In the last three years, Abuja has witnessed an unprecedented distortion of its master plan, with green areas, flood waterways, and generally reserved areas of land grabbed and allocated to friends, family, relations, cronies, paying land speculators, and developers connected to officials of the current administration.
The recent flooding in Abuja, where houses, motor vehicles, and other properties were submerged, is a grim pointer to the consequences of these practices.
Abuja’s Changing Landscape
Every rainy season, Abuja’s flooding is attributed to heavy rainfall, blocked drainage channels, and inadequate infrastructure. While these factors undoubtedly contribute to the problem, Abuja was deliberately planned with green areas, parks, and waterways that form part of the city’s rainfall management system.
The continued conversion and alteration of these spaces reduces the land available for rainwater to be absorbed and channelled away, placing greater pressure on the city’s drainage infrastructure and surrounding communities.
Across parts of Wuse, Garki, Gaduwa, Durumi, Maitama, Guzape, Jabi, Asokoro, the Central Business District and other parts of the FCT, green areas and open spaces have increasingly come under development pressure.
Land originally reserved for environmental, recreational, or drainage purposes is, in some cases, being put to commercial and private development, affecting the roads, drainage systems, and communities around those developments.
Residents of communities affected by flooding are left to bear much of the cost of these changes, even though they had no role in deciding how the land around them would be used. Homes and vehicles are damaged, businesses disrupted, and movement across the city restricted.
A decision to change the use of a parcel of land can therefore affect matters far removed from the plot itself, including traffic, flood risk, the environment and the daily lives of people living in the surrounding communities.
Decisions about land use should therefore be made with regard to the people who will live with their consequences, particularly in areas where the risks are already known.
A Recurring Flood Risk
Abuja has experienced serious flooding for many years, with major incidents recorded in 2012, 2014, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, affecting areas such as Lokogoma, Lugbe, Wuse, Jabi and Gudu.
The recurrence of flooding in these locations provides a record of the city’s existing vulnerabilities and raises concerns about continued development in and around areas with known flood risks. It also calls for closer examination of decisions affecting green areas, waterways and drainage corridors that form part of Abuja’s capacity to manage rainfall.
The Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) and the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) have central responsibilities for land allocation, planning and development control in the FCT, and their decisions determine which areas remain protected, which are opened for development and whether land reserved for an environmental or public purpose can be converted.
Section 14(2)(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) provides that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.”
Land administration in Abuja must therefore take account of the effect that decisions about land use can have on the safety, property and livelihoods of surrounding communities, particularly where land reserved for environmental or public purposes is opened for development.
Demolitions and the Rule of Law
Following the public outcry over the recent flooding, FCT Minister Nyesom Wike ordered the demolition of buildings constructed on green areas, including demolitions in Maitama that have brought renewed attention to the enforcement of Abuja’s master plan.
Where buildings have been erected in breach of approved urban plans, the government has a responsibility to enforce the law. The exercise, however, also calls for scrutiny where the land or development in question resulted from an earlier official approval.
Critics and observers have therefore asked whether the demolition exercise will also cover developments on land that was allocated, or whose conversion from green areas to property development was approved, during the current minister’s tenure.
The Land Use Act sets out the circumstances in which a right of occupancy may be revoked and requires notice to be given to the holder. Section 29 also provides for compensation in specified cases where land is revoked for public purposes.
Where a demolition is based on an unlawful development, the applicable planning and development-control laws will determine the government’s powers and the procedure to be followed. The legal basis for each demolition should therefore be clear, as should the notice required and any entitlement to compensation.
Owners and occupants should be informed of the specific planning or development-control requirements they are alleged to have breached and given the opportunity provided by law to remedy or challenge the decision before their property is removed.
Accounting for Abuja’s Land
The FCT Administration should undertake a comprehensive audit of Abuja’s green areas, open spaces, waterways and drainage corridors to establish how these spaces have been allocated and altered over the years.
The audit should identify areas originally reserved for environmental, recreational or drainage purposes, record subsequent allocations and changes of use, trace the approvals through which those changes occurred and establish whether the applicable planning requirements were followed.
Its findings should be made public, showing which areas remain protected, which were lawfully converted, which require further investigation and where restoration may be necessary. The audit should also record the history of disputed developments and the approvals relied upon by owners and developers.
Where an owner acted on an official allocation or development approval that is later revoked or found to have been improperly granted, the circumstances under which it was issued should be considered in determining responsibility for any resulting loss. Where restoration is possible, it should be pursued alongside accountability for the decisions that permitted the development.
The 2026 floods have once again brought the consequences of Abuja’s land administration into public view. A credible response requires government to account for how protected land was allocated and converted, apply planning and demolition powers according to law, and provide redress where public decisions have caused.