Minister Mohammed Bello was called before the House of Representatives on Tuesday to explain the deteriorating infrastructure and increasing insecurity in the nation’s capital under his leadership.
Lawmakers’ rage occurred at a time when Abuja and its environs residents were accusing FCT Administration and the six area councils of doing little to improve or maintain the territory’s current infrastructure.
In the last few years, the garbage collection system has collapsed, the sewage systems have been blocked, and criminals have been terrorizing the residents of the city.
People living in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have complained that security and traffic lights aren’t working, transportation is unregulated, and illegal parks have sprung up in many areas.
Legislators are on edge, to say the least.
Deputy Minority Leader Toby Okechukwu introduced a motion of urgent public importance, but several members of the House of Representatives voiced their opposition to it during yesterday’s plenary session.
Obafemi Okechukwu raised “grave concerns” about the lack of and poor management of infrastructure in Abuja when he introduced the motion titled ‘Urgent need to arrest the fast deterioration of the Federal Capital Territory’ in the Nigerian parliament.
Concerns about the worsening waste management practices in the FCT, including a lack of and poor maintenance of waste treatment plants, were raised by him, despite claims by the Minister of State for the FCT, Ramatu Tijani Aliyu, that N8 billion was being set aside each year for waste management in the FCT, according to him.
As a result of the influx of bandits and other criminals, lack of modern security infrastructures in the city center and satellite towns, and non-maintenance of existing ones, including CCTV installations and as little as streetlights, Abuja has never been as unsafe as it is today. Rep. Okechukwu also noted that “The House notes with concern the poor city management bedevilling the FCT resulting in obvious decay.”
Aside from that, he expressed “serious concern” about the indiscriminate allocation of land in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) without the necessary infrastructure.
The recent kidnappings of University of Abuja lecturers and the mysterious disappearance of a Vanguard reporter, according to him, are proof of how dangerous the Federal Capital Territory has become.
There is a lack of infrastructure and citizens resorting to self-help in a territory that should be a model of rural development in Nigeria, according to Rep. Okechukwu.
There have been “far-reaching consequences” since Bello’s reappointment as FCT minister in 2019, he said, “including the non-appointment of Mandate Secretaries (equivalents of commissioners) to form the FCT Executive Council.”
That’s why the House of Representatives, he urged, should resolve to summon the minister to appear before the Committee of the Whole House to address the above-mentioned issues.
Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila made a ruling on the motion to call the FCT minister to appear in front of the House, which was approved by voice vote of the members of the house.
Minister’s appearance date was kept a secret.
‘The Minister will comply with the request’
Minister Abdullahi Sanni, the government’s Senior Special Adviser on Media, said that the House of Representatives or the National Assembly can summon the minister on any issue, which he will comply with, when asked about it
As he sees it, the National Assembly serves as the FCT Administration’s state of assembly, and the minister could be summoned at any time to appear before it.
However, he refused to elaborate further on the matter.
Filth and thugs abound.
According to a civil servant in Abuja, officials of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) were always on top of their jobs because they frequently cleaned up the city. However, things have changed since then.
Before now, AEPB even hired private refuse collectors to clean up the city, but the opposite is true,” she said.
Mr Jimoh Alhassan, a commercial driver, said the situation in the FCT was worse during the rainy season because drainage systems were not properly managed.
Whenever it rained, you could see major roads submerged because the drainage and gutters were clogged with trash. The situation was so bad, he said.
Garki resident Ayoni Olatunbosun noticed that the street light system had also gone out.
Because of a breakdown in the city’s street lighting system, she lamented the lack of visibility on major thoroughfares at night.
There are a lot of traffic lights that work for a short period of time and then stop working, and the result is that there are a lot of accidents at dangerous intersections,” she explained.
Some residents also complained about the Kwali Waterworks, which supplies water to Kwali metropolis residents for the past four years. They said that this situation had caused severe suffering to residents.
An individual who lives in Kwali claims that the Kwali Waterworks were built four years ago, but collapsed a year later.
“And since the waterworks haven’t worked in Kwali town for nearly three years now, most of the town’s residents go to the river to get their water,” he said.
Another Kwali resident, Joshua Bako, lamented the administration’s abandonment of the Kwaita-Yebu road.
Farmers, who usually transport their crops to Abaji or the Kwali market, find the Kwaita-Yebu a nightmare during the rainy season, he said.
If you visit some of these villages during the dry season, finding drinking water is always a challenge,” a Bwari resident tells CNN. Even digging boreholes in some of these villages, I haven’t seen the government do anything to address these issues.
Security was a major concern for many FCT residents, who felt the administration had done little to stop bandits from operating in and around the territory.
Bandits fleeing conflict in the northern states are reportedly setting up camp in the forests around rural communities in the territory.
People in Zukpatu, Gadoro, Achimbi, Pesu, Duda and Pani in the Kuje area of the FCT told Daily Trust that the fleeing bandits had set up camps in the area.
Villagers who spoke to one of our reporters said that the bandits had warned them not to reveal their hideouts to the authorities.
In the Gaube neighborhood, a man who identified himself only as Ibrahim called for immediate assistance.
More than 30 people were kidnapped between September and the beginning of this month, according to the Daily Trust.
According to one of the rescued kidnapped victims in the Pegi axis of Abuja, “Government needs to do something quickly before the situation gets out of hand because of what I saw….” It occurred to me how these armed criminals were able to get into such remote locations.”
Security personnel were urged to step up their game by him. When he spoke, he said, “If we don’t get it right in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which is the symbol of our nationhood, no place in Nigeria will be safe.”
