The planned relocation of the sprawling Nyanyan town, (sorry, labour camp), is an action indeed long awaited and long overdue. All along, it has been a known fact that the Nyanyan situation needed some sanitising, but factually no other action could be more appropriate than relocation.
Those of us who held that view have been vindicated by the evolution of the camp as the ‘archilles heel’ in the Fct fight against various shades of criminalities and the recent but most devastating incidence of terrorism. Recent disclosure by the Federal Capital Teritory Administration to totally demolish and relocate the neighborhood to a new purpose-built and expansive area, Gidan Daya is akin to belling the cat afterall. The lessons here are unmistakable. This singular decisiveness presupposes that the FCT minister is a man with an engaging conscience and upholds the triumph of right over wrong, even when it may be considered politically disastrous to be right.
The Nyanya labour camp which came into being some 30 years ago was designed as a makeshift residential quarters for the staff of the construction companies involved in the early construction works and development of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. As was planned, the Nyanya camp would be dismantled and put to other more appropriate use once exigencies of the early construction as related challenges have been solved.
Contrary to the original plans, the camp surged taking in slum and shanties, straining structures and facilities to the limit as population continually grew. In consequence, there have been monstrous implications of political, security, economic, humanitarian and institutional dimension which altogether have dismantlement and relocation as necessary and remedial measure.
It is no consolation that pockets of decency and urban culture exist. For the most part, Nyanya camp is given to an intolerable tension and unsavory mannerism. One will not be far from the truth to say that the Nyanya labour camp yielded to a civilizational failure with serious demeaning effect.
Nyanya is where garbage is heaved on to the street as it builds up. In Nyanya, motor cyclist or Okada riders troop on to the main road adding to traffic snarl ups, ugly plastered walls are a common sight. Stray animals running onto the main road is another common situation and a whole lot of things that are unthinkable in most capital cities of the world.
In the meantime, Nyanya became the sore spot of the FCT, providing rooms for prostitution to thrive at a time when commercial sex hawkers were banished from the metropolis; street hawking and its traffic snarl-up effect, and other sort of hideous crimes. Environmental pollution and degradation also arise from over-tasked and blown up sewages, gullies flooding attends the wanton and reckless erections of structures in alleys, water paths are all reason for which the continuity of Nyanya in its present form would definitely expose the FCT to greater evil in no distant future.
In the past, there have been efforts aimed at sanitising the camp through several measures, including the demolition of some structures, re-arrangement of garages and ejections of some quarters but evidently, finding a lasting solution to the problem requires more than just that.
The recent security challenges that have bedeviled the country has, indeed, necessitated the dismantlement and relocation of the Nyanya labour camp as a priority.
The Nyanyan labour camp has obviously presented the terrorist with soft targets as experiences so far have proven. The dense population of the area which is attributed to the general affordability of accommodation in the area is also a source of worry in the light of terrorism as whenever attacks are carried out, the casualty’s figures could be dangerously high.
Another dimension to the concern is that if unregulated, wanton and willful springing of structures in the areas, may well be exploited by terrorists to take up residence in the midst of ordinary citizens and thus, increase the exposure to terrorism.
The FCT minister has expressed his administration’s determination to protect the lives and properties of every citizen of FCT, a fact attested by many people oriented initiatives that have been put in place. Unarguably, there is every need to uphold the city’s resilience against terrorism and to sustain the citizens high-morale through programmes that satisfy the aspirations of all the strata of the society.
MUSA WADA FROM ABUJA