By TPL Umar Shuaibu
Abuja now boast of numerous and exquisite supermarkets. Such as Shoprites, Grand Square, the Sahads, 4U, Spar Market, the H-Medixs, PrinceEbeano, the Value Marts and many others, too numerous to mention. Others are semblance of Nigerian local markets. They include Wuse, Garki Ultra-Modern, Utako and other markets.
All these notwithstanding, they don’t stop the City residents from jetting out to the local weekly markets in the sub-urbs and outside the territory for many of their important household needs.
The more Abuja grows the more the local weekly markets outside the City also grow in size. Typical of these markets are those of Gwagwa and Karmo within the Municipal Area Council in the FCT. By extension, there are others outside the FCT in places like Suleja, Madalla, Diko and Lambata in Niger State, and Mararaba, Uke and Keffi in Nasarawa State.
The locations of these local markets are mostly along major roads with accompanying environmental hazards, due to poor planning with dearth or poor control and management. Travelling through the Gwagwa, Karmo and Madalla on market days are constantly horrific. Traffic gridlock can be as long as kilometers, most especially if there are accidents or broken down vehicles on critical spots, which are usually frequent.
Medical practitioners give us very important health tips. That, to a greater extent, our wellbeing depends on what we grew up eating from our infancy. Any introduction of feeds, different from whatever our body mechanism has already been used to, will trigger reactions that will be inimical to our health. Localfood stuff and other household needs are not only cheaper outside the City, but would also be processed to our usual preferences in a manner that would not be obtained at the City exquisite markets.
Depending on our diets of preference, there are processes that are required before the food is laid on the table. Those who eat local grains and vegetables require grinding. Such services would not be obtained at the supermarkets. While at the Metropolitan Management Council we had cause to intervene on conflicts with aggrieved residents who complain of unauthorized operation of very noisy grinding machines by their neighbours.
These are not because of planning failure, but failure in implementation. It must be understood that, the cultural pluralism of Nigeria suggests that the city plan must simultaneously permit the different segments of the Nigerian population to maintain an important degree of continuity with their social and cultural traditions while encouraging, where appropriate, amalgamation of the various streams of urban tradition and lifestyle into a new and common modern Nigerian urban context.
The neighbourhood concept of Abuja, which is compatible to our tradition as Nigerians, is among the things that gave her those unique characteristics that are lacking in other capital cities of the world. The benefits of the neighbourhood concept recommended for the city transcends down from the high income that can afford to operate expensive shops and offices in commercial complexes at the busy city and district centers to the low income that can afford only convenient shops at the neighbourhoodcentres.
Among the functions of the neighbouhood center is to provide the essential local needs of the residents including all those items and services that propels the residents to seek at the local markets outside the City. The elder statesman, Alhaji Lawal Idris, used to request me to get him our local water yam along the way anytime I was visiting him in Kaduna.
It was identified that a major short comings in the past planning for Nigerian cities has been the failure to recognize and accommodate the indigenous patterns of urban organization and adaptation already present in the country. The Abuja Master plan specifically stated that the new capital city of Nigeria must preserve and build on that which is unique and valuable in Nigerian’s urban tradition.
The Masai traditional market in Nairobi and the weekly plebeian market at the Liverpool Street London were established to satisfy the needs and tastes of the City residents desirous of maintaining their local and traditional needs. Unfortunately, the exquisite ultra-modern markets provided at the neighbourhood centres are contrary to the plan concept, diverse from the local needs of typical Nigerians and services unaffordable to the common citizens. We have unfortunately drifted to the undesirable pattern which the Abuja Master plantried to avoid.
The problem arose from the City Land use plan that allows the commercial lands in Neighbouhood Centers for use as modern supermarkets and office complexes, instead of developments that can accommodate simple convenient shops that could make the items affordable to the immediate neighborhoods. They are not expected to cross any arterial road for such needs as the plan envisaged.
Perhaps, it was for avoidance of these challenges that made the first neighbourhood centers in the City, the ones in Area I and II, Garki I District to be built by the public. We would like to suggest to the Authority to address these aspects in the next Abuja Master Plan review, after taking stocks.
