By Awaal Gata
Gwagwa arises from clusters of ramshackle structures that serve as homes. The houses are adjoined to one another. There are no streets in between and the tracks that serve as access roads are so narrow and ordinary and strewn with litters that are actually domestic waste indiscriminately disposed.
The sort of life the people lead here, it would be out of place and amount to asking for too much to expect that the tracks would be in good shape. Poverty walks on four legs here and you don’t need to turn to see enough of it.
It is seen in the structures as in the businesses, means of transportation, the little and amoral joints where people relax and indulge in drinks and weed smoking, not, of course, excluding brothels. Poverty here exists in human beings – the adults, youths and children. It is also abundant there in the markets, just as it lives in the streets, schools, churches and others.
It is so rife that you can never go to these places without having to embrace and interact with poverty.
Funny enough, these downtrodden fellows also are part of the critical crowd that makes Abuja. They are fortunately or unfortunately part of the people counted outside these shores, as a core of the affluent Abuja residents whose relation and family members wherever they live outside Abuja count as wealthy and powerful. At the farthest reaches of these areas, some of the settlements exist without electricity and rely on the Gwagwa River for daily water needs.
The businesses here are characteristically of the lowest class and quality in line with the people they serve. Most of the goods displayed at the numerous markets, apart from food items are mainly fairly used, from household items to clothing and furniture. Even those items like mattresses, pillows, bicycles etc are rain-beaten.
Speaking with some of the residents, they lamented living in a city like Abuja, and yet in neglect. An Okada man, Liman Maka from Niger state said he has lived in the area for five years and never saw any amenity from the government for the people. He lamented that the worst problem they face is scarcity of water, especially in the dry seasons.
“You have seen the road already, and you know in Nigeria small people like us don’t matter to the government. We live here and ride our okada, as you can see. They are many of us poor people around here from all parts of Nigeria. That is the part of Abuja where we can afford the cost of renting homes and only people of our level live here. The government does not care about us and who do we complain to, so we just take life the way we see it.
Our worst problem is water scarcity. There is no water anywhere here. It is only through boreholes that we get water and we buy it at very expensive cost. I would have asked you to tell the government to provide us water, but I don’t know how to say that because every time what we hear is that government will demolish the places we live in,” Maka lamented.
Another resident, Arinse Badmos from Anambra state, said he has resigned to the fate of the commoners in the area. “Oga, we are used to this lifestyle. We are poor people and don’t have anybody to complain to. You can see how bad the roads are, and we don’t even know if the government remembers us as part of Abuja.
I am a trader here as you can see. I sell yams and other things. Before now, I used to sell ladies wears. But so very often the council men come around the market and chase us away. After the two times my shops were destroyed, I have no other place to be and I can’t stop working for a living. That is how I started selling yams hoping that things will get better.
Everyday in this market we pay to the council boys who come around to collect revenue. Sometimes, they issue us receipt, and at others, they don’t, yet we must pay them. Even the places we live in, they threaten us every time that they would demolish the houses. They say there are illegal quarters and they will send us away from there. As you can see there are thousands of poor Nigerians living around here and all of us face the same problems. I am sure sometimes some people come around and threaten the landlords to get money from them and leave.
“We don’t have any amenities, even the electricity in some of the places where that exists was through the efforts of the residents, but we only plead with the government to leave us alone because they make us face so much trouble everyday.”
However, a youth leader in the town, Mustapha Mohammed, appealed to the authority of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), to come to their aid by providing basic amenities in the town.
“We are pleading with the AMAC area council to come and provide social amenities for us. We are also Nigerians and we are in Abuja, too. We want to enjoy what others are enjoying,” he said.
