Abracadabra or Abujadabra?

     Abracadabra or Abujadabra?

Everybody knows that Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria, is one of the fastest growing seats of government in the world. That Abuja is a beautiful city is not debatable. Aside from most of the satellite towns which have been lagosified in the sense that the slum, the congestion and the rat-race mentality that are the trademarks of Lagos have been replicated in the territory, the city centre is an architectural delight.

The breathtaking structures like the Central Bank Building, the NNPC Towers, the Radio House and its next door neighbour, the International Conference Centre, the ECOWAS Secretariat, the Federal Secretariat Complex, the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, the Sheraton Hotel and Towers are some of the hallmarks of the city.

A tour of the highbrow areas like Maitama, Asokoro and Wuse II also leaves one agape because of the partial mansions that are the common features. Most of the mansions are structured in a way that even makes some Government Houses in some states look like boys quarters. Usually parked in the sprawling compounds of many of such mansions are all manner of cars and jeeps that give a beholder the erroneous impression that their occupants are motor dealers. Then there are so many of such mansions that are just lying fallow… the only occupants being the security personnel on guard.

An episodic occurrence took place in Maitama not too long ago and it has left many passers-by, including the rich, in a state of shock. They woke up one morning to see some bulldozers roaring around one of the magnificent buildings located around the minister’s hill in the area. When the weapons of mass destruction swung into action, onlookers thought the building had been marked for demolition. It took the bulldozers a couple of days to pull down the mansion, valued at N600, 000, 000, that took some years to erect. The sudden disappearance of the building was like magic. To those who had not plied the street where the mansion was once stood for a few days, it would appear to them as if a magician just swung his finial and the building vanished from its foundation.

As it later turned out, the demolition exercise was not ordered by the ubiquitous development control department of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA). The pulling down was at the behest of one of those monied men in the city.

Although the identity of the magician who yelled abracadabra (or was it Abujadabra?) and caused the structure to disappear overnight, so to speak, is unknown, many believe that he must be a corrupt politician or a thieving civil servant who is a part-taker of the brazen theft of government resources. It could also be a highly place businessman or a contractor to whom N600,000,000 would seem like 600 kobo to a poor civil servant who has been condemned to a minimum wage of N18,000 per month.

What remains to be seen is the manner of edifice that will spring up in place of the gigantic structure that was leveled to the ground without the buyer as much as blinking an eye. The episode is also a grave reality in a country where millions of the magician’s compatriots live in squalor and abject poverty, retiring to bed on an empty stomach day in, day out. Such stunning display of wealth, also underscores the level of corruption and conspicuous lifestyle of the super rich, the Americans call it la doice vita that are the characteristics of the nation’s seat of government.