The Abuja Master Plan must not be subordinated to plot-allocation pressures, writes PAT ONUKWULI
Abuja was conceived as the triumph of planning over disorder. Yet after recent deluges turned Wuse II, Maitama, Gudu, Lokogoma, Wuye and major arterial roads into temporary rivers, the capital faces a paradox: a city designed for order is producing hydrological chaos.
This is not merely a drainage problem. It is a philosophy-of-development problem. Francis Bacon’s old admonition remains painfully relevant: “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.” Abuja is experiencing the reverse. Where concrete is obeyed, water responds; where absorptive land becomes profitable plots, rainfall turns roads into channels. In Greek mythology, hubris was invariably followed by Nemesis. Urban planning has its own Nemesis: water remembers every natural path from which it has been expelled.
Abuja’s flooding must be distinguished from Lagos’. Lagos is a low-lying coastal metropolis vulnerable to sea-level rise, land subsidence, storm surges and extreme rainfall. Abuja sits inland amid hills and rocky formations. Its risk differs. Intense rainfall descends rapidly from elevated terrain, gathers speed and becomes destructive runoff. Water from Mpape and the surrounding hills naturally flows towards lower ground through Maitama, Wuse and adjoining districts.
