An estimated 10 000 newly homeless Nigerians awoke on Tuesday in Chika, a squatter settlement in the country’s capital, Abuja, after being forced to sleep in the open following the destruction of their homes by government bulldozers.
The bulldozers had on Monday pulled down more than 1 500 houses built illegally in the area. The destruction was following by looting as the possessions of families were plundered.
”We have no place to go to and we have no money to hire houses elsewhere. Rents are so high in Abuja that the poor cannot afford to stay in the city centre,” one local who slept in the open said.
About 350 000 residents were ordered by the government in 2004 to vacate the area for the construction of a technology village.
While many left the area, thousands stayed behind in the belief that the government would not move in immediately, or that it was another ploy by officials to displace them and share the land between themselves.
”We got the quit notice, but since it was not the first time, we did not know that this government would be the one to drive us back to our villages,” said another homeless resident.
”We staged a peaceful protest earlier in the month, asking the government to provide us [with] alternative sites around Abuja … the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nasir El-Rufai, said there was no going back on the decision to demolish our houses,” he added.
Abuja, Nigeria’s new capital of about 8 000 square kilometres, was established in 1976 by the regime of army General Olusegun Obasanjo following a decision that the former capital, Lagos, was no longer adequate.
Development did not start in the territory until 1980 and between 1980 and 1999, when Obasanjo was again elected president, squatter settlements and townships had sprung up around Abuja as a result of migration by Nigerians to their new capital.
Many such settlements have been pulled down by the Obasanjo administration to pave the way for modern development and, officials say, to avoid repeating the mistakes that marred development in Lagos. — Sapa-DPA