TITLE:
Abuja: Nigeria’s Spatial Economic Turmoil and Urban Development Disarray
AUTHORS:
Bons N. Obiadi, A. M. Ezezue, Peter Umo Uduak
KEYWORDS:
Spatial, Urbanization, Economy, Housing, Population
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.7 No.3,
September
19,
2019
ABSTRACT: Abuja, Nigeria as a befitting Federal Capital
Territory, centrally located, without the defects of Lagos was spawned in 1975.
The site was chosen for its location at the center of the nation, its small
population and for political reasons. In the process, a Master Plan was
developed. However, subsequent governments in Abuja abused the integrity of the
Master Plan and that resulted in Abuja urbanization and housing inadequacy. The
most vulnerable is that, the urban poor had
to arrange, on their own, where to live and that resulted in shanty
settlements, hence “spatial dialectics,” informal volumetric and unvolumetric
combination now called the “spatial house”, “open house” or “house without
limit”. This work aimed to document the problems associated with inappropriate
implementation of the Abuja Master Plan that resulted in Abuja urbanization and
housing inadequacy and proffers solutions to the Abuja housing problems. The
authors adopted content based analysis, qualitative
research method that involved data from primary and secondary sources. The
Abuja Master Plan was elaborated to put in place, sustainable urban spatial
environment for all groups and activities to be carried out in the Capital
Territory. It provided low-income settlement areas, to be built by the
government and occupied by the public servants; the private sector servants did
not appear to be properly provided for. The current Abuja housing settlements
are not integrated. There is need for the formal, informal settlements and the
Abuja urban actors to be talking and link with the Central City infrastructure
to create a diverse economy and economic empowerment of all.