s finest districts has its own dark side. The dark side of the district is hard to detect. You need to look deeply before you can catch a glimpse of the mess at the heart of the district. The slum in Utako appears to be more severe than the one in Garki.

One of the slums located at the Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Way/Augustus Aikhomu Drive, an area popularly called Arab Contractors is heart breaking. Most of the buildings are not worthy to even accommodate animals. Many of the buildings have no roofs. The poor residents sometimes use dry leaves, waterproof sheets, disused cement bags to roof their wretched shacks.

Although the slum is at the heart of the city, it lacks basic amenities. There is no link to electricity which they see just outside their homes, not even a clinic to cater for its inhabitants. Many of the residents depend solely on their creator to survive. With the growing reported cases of cholera and polio outbreaks in Nigeria, Utako slum serves as a perfect breeding ground for such viruses.

Jabi

There is another slum at the heart of Jabi. This slum appears to be sophisticated and the inhabitants are mostly peasants and technicians. The slum also houses a large number of prostitutes who flood major highways at night.

One interesting feature of this slum is that, the private houses have been converted to mini-brothels by prostitutes. Whenever they find a client in the city who refuses to take them to their homes, a hotel or ‘do it’ inside their cars, they usually bring them home.

At night, the slum is adorned with beautiful cars to the extent that a novice in the area might be tempted to believe that car dealers display their goods there.

Many residents who spoke to Abuja Metro complained bitterly about the activities of prostitutes and other people who constitute themselves into a  nuisance in the area. The residents said cases of robbery attacks are reported every night, while under-reported rape cases also go on in the area.

There are no police posts, schools, good sewage and primary healthcare centres in the slum. Every resident is left to his or fate. Many observers believe that with the influx of people from other parts of the country and outside of Nigeria to Abuja, the Jabi slum might be a safe haven where terrorist attacks can be hatched.

Mabushi

Mabushi, one of Abuja’s fastest growing districts is a delight to behold. The gigantic edifices erected everyday makes one wonder if people pluck money from the tree. Beneath these beautiful structures, lies a slum. The distance separating the rich from these slum dwellers is less than 50 metres.

The slum is located just behind the beautiful edifice that houses the Federal Ministry of Works. If you drive through the expressway, you will never realise the existence of such a slum there. There are over 3,000 dwellers in the area.

Like the others, Mabushi slum dwellers do not have access to good water. They depend on water vendors and rain water for their daily needs. There are no schools, primary healthcare centres and police post. Motorists find it almost impossible to access the area as a result of the bad roads.

Victims of the system

Many residents of these slums are victims of heartless demolitions in Abuja.

Many of them who are original inhabitants of FCT told Abuja Metro that they are yet to be relocated by the government after their ancestral lands were forcefully taken from them. With the dwindling yearly budget of the FCT, original inhabitants that reside in these slums across the city will have to wait endlessly.

Gwarinpa

Gwarinpa is rated to be the biggest residential estate in sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of the few legacies the late Sani Abacha bequeathed to Nigerians. At the surface, Gwarinpa is a beauty to behold. The houses are beautiful and the network amazing. Ironically, Gwarinpa is also home to so many poor Abuja residents.

There are so many slums scattered across Gwarinpa. They all have the same features and have similar challenges. It is difficult to conclude whether or not the government is aware of the existence of these slums in Gwarinpa. Observers believe that 80 percent of the crimes committed in Gwarinpa are hatched in these slums. Even the police division here once told Abuja Metro that the problem they have in checking crime in the area are the slums and villages.

Drugs dealers find solace in these slums. There have also been reported cases of killings that are under-reported in Gwarinpa slums. There was a case of a corpse of a middle-aged man dumped around Saraha Estate in about mid 2013. The decomposing corpse was left in the open for more than three days before it was eventually taken away by police officers who periodically patrol the areas.

Gwarinpa slum dwellers lack access to electricity, water, primary healthcare, security, schools, and many others the residents of the nearby estate enjoy. The most visible things in these slums are churches and few mosques.

Some of the indigenes who reside in these slums were temporarily relocated there by the FCT administration, with the promise that they will be resettled and fully compensated. Since that promise was made by previous FCT administrations many years ago, nothing has been done. Recently, the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed revealed that more than N150 billion was needed to resettle original inhabitants of the FCT who were displaced. Angry bulldozers might soon crush these slums and the inhabitants will again be left in worse situations.