For many who live in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, it is disappointing that there are street lights that hardly ever function. UGBOJA FELIX OJONUGWA writes that this situation has residents apprehensive especially with growing security concerns in the city.
Most times, a drive around Abuja at night makes one feel no different from being in a city without any street light poles at all. It is a vast plunge into darkness.
While a few major streets do have their lights turned on at night, 90 per cent of Abuja’s streets are only navigable if your vehicle head lamps are super sharp and radiant. And it is not uncommon to see many dilapidated taxis without a set of functioning head lamps moving around Abuja.
Many are of the opinion that the situation has not only increased the number of motor accidents at night, but has really presented criminals with a platform to rob and cause mayhem in the city. And no thanks to the national security situation, one would only wonder why city authorities can afford to maintain such level of negligence for such a long time.
Recently, the Department of State Security (DSS) discovered that the dreaded Boko Haram terrorist group have been able to establish some sleeper cells in Abuja in a bid to carry out an attack. Sleeper cells help carry out surveillance activities in the city in order to discover soft targets for attacks. It doesn’t take rocket science to understand that a city without functional street lights would create more room and freedom for terror operations.
“There are some streets here in Abuja that I have never ever seen the lights come on.” Said Maina Abdul, who lives on a street in Garki area of the city. “I wonder why the poles are still standing. On some other streets, the light would either come up once in a while or it will just be about 3 lights out of about 50 that will come on.” He added.
On a street in Zone 6, located in Wuse area of the city, Adama Judith, a banker had fallen victim many a time to criminals who lurk in the dark streets.
“I get robbed on this street at least once every week because I am always returning late from work. There is no protection for us on this street at all. We have reported to the police, but their patrol vehicles are only here once in a while. This place has become a hide out for criminals because they know that it is a dark street where the lights are never on. Even my neighbour’s car was snatched from her about a week ago by the same hoodlums.” She said.
According to other residents of the area, the situation would be far less than it was if the lights would ever come on. At least with the street lights on, they can carry out environmental vigillance themselves, but that has become very impossible.
On another street in Jabi area of the city, it has been an endless re-occurence of vehicle head-on collissions every night. According to Onobi Michael, who lives on the street, “it has been a harvest of blood on this street for the past one year.”
On Adetokunbo Ademola crescent in Wuse, motor accidents are also bound to occur every night during the weekends, especially when city night-life lovers who must be driving under the influence cannot even see anything but mere darkness at that time.
In some areas, the streets light poles are even broken and dilapidated. In fact, many residents have argued that at no time is the situation as bad as now. Gradually, many street lights in Abuja are becoming historical relics to serve as a reminder of a once functional city.
From LEADERSHIP Sunday’s findings the situation has been made worse by stoppage of payments to streetlights’ maintenance contractors. The contractors, consequently, abandoned the job since September. There are also reports about poor power supply, but even some streets with solar- powered lights are no better either.
In April this year, the publisher of DESERT HERALD newspaper, Mallam Tukur Mamu, while speaking with a LEADERSHIP reporter, raised a number of issues about the FCT administration. One of those issues include the poor state of the city street lights.
Mamu raised a concern about the person or persons that benefitted from the controversial Abuja streetlights multi-billion naira contracts over the last six years and why the nation’s capital remains in the dark despite the billions.
Mamu who clearly indicted the immediate past minister of FCT, Sen. Bala Muhammad of mis-administration asked that “We will also like to know why they only chose to rush substandard streetlights installation after losing the 2015 election which they (ministry) questionably spent N500 million on.”
Investigating more about the issue led Leadership Sunday to the office of the Director of Facility Maintenance at the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA). The treatment received by our reporter was hostile to say the least. After spending at least 10 hours a whole week waiting to see the director, our reporter was surprised when the director who wouldn’t give his name brushed him off insisting that he had nothing to say.
“You are here to ask about the state of the street lights? And so what?” Said the Director in a harsh tone while walking out of his office.
Our reporter insisted on getting answers to his questions, and the director in terse words only claimed that the street lights were not functioning because “our transformers have been vandalised by hoodlums, but we are already fixing the problem.” He said.
If there is any impression left by the Director’s reaction, it is that there is more to the issue than meets the eye.
Only recently, the new FCT Minister, Muhammad Bello, undertook a late night tour of the city and came face-to-face with the ugly situation. Like we did, he met broken down streetlights around the city.
As was expected, the minister asked for explanations, and the Executive Secretary of Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Mr Adamu Ismaila, stated that he had to adopt drastic measures in the maintenance of the streetlights on Airport and Kubwa expressways because of their priority status and security implication. He disclosed that officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) were engaged for constant surveillance along the routes to keep vandals away.
Of course, the minister was given other reasons, but he expressed dissatisfaction with some of the reasons given for the non functioning status of the streetlights.
He then directed the officials of Abuja Municipal Management Council (AMMC) and the FCDA to immediately liase with the FCT Permanent Secretary, Dr Babatope Ajakaiye in order to bring all the streetlights across the city to a functional status.
The minister tasked the officials to be proactive in tackling the challenges. “Quite frankly, the city is very dark. The city was much brighter than this in the past; instead of improvement, it appears we are going backwards and this is certainly not acceptable.” He said, while also adding that “Keeping the city bright enhances its beauty, eases the job of the security agencies in securing it and also makes it easy for residents to come out in the night without any fear of being attacked.”
From LEADERSHIP Sunday’s findings, there is a high level of apprehension among the dwellers of the beautiful city about how ‘things are beginning to fall apart’. And fair enough, that is in consonance with the minister’s opinion. According to him, lighting up the city is as paramount as keeping it secure and clean.
As Abuja is thrown into darkness at night, the obvious consequences have been anything but good for the members of the city, whether they are living in the suburbs or highbrows, there is a common desire and demand for the city to have infrastructures that will also work, and it all bore down to authorities taking responsibility.
Abuja: A Capital City In Darkness
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