ABUJA ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY VS STREET HAWKERS BY LILIAN NGOZI

A section  of Utako  Market showing  very bad and dirty  environment 

If you are a resident in Abuja, I guess you must have noticed the way and manner AEPA (Abuja Environmental Protection Agency) chase hawkers around the city center. They chase street hawkers, vendors, prostitutes, food sellers, suya sellers etc. What is most irritating is the way and manner they carry out these jobs, posing a huge risk to the lives of these hawkers.  They are already known among the hawkers and therefore, conscious of their appearance any minute, they are always on their guards. Once they are sighted, every one of them scampers to hide, their goods flying in the air as they run. These hawkers can be seen around Wuse, Maitama, Asokoro, Central area, Games village, Lokogoma etc. Ordinarily, one would think that the aim is to keep the city tidy, but what about the satellite towns and areas closer to the city center? Shouldn’t they be allowed to ply their trades there?


What alternative do these hawkers have within the framework of the Federal capital territory?

First, the presence of poverty guarantees that society's "murky work" will be done. Every culture has such work: physically dirty or hazardous, temporary, dead-end and underpaid, humiliating and menial jobs. Society can fill these jobs by providing opportunities to the poor or allow people who have no other choice to do the unskilled and tedious works like hawking, street trading etc.
Now, the question is, how can we alleviate their sufferings while assuring the neatness and sanity of our capital city?

 We can easily conclude that Abuja is the federal capital territory. We can easily remark that such scenes aren’t noticeable around Western cities, but then, have we pondered on the kind of Government operational in those places?  Are their governments honest and sincere in the way they run all-inclusive agenda that guarantee the safety and security of status for the rich while the poor people are given a real chance at earning a brighter financial future?

Someone said that in Europe, things are well planned and arranged; everyone knows where to get what. Agreed, but how is Abuja planned? An Ex FCT minister once said Abuja is not for the poor, and that is a statement of fact.  You can evaluate the cost of accommodation and items of necessity.  Both the accommodation cost and items in the shops are miles ahead when compared to other cities including the erstwhile capital territory, Lagos.

When cities are planned, there are underlining cogent factors that must be taken into consideration. Most developed cities consider the accommodation of lower-working class, unskilled employees who perform many kinds of shoddy tasks for the wealthy and affluent inhabitants of the cities. Such are usually provided with affordable and subsidized housing units by the Government aided Department of Urban Development and Building Construction. In some cases, non-government sectors also take substantive lead in constructing and developing low cost housing units where the poor are expected to pay minimum monthly installments to own the apartment.

 In our case, however, the lower class workers commute from the outskirts to the city center to engage in their daily activities with so little salary at the end of the day. Most of them exhaust the meagre salary they get transporting themselves daily from their residents far from the city to the center where they work.

Today, this hardship has infested our roads with beggars and destitute of all classes. No proper arrangement to tackle the issue of accommodation can be seen anywhere in the pipeline, but like water which will always find its level, people must find a way to survive and one of such moves is to be on the street instead of resorting to criminal activities.

Hence, instead of expending resources chasing them around every day, a lasting solution should be implemented to avoid having a backlash that could result to loss of lives.

There was a reported incident recently where a suya seller who had been regularly terrorized by men of AEPA( Abuja Environment Protection Agency) decided to poison his meat made, let them have their way and it resulted in several AEPA staff being poisoned. Similarly, an okpa (local delicacy)  seller around Wuse market suffered serious injuries  when she fell upon her knife  while trying to evade the AEPA task force  On seeing  whSignage at had happened, they immediately fled the area  leaving her in the pool of her own blood without any emergence assistance. There are several other  incidents involving the excesses AEPA which went unreported. Whoever is in charge of this task force department must show some vision and wisdom in  the ways and manner they carry out their  functions

Utako Market
Utako Market is one of the markets around Federal Capital City (FCC). This is a market that was closed sometime ago to allow for repairs and renovation, but the only visible thing they did was to construct more shops and a few works here and there which did not commensurate with the time taken for the renovation works. The inconveniences were so much that people began to revolt leading to the market being reopened. No road was constructed, the market is so poorly maintained, and security is so poor among other malfunctioning facilities. Yet, every vehicle that comes into the market pays a gate pass of N100 irrespective of how many times you visit the market in a day. They make this much money yet do absolutely nothing with it.

 Corruption and wickedness have eaten deep into our system that we seem not to care about having a decent environment. Sometimes I wonder if we are allergic to beautiful things. The most annoying part is the nonchalant attitude of the security personnel in the market, whose only concern remains the money being collected daily. The control of traffic and parking lots including the security of the cars are also not given adequate attention.  This is the federal capital territory, a model for other cities in Nigeria.

One of the security men at Utako Market idling away  while  car owners park irresponsibly, even  when called upon, they totally ignore and  disregard  the compliant. One asked " na you employ me"

Security men   sitting at their office,  instead  being  at the car park, monitoring happenings around the market. This is a huge security  lapses. 

Signage
Abuja has a very poor signage in this age and time of GPRS. Driving through Highways and roads leading to important places  and  structures throughout the federal capital territory, one can hardly locate strategically placed signposts  directing commuters to their various destinations . Either they are  poorly  placed in some unidentifiable locations or entirely nonexistent. In some cases, signposts indicating the  presence of road bumps are either placed few meters before those bumps or are totally forgotten,  thus jeopardising the lives of road users who are unfamiliar with the terrain.

Another thing I find so disgusting is that our leaders and elites travel abroad, behold how things are done with almost impeccable precision, yet come back and turn blind eyes to our decaying infrastructures. This attitude beats my imagination. Whoever that will be FCT minister, I pray, would be someone with some sane and progressive ideas and visions to perfectly sustain the original master plan of this territory. Abuja is supposed to have 40% development and 60% green area but what do we have today? Buildings springing up from every nook and cranny, most residential houses in Wuse 2 have been turned into shopping complexes. This is what happens when you have money driven men on the seat of authority, otherwise, tell me how Development control will grant approval for just anything.

 I remembered a time that, even when you wanted to construct additional structures within your own compound with your gates locked, Development control would know.  They would mark your house and force work to stop, demolish and remove the illegal structures.

Today, the fences are going higher, the standard has so fallen that sometimes one wonders if this is the Abuja that we knew before?

To preserve our city is our collective responsibility. I am doing my part by speaking out, play your own part  responsibly so that  we will all be grateful when the results start trickling in.

Thank you.
Lilianngoziblog