By Udoh Chidozie Ernest
Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city is one of the fastest growing capital cities in the world. It has also started becoming one of the world’s costliest cities in the likes of London, Beijing and Washington among others.
Since inauguration as capital city, Abuja has remained a city where land is gold resulting in high costs for rents, commodities, transportation and other services. Currently, rents in Abuja for private and commercial purposes are ranked as the highest in the country.
Residents and visitors to the city are under heavy burden as they have to cope with high costs that have continued to rise by the day.
Apart from the city center which has become an exclusive reserve for the rich made up of top government functionaries and political office holders and their numerous aides and other cronies, costs in the satellite and shanty towns are also on the increase as landlords have already hiked rents since the increase in price of fuel was announced by government. This is in addition to the hike in transport fares that followed the fuel price increase.
In the face of the hardship and prevalent cash crunch in the city, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) recently introduced the controversial park and pay system in the city.
Proposed for implementation through Integrated Parking Services Limited (IPS), the authorities will now subject motorists to the burden of paying for parking their vehicles on roads even after paying to use the roads through motor licensing system and their income taxes.
Though the FCTA said the idea was aimed at curbing illegal parking and maintenance of clean environment devoid of traffic congestion, there are insinuations that it has been designed to stop the poor from driving on Abuja roads.
The system which compels motorists to pay a specific amount of money depending on the hours or minutes he or she spends wherever he parks has penalties for defaulters ranging from wheel clamp, car pound, and demurrage.
Motorists are to pay N50 for 30mins, N100 for 1 hour, N150 for 2hours, N650 for 12 hours and so on; but one may decide to purchase a scratch card if he does not fancy paying per hour.
The baby programme which is the first of its kind in Nigeria and which is to enforce on-street parking on controlled parking zones, within the markings of the bay, has been described by many as another way of extorting money from them which consequently brought the question of where the accrued revenue goes.
The decision to introduce the scheme came even when there are not enough transport facilities as obtainable in other world cities where it is practiced.
Recently, the FCTA commissioned the 300 high capacity buses that are diesel driven, donated by the Federal Government, to the FCTA, which are to operate within the city centre and its satellite towns, and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Senator Bala Mohammed, pledged to subsidize it to the tune of N3 billion.
In his words, "I am delighted to inform you that the FCT administration is ready and willing to subsidize operations of the bus mass transit scheme to the tune of N3 billion to ensure that the scheme is sustainable, while the fare is affordable".
However, barely two weeks after the pledge with only few buses on the roads, the on-street parking scheme has commenced. This has forced residents in the FCT to jump to the conclusion that the N3 billion mass transit subsidy and the on-street parking system was like giving them a gift with the right hand, and collecting it from them with the left hand.
While private car owners will bear much of the brunt on the new policy, it appears that it would be a case of one man’s food being the other’s poison as it would result in brisk business for commercial motorists since most private car owners may resort to not using their vehicles much around the city center.
There are apprehensions that the commercial motorists might further hike their fares as there might be an upsurge of commuters on the streets. This is also expected to lead to increases in other costs in the FCT especially for the middle class residents.
Though the park and pay system is expected to kick off in certain areas of the city, especially the high brow areas, it was gathered that there might be a steady extension until it gets to all areas in the city including to the satellites towns in the near or far future.
The plan is coming on the heels of moves by the authorities to dismantle illegal shanties in the FCT. It was gathered that the authorities had planned to commence a massive restoration of the Abuja master plan in which will see to the demolition of all shanty towns in the city.
This will result in harsher economic conditions for the current residents of the area as they might not cope with the new costs that would come with development and might as such be forced to move.
However, some motorists interviewed, especially the commercial motorists have described the pack and pay plan as a good one that will decongest the city and help curb traffic but most private car owners are not comfortable with the idea.
Describing it as a good policy, Abdulahi Lawal, a commercial motorist, said it will help decongest the city but feared that the money from the scheme would not be used for further development of the city.
While it is obvious that Nigerians are very resilient people that have the unique feature of adapting to most difficult situations, the new policy may cause some bad blood between residents and the FCTA as some motorists may end up resisting moves to get them to pay.
On the whole, critics view the policy as expedient for a mega city like Abuja but they are quick to argue that such can only flourish if other transport facilities such as railways and mega city integrated transport systems were in place in the city.
However, in the mean time, residents of Abuja must begin to brace up for higher costs in the near future.
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