Today, Urban Area appears to have been forgotten when it should be ranking with Independence Layout, Presidential Road, and New Haven in splendour and beauty as characteristic of an area within the Enugu metropolis.
Unlike the other areas that have become highbrow and sprawling with modern buildings, well-paved roads and social amenities, Urban Area still wallows in neglect as the residents are cramped up in poorly ventilated and unclean environment.
The residents are cocooned in their dingy enclaves, totally cut off from the rest of the world and could not easily access basic social services. In most parts of the area, their houses are built with light wood and zinc and they have no good access road, making the inhabitants to commute on foot.
For the residents, former Governor Sullivan Chime in his urban renewal did not remember or refused to look at Urban Area even when it is supposed to be at the heart of the state capital territory.
Some of the residents who spoke with Oriental News complained bitterly that the government only remembers their area during elections when they come to solicit their support and after that they would leave them the way they found them – in abject poor condition.
One of the residents, a retired civil servant, Mr Obed Nwosu, told Oriental News that he has lived in the area for 63 years.
Hear him: “We have two lives in this environment, first is when we were kids, here was very good and we had accessible road. But now which is the second life, it is not the same with the way it was when we were kids. Because government did not do anything about the area, people blocked the road with their houses and I will not blame them because the government neglected us”.
Nwosu disclosed that the remarkable challenge facing them was the dirty environment and inaccessibility of the area.
“Before the war, there was a survey that gave us link road from Ani Street to Okwu-Osa Street and other links, but all these plans ended up being a written document not a working document. The environment is very dirty and the authority in charge of waste management is not showing any concern”, he said.
Reacting to the belief that the area was notorious, Mr Nwosu disagreed as he said: “I have lived in this area for long now and I can beat my chest for this. This area has been known to be calm and peaceful. But whatever unrest that started in this area started recently because of those people that sell Indian hemp, they attract those notorious robbers. But the ironic thing is that the people after being arrested, will bribe their way out.This is the type of security agency we have.”
He, therefore, appealed to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to construct link roads and give the area good security attention.
He pointed out that some of the security personnel are very weak in the sense that they do not have self control.
“If the government can give us people who are disciplined who will shun bribery, order and morality will be restored in this area,” he said.
A student of the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Mr Chinedu Egbuchulam, who said he has lived in the area for 26 years lamented bitterly on the way the government was treating them.
“I will not say that living here has been good, it is bad and it gets worse by each day. The environment is very dirty, no access road, sometimes electricity or water problem. A lot of problems, this is 26 years in hell. Different types of odour come out from here,” he lamented.
He noted that government officials occasionally visit the area to make promises and give out only peanuts, saying that “sometimes, they will give people two cups of rice to buy their votes”.
While pointing out the disheartening attitude of the security agency, Egbuchulam expressed disappointment that the agency collects bribe to release hardened criminals, lamenting that “this is very painful.”
He, however, said that the area was not as bad as people thought.
“ This place is a peaceful area, though the activities of those that sell hard drugs have really given this area a bad name, but I strongly disagree with the assertion that this area is notorious,” he said.
He, therefore, called on Governor Ugwuanyi to fulfill his primise to them to the letter.
“The government should please implement all they have promised us. A lot of things both the past and present government promised are yet to be implemented. We need accessible roads, though it will affect some people; I may even be one of the persons it will affect, but the most important thing is for the residents to live comfortably,” he said.
Another resident who is a trader, Mr Gilbert Otuji, told Oriental News that he has lived in the area for 20 years.
He holds a contrary view unlike most other residents as he insisted that the government did not neglect the area.
“I don’t think the government neglected us. This area has a plan and in that plan, we have link roads and how this area will be structured, but maybe because of the economic or political problem in the country, it looked as if the government neglected this area.
“But if the government decides to start their development programme, it will certainly affect a lot of people, though I’m not among them. All these buildings sprang up when people saw that the government is not doing anything about the area”, he said.
Mr Otuji, however, appealed to the new administration to help create link roads.
Once there is good road, development will set in because people will come and do their businesses here. For instance, if there is any fire outbreak, the fire fighters cannot do anything to quench the fire because there is no road,” he said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment