Traffic Menace in FCT Districts

The growth of the Federal Capital Territory since its creation in 1976 has surpassed the projections of its planners as it is attracting new settlers from across the country. Its urban area population is projected to hit 3.8 million by 2023 and 4.2 million by 2025. However, what is very concerning is the perennial gridlock in parts of the city arising from creation of new districts and the influx of people into Abuja. Traffic menace is a dilemma for residents and the managers of the city, Olawale Ajimotokan reports

Traffic congestion is the new concern in some of the existing and emerging districts in the FCT. Estates, lavish duplexes, terrace houses and shopping malls, some using clean energy now dot different districts in Abuja.

From Daki Biu, a new upscale district abutting the once sleepy Wuye District, to Kafe, Life Camp, Wumba, Gwarimpa, Guzape, Maitama 2, Asokoro Extension, Karmo, Lokogoma and Kugbo among others, the thriving districts will, to some extent, ease the nation’s infrastructural deficit.

However, some of the residents of these districts barely cope with traffic snarls that have now become emblematic with the new districts.

Inadequate road infrastructure, coupled with indiscriminate violation of the FCT Masterplan by developers, in connivance with compromised officers of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and Federal Housing Authority (FHA) have compounded the traffic situation in the city.

Traffic Chaos in Gwarimpa

The situation in Gwarimpa is critical to the case under review. Gwarimpa, the largest estate in Nigeria was conceived in 1993 when Lateef Jakande was the Minister of Works under the Abacha Administration. But over time developments have brought unmitigated hardship on the residents in form of traffic gridlock in parts of the estate.

The residents of Adkan Estate in Gwarimpa, recently made an outcry about the deteriorating conditions of Road 69 which connects about 30 other estates in Gwarimpa to the Kubwa Express way via the Charlie Boy Bus-stop exit point.

The Secretary of the estate’s board of Trustees, Mrs Chidinma Agomoh, said traffic has literally taken over Road 69 because many of the green areas in the estate were being converted to high rise plazas and night clubs by developers.

She said the spate of developments and commercial activities at the estate, in stark violation of the FCT masterplan by developers in collusion with officers of FCTA and FHA, was creating hardship for residents who were mainly retired senior citizens.

Agomoh excoriated authorities for not addressing their grouse despite drawing the attention of the FHA, FCTA and the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) to the ongoing infraction.

“We don’t know what is going on here. The FHA people are selling the vast green areas in the estate to some people who are turning them into multi-storey plazas, causing lack of vehicular control because many vehicles now park indiscriminately on the road. We are also worried that many residential buildings are being turned into supermarkets and night clubs in violation of the master plan,” she said.

Agomoh added that the end result was the unending gridlock which residents and other road users were experiencing on that axis of the city.

“Shoppers are parking right on the road, making the road inaccessible. You can see how narrow our road is. It was actually built to be a one lane road. You can imagine what happens when plazas take half of that road and what we are left with to drive through. And we begin to wonder who is giving the approval for these plazas without proper approval for adequate parking lot. We are not against commercial activities, but it must be properly checked.

“Abuja has a master plan but what we are seeing in Gwarimpa is chaos. We don’t know whether we are still part of the master plan or have been taken out of it. Every given space is taken up by a plaza. When we brought houses in this estate, we were informed that it was strictly residential and as an association, we have worked hard to maintain that. You can hear it from our name—Adkan Residents Association. This is where we reside and not where we will come and trade and go home. We are worried when we can’t get home because of the activities of shop owners.

“We also want to draw attention to the spate of crimes in this area in the last couple of months. We can’t sleep with our eyes closed because of constant gunshots heightened by commercial activities and government bodies are not making things easy for us. Recently we had one our houses in the estate converted to a restaurant and a bakery and we were wondering under whose approval and why the parking lot is going to be right there on 69 Road. There is a plaza springing up—two floors as we speak- and we don’t know if it is going to end at two floors or they are going ahead to make it three floors. Who is giving the authorisation? We have approached FHA. Some of them would claim they are unaware, but when we go to meet people building, they will say they have proper papers, documented, signed and they were given approval,” Agomoh lamented.

