ABUJA TRAFFIC GRIDLOCK, DEFEATS PURPOSE OF RELOCATING CAPITAL OUT OF LAGOS?

One of the principal reasons adduced by the promoters of Abuja, a new Federal capital city, was to de-congest Lagos and establish a new capital city that will be more sanely and orderly. 

Unfortunately it seems that their dream have been aborted as the new capital city, Abuja, instead of just remaining merely the envisaged political capital of Nigeria with elected government officials, bureaucrats, their support staff and very restricted number of the general public, has turned into another mega city, with all manner of people and businesses struggling for the use of the infantile limited amenities and infrastructures currently available therein. One of such over-burden infrastructure are the narrow roads of Abuja (Icheoku used narrow roads in context to what a capital city really deserves) which are now heavily burdened with all sorts of vehicular contraptions. Regrettably, the authorities in Abuja do not seem to be alarmed enough to do something very drastic to address the emerging problem with the urgency and seriousness it deserves and before it reaches the stifling condition that forced the move out of Lagos to Abuja in the first place. 

Pictured above is the cataclysmic essence of daily-life for so many who call Abuja home - a picture which told the wonderful story of a typical day for so many Abujaites. The picture was taken at a time and/or moment when the military jackboots descended on an Abuja road to frisk out Boko Haram and their bombs from the hundreds of thousands who ply that Abuja road? One wonders what type of military would carry out such "stop and search" security operation without first taking into account that such traffic nightmare scenario was a great possibility in the city? Further, seeking out Boko Haram and their bomb amidst this madhouse is akin to locating a needle in a haystack. 

But in Nigeria, leadership is somewhat completely detached from the lead aloof; hence the usual rowdy and disorderly manner of doing things; including constructing roads without taking into account the exploding number of road-users or causing such great inconvenience to attempt nabbing some Boko Haram members and one wonders if those terrorists wear a tattoo on their foreheads? Icheoku laments that Abuja is gradually losing its pristine allure and speedily metamorphosing into another Lagos with its horrendous traffic. It would seem that by relocating to Abuja, the Nigerian government sold a monkey and bought a dog as a trade but forgot that it still has a four-legged creature in its house. A city in gridlock is a city in chains and every effort should be made by the necessary authorities to put some wider lanes or even ten-lane freeways in and out of the city of Abuja; for it to remain attractive and competitive. What a nightmare on Abuja road!