Nigerian Forms Battle Traffic, Developers in Downtown Abuja

Abuja: Under the traffic dinner from the highway bridge cutting his fields, Bala Haruna inspected Corn, Kasava and Okra in his family’s farm.A pump pulls water from a stream of passes and diverted through the trenches dug through the cropland between four-lane roads-Khels that were long ago from a nearby hotel, with the national mosque or any high-raw that the city used to make Abuja, was also dreamed.42 -year -old Haruna told AFP, “There was no building here,” AFP reminded of his childhood, saying that birds tweeting and harassed the frog.Urban farms in the Nigeria capital have shown the boundaries of the top -down management, known for the planned city – the pockerds scattered around the downtown has become rapidly extended than the long -out.They are very much for their existence to the fact that they lie in hard-based strongholds with creek beds. Even the roads built through them over the years raised the highway overpass.This delicate balance act, however, is growing rapidly in danger, as developers fill in the field despite the rules protecting these areas, which are rare green places in the city known for the spread of concrete.On the other side of the overpass, the future has arrived: the vegetation suddenly stops and the temperature suddenly rises on the fields grip by the construction team.Local farmers said that people who had taken land three years ago had not given any documents and eight of them had given only 300,000 Naira to divide – which is only $ 190 today after years of large -scale inflation.Most of the farms in the city and nearby are considered to be a municipality green place, with neither the fields nor the buildings.But the decades -old Abuja Master Plan’s enforcement is mature with misuse and lack of enforcement, Ismail Nuhu, a researcher of urban rule, who did his PhD on the urban planning of the capital.The feeling of uncertainty is that the land, on paper, belongs to the government. “Politicians still use it to grab the land, just to say, ‘Oh, according to the master plan, it’s not here’,” No matter what the documents really say, he told AFP, he told AFP, technically, even President Villa is not located where it should happen.The federal capital region minister Nyesom Wike, which includes Abuja, recently told reporters that he would “implement” the master plan of the 70s era by constructing the roads and is compensating and eviction of the settlements standing on the way. FCT officials, including Vike’s spokesperson, did not respond to the remarks requests.Urban countries, not enough jobs The fields have provided stable employment – some rapid urbanization country fails to produce enough jobs as a lifeline for some. According to local media, a recent opening for 10,000 government jobs saw 450,000 applicants.Retired Malik Kuje Guni said, “In a very thick, populated city like Abuja, green place is very good.”While tens of thousands of residents pass through the fields without any thought every day, the gunie, when he was working as a civil servant, often came down to travel, enjoying the shadow and fresh air.Now tilting the plot of one of my own potatoes, “I can come down, work, sweat,” 63 -year -old said. “I hope something will come out of it.”Some blocks, squat, wood and sheet informal houses made of metal gives way to an area of ​​sugarcane, corn and banana trees. Glass-Penald Hyrise, Half-Finished Construction and Imarining Bank of the above industry tower.The crops give a way to the ground cleared by the developers a few months ago, some of which pushed into the field of Godwin Evoque and destroyed their banana trees.Evoque, who had quit his security job to earn more money as a farmer 22 years ago, had destroyed parts of his fields twice in the last two years, nor with compensation.For Guni, the farm represent the rural heritage of the city. Despite decades of decades, the Nigeria capital was promised to transfer the crowded, Lagos, a crowded mega-city of Lagos, this step was only in 1991.But neither Evoc, 65, nor Haruna wants their children to continue their work fast.Evoque told AFP, “I wouldn’t want my children stand under the sun.” “I only use what I am receiving here … to make sure that my children go to school.”