She also warned that Road 69 could be cut off as a result of the deterioration of the gully that has eroded and narrowed the road, adding the authorities have turned the blind eye despite that residents have in the past six years notified authorities about the parlous state of the road.

“When that happens it is going to be a major catastrophe for us. If you are coming in from our estate right from the 3^rd Avenue and coming home from work, from Chambian to this estate, you won’t do it in less than an hour and half, a journey that under normal circumstances should be like three to five minutes. You can be stuck in traffic for more than one and half hour for no other reason than the springing up of plazas, not just shops –two, three, four floors of plazas and they have no parking lot. Their customers are parking right on the road, making the road inaccessible,” Agomoh said.

Hassles in Life Camp, Kafe District

The traffic originating from and into the newly created Kafe District of Life Camp is a major concern for residents in the morning and during evening rush hours.

It can be laborious getting into or coming out of Kafe District. This is because the traffic from the Southern Park Way that traverses four key roads in Garki and the Central Business District and runs across Mabushi, splinters into four narrow roads at the Life Camp roundabout and hampers traffic for vehicles heading towards Life Camp, Kafe, Gwarimpa, Jabi, Lokogoma and other communities along the International Airport Road.

The Salisu Ilyasu Road that connects parts of Life Camp 1 and 2 and Kafe District is reminiscent of a bottleneck that restricts vehicular flow.

On that corridor are the Spar Market and several estates including Brains and Hammer, Aco Estate, Godab Estate, Chesville Corte, Sunshine Estate, Favourland Estate, Kafe Garden Estate, Marcon Estate, Audi-Kan Beulah, Hill View Estate and Bah Island by Bilaad.

Also in Kafe are many elite schools including JC Best School and the world class Kafe District Market owned by Abuja Investment Company Limited (AICL) and its Italian partners.

Given its constriction the road can barely cater for the residents who on daily basis experience agonising traffic.

The Chairman of Kafe District Stakeholders Forum, Chief Uche Okereke described the traffic at Kafe as very concerning particularly as the district is developing with many estates coupled with the influx of residents.

“Now with the influx of many residents the routes need to be expanded as they are not enough for everybody. Why we understand the way things are with the economy and government and paucity of funds and all of that but for immediate step, there are things that can be done to alleviate the problem now,” Okereke said.

He urged the authority to rehabilitate the damaged portions of the road that slow down traffic, properly mark the road and force drivers to comply with the rules and regulations.

He also harped on strict enforcement of the law against traffic violators, who in spite of the road signs still jump the line and beat the light. He said offenders should be arraigned before a mobile court at that roundabout.

“With regard to the design of the road on the masterplan, you can expand the road a little by having two lanes on one side and two lanes on the other side. It does not have to be the six-lane on the masterplan which I know the FCTA can’t afford now, but at least we can expand this road to accommodate more vehicles. Now the traffic growing up from Life Camp builds up to that roundabout on a single lane that is why the traffic is a problem. If we have six lanes by the time you get to that that roundabout it will ease the traffic on both sides of the road.

“Another thing is about the traffic light. The duration allowed for traffic to flow from Life Camp is not sufficient—about 45 seconds. On this side because you have so many people coming out from here, you need to allow for at least 90 seconds for the traffic to flow so that we don’t have long back off.

“Again there is this traffic light at Catholic Church by Spar Super Market that is not working. Private individuals have tried to do it but government must make traffic accessible by installing traffic light,” Okereke said.

In order to tackle the perennial gridlock on the axis, he suggested that a flyover be constructed across the roundabout in addition to expanding the road to connect Gwarimpa and by creating other roads as well.

“Now in Life Camp there is no other way to come out of places around the Catholic Road because there is no by-pass. FCTA should create new roads to take the traffic away. It must build new roads in that area because it can afford it.

