Press corps seeks review of FCT master plan

Journalists covering activities of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) have set an agenda to the present administration on the urgent need for the review of Abuja Master Plan, which is due every five years.

This was the highlight of the 2017 retreat for the Press Corps of the Federal Capital Territory Administration which took place at Kaduna recently.

The theme of the retreat was “The Role of the Media in the Review of Abuja Master Plan”.

The retreat which was declared open by the Minister of the FCT, Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello, represented by Hajia Amina Abubakar, had the Special Adviser, Media and Communications to the Kaduna State Governor, Mr. Muyiwa Adekeye, representing his boss, Governor Nasir el-Rufa’i.

Others were the Director of Information and Communications in the FCT, Mrs. Stella Ojeme who gave a welcome address; Deputy Director and Chief Press Secretary to the FCT minister, Mr. Cosmas Uzodinma; and Head, FCTA Call Centre, Mrs. Jumai Ahmadu among other top staff of the FCT Administration and members of the Corps led by its Chairman, Mr. Ikharo Attah.

Resource persons were Mr. Christian Okeke, a Lecturer and Doctoral candidate at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UniZik), Awka; Tpl (Dr.) Yahaya Yusuf, former Director, Department of Development Control FCDA, now a Lecturer at the Baze University, Abuja;

and, Tpl Muktar Galadima, Director, Department of Development Control, and current Chairman, Nigeria Institute of Town Planners, Abuja.

At the event, participants appreciated the FCT minister for his interest in seeing to the development of the capacity of members of the Press Corps.

Participants noted that Abuja has been a planned city right from the beginning and the theme of the workshop was therefore apt in view of observed distortions of the master plan.

They noted also that Abuja continues to increase in both human population and other activities way beyond what was envisaged by its founding fathers and the need to review the master plan becomes all important.

The participants further noted that there is some sort of population explosion in the territory, a development that has greatly stretched facilities as designed in the master plan and that most of the times, the problems that keep recurring is due to ignorance of the provisions of the master plan.

They called on the FCT Administration to simplify the master plan and make copies available to the media as well as make the plan easily accessible by members of the public so that they can have a clear understanding of the city they live in.

The FCT master plan, according to records, has remained unattended to for 38 years now and had resulted to major distortion of the original design of the entire master plan, also resulting to misplacement of urban plan and the springing up of shanties and slums within the city centre.