Revisiting memories that made no sense — Part 1
Abuja is a very fascinating city. For a city that is hyped and glorified for being Nigeria’s best planned city, it is really just a gentrified enclave that seeks to push everything that is unreflective of affluence to the outskirts of its borders. Take Federal Government College Kwali for instance, a unity school I briefly attended for three years: located along Abuja — Lokoja Expressway, twenty minutes from Gwagwalada, F.G.C Kwali probably has one of the most unpleasant layout and planning I have seen in the country — and I have seen a few. For context, I attended FGC Odogbolu in Ogun State for a period, and I also visited other boarding schools for either inter school competitions or whenever they were used as remote centers for external exams like JAMB. And for the sake of full disclosure, I should also state that my recollections of F.G.C Kwali dates as far back as circa 2005–2008, and I haven’t been back there since I left. So Perhaps, the place now looks like a paradise. But much of my musings and submissions are based on what Abuja was at the time, what other Unity schools were at the time, what F.G.C Kwali was at that time in comparison to the affluence of its host city, what it was in comparison to other unity schools, and what it could or should have been.
My difficulties in accepting that abysmal reality of what it was, also had nothing to do with the staff and students — they were amazing for the most part and have negligible roles, if any, in the funding, planning and execution of the Kwali project. So what then? You see, the whole concept of “Unity Colleges” — much like its twin brother called The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) program — was to help begin as early as childhood the process of fostering national integration and unity for a country that was already deeply fractured along ethnic and religious lines. It was supposed to be a melting pot of sorts for all the myriads of belief systems and cultures that exist within the country’s border — but alas, these programs rarely achieve what they were created to do, because there are other usually submerged issues we have refused to address as a country.
Abuja has three unity colleges, out of which Federal Government College Kwali is the only Co-ed unity college — the other two being single sex colleges. So ideally, I don’t think I am too off-center in my expectations that the only Co-ed unity college in the nation’s capital and model city should also be the “model unity college” in terms of everything. No? I am tempted to say “This is Nigeria” after all and education has never been something any government of the day has been accused of being serious about. But here is the problem with that broad brush stroke, I attended F.G.C odogbolu before I transferred to Kwali. FGC Odogbolu or Fedgco (pronounced fair-go) as we popularly called it in spite of some of its shortcomings — which I shall speak about at a later date — had one of the best layouts and structures I have ever seen. It was well planned and for the most part had a very conducive environment to carry out the task of studying. The assembly hall alone is probably bigger than the auditorium of some of your mega churches — and really that’s how it should be. So the irony of Kwali, sitting in the nation’s capital, yet unqualifying to be the nation’s model unity college befuddles me. But I live in Abuja, I understand the mood of the city, I understand the overt and covert class divide perpetuated by both the “middle and upper class” on the “middle and lower class” of the city. A city that largely ignores its fringe neighborhoods and everything contained within those places regardless of whatever name it bears.
When you drive out of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, on your way to Abuja town from the airport junction, there is a village called Sauka on the right. If you have been to the Nigerian Immigration Headquarters along the Airport road, you are probably familiar with the name Sauka. I remember several years ago during the demolition sprees season by the FCT administration, Sauka was earmarked for demolition. However through mediation, politics and the strategic location of the new NIS headquarters and that of several other parastatals that were all to be relocated from their makeshift locations in town to their permanent site in this area, it was then decided it was best to wall it off from the road than demolish Sauka. I have always thought that was an interesting approach, but frankly speaking I think it was the smarter move. Nigeria is a complicated place, I admit, and I do agree the solutions to its problems might be equally complicated. But there is something about that move that also rubs one off the wrong way — in a bid to exercise the “Abuja master plan”, it sometimes seems like lower income earners are not factored into that master plan. Another fascinating thing was the location of the old city gate excluding and failing to encompass places like Gwagwalada, Kwali, Abaji, Kuje, Lugbe. If these environs are outside the city gate, are they not then part of the city? I guess one can say they are part of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), but not necessarily part of Abuja city. I find all of this interesting.
In Nigeria we have this problem of just painting over rusted issues and equating that to solving them. We try to modernize where we should be trying to industrialize. There’s so much fuss about how Abuja looks, and little talk about how the low income earners can afford these modernities. The Island-Mainland divide you see in Lagos is trifle when you compare it to the pervasive class divide in Abuja. If you stay in these so called inner cities and fringe neighborhoods, chances are, it’s you doing most of the trips into the city to visit friends who live there for hangouts and not vice-versa. The story of Abuja is the story of Lagos and also the story of Nigeria. Although not a problem that is exclusive to Nigeria, but it is one of comical irony where the upper class seeks to ensure that there is a divide between classes, but yet fails to put systems in place that ensures everyone lives decently in their own bubble. For urban development to work for all in a sustainable way, modernization of suburbs has to be done in consonance with the approximate modernization of inner cities. The obvious disadvantage of lopsided development is the pressure it puts on urban areas in terms of vehicular traffic, housing and cost of living. It is not sustainable for Lagos to be the economic hub of the country, it is not sustainable for one to have to live on the “right” side of the third mainland bridge for one to be upwardly mobile, it is not sustainable for residents living in Kwali, Abaji, Gwagwalada, Kuje, Kubwa, Lugbe to have to commute to Central District Abuja to watch a movie at the cinema. Why doesn’t Gwagwalada for instance — an economically viable and vibrant city with a sizable population — have its own cinema? The only sustainable approach to urban development is the multiplicity of economic hubs.
