NICE Abuja embarks on Campaign to Restore Abuja Master-plan; Seek Citizenry

The Nigerian Institution of Civil Engineers, a division of Nigerian Society of Engineers, Abuja Chapter has organised a sensitization campaign on the restoration of Abuja Infrastructure Master-plan and protection of the City’s Environment. The Chairman noted that the guiding Masterplan of Abuja city is gradually being distorted while the city’s infrastructures are being damaged. The city was expected to provide leadership to other states across the country as the role model city.

“The city was planned in the late 1970s and is one of the few cities in the world that was completely planned prior to construction and planned specifically to be a national capital. It was planned after the construction of Brasilia and Canberra, the capitals of Brazil and Australia respectively; indeed, the designs of those two cities gave both inspiration and “lessons learned” to the designers of Abuja.

Like Canberra and Brasilia, Abuja is a purpose built Capital city located at the centre of Nigeria. Even though the city is growing rapidly, it is much more orderly, a lot less congested, less crime ridden and less polluted than the prior capital, Lagos. It is an attractive city with minimal eyesores, flowering bougainvillea and other exotic greenery conceal the high walls and razor wire that protect Abuja’s many attractive office towers, apartment buildings and villas dotting the landscape.

The main focal point of the city remains Aso Rock, a granite monolith that towers over the gleaming green dome of Nigeria’s new National Assembly building. Abuja is a convenient jumping-off point for visits to all other parts of Nigeria. The city is already the focal point of diplomatic activity in Africa’s most populous nation.

Despite the great efforts being made by the Federal Capital Development Authority to make Abuja a DREAM CITY, some unscrupulous and unconscionable elements are bent on turning this dream into an illusion. Their activities have degenerated beyond the bounds of propriety and good taste; hence pose a great danger to the efforts of government and the lives of the residents of the FCT.

Some of these activities include – stealing of communication cables, stealing of manhole and drain covers, stealing of bridge railings, dumping of refuse in drains, burning of refuse on roads, cutting of bridge embankments as walkways, stealing of street lighting solar panels, etc. These are acts of wickedness and should never be condoned…Protection of critical public infrastructures should be the business of every responsible Nigerian; all hands must be on deck.