• Abuja traders turn footbridges to ‘superstores’ as demolitions hit FCT
From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
Empty at daytime, busy at night. That is one succinct way to describe most pedestrian bridges in Abuja.
From dawn to dusk, the overpasses are used for the purposes they were built, for pedestrian crossing. But from dusk to about 11pm, these facilities literally turn into markets. Traders who cannot afford to rent shops scramble for spaces to flaunt their wares.
Impatient pedestrians, who are not ready to wade through jam-packed footbridges, race across the busy expressways. They don’t only risk their lives, but also the lives of motorists that may run into them.
This is in addition the relentless demolition of shanties, shops, houses and other unapproved structures by the Federal Capital
Territory Administration (FCTA) in recent times, which ballooned the population of traders without shops.
Their nightmares do not end with lack of shops. They must no hawk their goods in the metropolis because it is outlawed.
To survive, the hapless traders flood footbridges with their goods to make brisk sales within a four-hour window (7-11pm). It has become a sink or swim situation. Within this timeframe, the roving FCTA task force officials would have knocked off for the day.
But the attraction for both the sellers and shoppers is mutual. The cheaper prices (as the cost of shop rental is eliminated) are the main attraction of shoppers. The high number of willing buyers guarantees a high rate of turnover for the sellers.
The footbridges rapidly morphing into superstores are the NNPC pedestrian crossing in Kubwa, Dei-dei, Zuba, Lugbe and many others on the Abuja Airport Road.
At the Lugbe bus stop, just at the Federal Housing car wash, there is usually gridlock caused by night shoppers shopping for items including thrift wears, foodstuff, fruits, shoes and handbags.
At the NNPC Kubwa footbridge, virtually all household goods and clothes are sold there. Food and groceries are also available.
Mike Akala, a trader at the bridge said: “I have been selling here for three years now. I sell flea clothes, pre-owned clothes from overseas.
They are mostly sports wears like joggers, canvases, t-shirts and sometimes, jeans.
I have an arrangement with a tricycle operator, Sani, who brings my stuff here and takes me home when done. My okrika T-shirts are just N1,000 each. Joggers, N2,000, singlet N800. People do rush.
“Business is good because my goods are cheaper and as such, many people rush me. Some even have my phone number and call me to request what they want. By 7:30pm, I am here to start my business. No task force by that time. Their troubles are too much.
“We cannot afford to rent shops. Where will I get N700,000 to rent a shop and pay all the necessary fees? My goods are not worth more than N50,000. Yet, these mean task force guys chase us everywhere during the day. It’s not easy.”
Another seller, Jude Ogbe, had a makeshift shop in the 2:2 Area, Kubwa. It was demolished last December by FCTA forcing him to sell at pedestrian bridges at night:
“I sell children’s wears, mainly shoes and clothes. Sometime in October last year, FCTA officials came and marked many shops and other buildings for demolition. We thought they were bluffing. One fateful Monday afternoon, they came with their bulldozers. The rest is history.”
Musa Bako, another trader whose shop is on the Dei-dei pedestrian crossing said: “I’ve been chased by FCTA officials countless times.
One day, I tripped, fell and sprained my left ankle, yet they seized some of the goods.
“I sell dry fish. They must have taken them to cook and feed their families while I can’t feed mine. It’s crazy really but who can fight the government?”
Feeder roads in the FCT metropolis, mostly the un-tarred ones, have also become flea markets of some sort. There is a patch of un-tarred road opposite the NNPC Towers at the Central Business District used as a car park by day.
At night, it wears a completely different look. It morphs into a bustling street canteen with heterogeneous cuisines displayed for buyers to relish.
Security personnel on night shifts describe the place as a “saving grace” because fresh meals come in cheap and handy. Food types on sale include fufu, eba, yam, rice, beans, fried potatoes, bean cake, moi-moi and cooked noodles.
The food vendors spend the morning and afternoon hours prepping the meals and by dusk, they unload the foods and set up. The meals are kept in large warmers and the drinks kept chilled in separate containers with ice blocks.
Mahmoud Usman, a private security personnel attached to one of the government agencies around the CBD said his N20,000 monthly salary does not afford him the luxury of buying food at eateries, hence his love for the dusk restaurants:
“Drivers, security men and other workers that operate the shift system come to eat here. Everything you want is here and sold under N500. No eatery has a meal of N500, except for meat pies and sausages. Is that what I’ll survive on from evening till the next morning? Hell no! So, we love these night food vendors. May God bless and keep them for us.”
Investigations show that the scorching economic situation emboldens traders without shops to be defiant. They square up with FCTA officials on road shoulders and corridors to ease traffic flow for vehicles and pedestrians.
Chairman, FCTA Ministerial Task Force on Traffic Management, Mr Ihkaro Attah, warned that anyone caught violating the regulation would be appropriately sanctioned and their goods confiscated.
A trader on Herbert Macaulay Way, Mrs Adamu said: “I usually come out in the evening around 6pm and close at night around 11 pm. I make more sales at night because of the kind of things I sell. If you sell things like fries, fried fish and food around that area, you will make more sales at night.”
Asked if they are officially registered to sell there: “Yes, but it depends. When I started selling here 13 years ago, I did not pay any money because there were just six of us at that time. This place was just a bush then. But now, things have changed. We now have a chairman who is in charge of registration.”
Another trader who sells roasted fish said: “I don’t come out on weekends to sell because the area is a working environment. I usually come here between 4pm and 5pm and stay till 10pm or more. This is because I make more sales at night.”
But Attah insisted that the battle against illegal development remains relentless and fierce: “The nation’s capital cannot be inadvertently outsourced to criminal developers who are bent on defacing the FCT and turning it into a slum. The demolition is done in collaboration with the Department of Development Control, Security Services, Abuja
Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and all relevant security agencies.”
He decried the rate at which people encroached on road corridors in Abuja: “We will continue to reclaim the road corridor from the illegal squatters. Property seekers should tread the right path because all illegal will be demolished against all pleas.”