“Even from Canaan Estate going to Gwarimpa, a road that is of less than 6km, there is traffic. Traffic will improve from Life Camp to that side going out. The only accessible road in Life Camp is from Canaan Estate to the Court and that is even a private initiative. Everybody is coming in even from Gwarimpa and Kubwa through this area creating a whole lot of traffic because the place also connects to the airport. They can create a road from Canaan Estate going to Gwarimpa –so that traffic will flow out from Life Camp and improve traffic in Life Camp proper”.

With regard to suggestion that the authority should control the expansion at Kafe where many duplexes and shopping malls are springing up because the development does not commensurate with infrastructure on ground, he said the developments at the district are mostly those entered into with the FCTA, which on its part is obliged to provide primary infrastructure, while the developers provide the secondary infrastructure in the estate they are building.

“But the developers have found themselves without primary infrastructure and they have to keep improving for their business,” Okereke said.

Mpape Chaos

In regular discourse the usual reference when it comes to Mpape is that it is a neglected urban community that breeds crime and where most of the residents live in squalid conditions.

Mpape is a community with the potential to be a tourist destination given its position on a hilly terrain that affords a breathtaking sight of major landmarks in the city ranging from the National Assembly, the Federal Secretariat, the Millennium Tower, National Mosque, National Christian Centre, Transcorp Hilton, the Central Bank, IBB Golf Course and among others. Most parts of Maitama and Asokoro are also visible.

But the roads to Mpape are so bad that business owners are avoiding the area. The only road that leads to the community is the one that branches off the Kubwa Expressway. The community is prone to traffic congestion that stretches from end to end during the peak hours.

Anita, a civil servant, who resides in the community, said she sometimes spends several hours in the traffic whenever she is returning home from work.

She lamented lack of access road in several villages in the community with the exception of, Crushed Rock Road, Arab Construction site and the Galuwyi-Shere Road that is under construction by FCTA.

“We experience agony on daily basis because of the narrowness of the road. There was an occasion when a neighbour of mine needed urgent medical intervention. They used a wheel barrow to evacuate him to the hospital in order to beat the traffic,” Anita said.

But despite its terrible road, choice estates that dot Mpape valley are visible to the left of the road when ascending the community. There is Mopol 24 Cross Court State House Barracks and Maman Vatsa Writers Village. Mpape also provides access to Maitama 2.

Apo Gridlock and the Burden of Development

The Apo District is strategic to the FCT because its expansion will take development right into the centre of Abuja and to the communities on the fringes with Nasarawa State.

However, Apo and its environs are some of the worst impacted areas of the FCT by traffic logjam stemming from the non-completion of the Apo-Karshi road and the Apo-Wassa road that was awarded in 2017 at the cost of N8.2 billion.

The Apo- Wassa road is part of the Outer Southern Expressway (OSEX) that after its completion, will run through Wasa District and Kuje before pulling up at Gwagwalada.

But communities are bearing the grunt as a result of the slow pace of work on the road. Mechanics and traders, who produce a lot of wastes that are deposited on the road, occupy vast stretch of the road. Developers are building up estates along the road with many of them lacking accessible inner roads.

The upscale Shoprite supermarket is along the road just before the Oladipo Diya Road at Apo Akpmajenya Village.

Traffic in that axis is a battle of the fittest with commercial tricycle operators competing for space with other vehicles.

FCTA Blames Roadside Traders for Traffic

The Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement to the Minister of FCT, Ikharo Attah has blamed traders and pantakers operating on the roadside for the perennial traffic gridlock at Mpape and Apo communities.

He pleaded with traders to leave the roadside at Mpappe because the community is a gateway to and from Abuja’s main resettlement community at Galuwyi Shere.

He said the market stretch, structure and structures within 25 metres from the road on both sides must be removed.

“We observed that most people have extended shops and structures multiple times to appoint here they now sit on the road. The demolition of Mpape is long overdue, ” Attah declared.

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