For some, Orozo community may end with a bitter taste in the mouth, the same way the Maitama District turned out for a Nigerian-born visitor from America back in the 80s.
The visiting lady, so the story goes, was in Abuja hoping to invest in the new federal capital. She had a drive round town, zooming through the Maitama district which, of course, had no Transcorp Hilton at the time and was far from what it is now.
There wasn’t much to the area, either vast, empty land or boasting local settlements of indigenous people. It was even said that the present location where the Hilton is situated had a small local bar where locals hung out for a drink of locally brewed beer called burukutu.
She saw the prospects and told her husband who was riding with her that the area was good fro investment and that she would like to buy land there.
The man talked her out of it, telling her that it was a local place that would amount to nothing.
She travelled back without investing in Maitama. Years later, she returned to the same location and wept.
Orozo is probably another Maitama in the making, but do people see it as such?
Twenty years ago, most of the communities and satellite towns that have grown to big cities today were just small struggling communities.
A resident of Kubwa, Raphael John explained what the settlement used to be like.
“I have been in Kubwa since 1990, Kubwa was nothing like it is today. In those days, the indigenous houses were scattered all over Kubwa; in fact a Fulani hamlet used to be in the middle of the road joining Kubwa and Dutse, where the present Living Faith Church in Dutse is now, and we used to go there to buy fura but today things have changed.”
Some believe that places like Orozo, if well developed, could help solve the country’s housing deficits.
Kingsley Ode, a resident of Nyanya, said, “During the [Alhaji Shehu] Shagari era, he tried to deal with the housing deficit in the country at that time by building lowcost and cheap houses for low income earners. What Nigerians need is not huge and expensive mansions but normal houses like those lowcost houses that will be affordable for the masses, most of the houses in this high-brow parts of Abuja are too expensive.”
Orozo, presently the fastest growing community in Abuja, is located after Nyanya, Karu and Jikwoyi. It is partly in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and partly in Nasarawa State but unless you are a surveyor or are aware of the demarcation, you will not be able to tell the difference because of the level of development that is taking over the once small community.
Various estates like the Atlanto Villa Estate, Orozo Mass Housing, Catholic Church Estate, Navy Estate and others have sprung up in the area.
The Atlanto Investment Ultra Modern market, the only market situated in the middle of all the estates, creates business and marketing opportunities for residents trooping into this new community.
Apart from the number of estates, the government has been allocating lands to individuals in Orozo district and although many of those allocated are beginning to build and move over to the area, a lot of them say that they are still waiting for others to come before they move over there.
To make life easier, estates like the Atlanto Villa do not only sell completed houses but also sell land within the estate for one bedroom, two bedrooms and three bedroom bungalow spaces for people to build.
The ultra modern market which is quite spacious and with all the modern facilities found in all Abuja ultra modern markets is also built in bungalow forms which the developers said was for the convenience of everyone, including the aged, handicapped and for individual maintenance.
Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer Atlanto Investment and Property Ltd. Isaac Agbanwu said that Orozo is fast developing and is going to be a beautiful place, comparable to other high-brow communities in Abuja in a few years.
He also said, “Orozo, as a matter of fact, is very close to town; in my assessment, what is demarcating Orozo and Garki is just the hill, the highrise that is running from Abacha Barracks to Karshi; when this becomes noticed by the government, a government can just wake up and create a tunnel and that will be all, if it happens, within five minutes, you will be in Garki.
“Instead having to travel from Jikwoyi and the rest, with the new road to Apo, you just cut out somewhere and will be finding yourself in the Apo roundabout, it’s a very short distance. The proliferation of estates now in Orozo is a wonderful thing, there are so many estates coming up here and of course there is an approved market which is the Atlanto Investment Market that is ongoing which will serve the community, so as a matter of fact, Orozo is fast developing and is going to be a wonderful place in a few years to come.”
Asked the reason for the high cost of housing and abandoned houses in Abuja, Agbanwu said that as a developer, one has to be aware of the price of building materials in the market because high cost of building will definitely lead to high cost to the final consumers.
“Most of the estates around here, if you are buying their house and paying immediately, 3 bedrooms is 13 millioný.
“The major problem with the housing schemes being embarked on in Abuja is the fact that it is being embarked upon by people who are big and got money from big sources, their thoughts and abilities are high, for instance somebody will go and build a four bedroom duplex along airport road for example and they will tell you N75 million, N100m.
“It is the reason for the huge number of empty estates in Abuja, maybe you are working somewhere and are lucky to hitý money in billions and trillions, you decide not to lodge it in a bank but push it, such projects they will also understand how big you are and your source so the cost that they will give to you for construction will be high, where you are suppose to use N1m to build, they can hike it to N3m, so imagine a man who does not understand property and development that spends for example N5m to develop, he will of course want to make a gain of at least N1m which is the reason for the high price in real estate business.
“But if it is something you do genuinely from your mind so that people can own houses and you also understand the system and not just coming into it because you simply see it as a business, in the aspect of knowing the real price for gravel, cement, the real amount needed to build a two bedroom flat, if you have the understanding without allowing people give you exorbitant prices it will not affect the final consumers, so if the cost of production is high, definitely the consuming cost also will be high.
“So you see big and beautiful houses with no one inside while the masses are still looking for housesý, if the government had continued the way they started by giving land to people, with the approval to build their houses, it would have reduced the problem of housing in Nigeria.”
The FCT administration at a point began creating a road that will run from Orozo and come out in Apo, which on a normal day would have hastened the development of the area but so far the road is yet to be completed and residents of Orozo are hopeful that if the project is revisted and completed by the incoming administration, it will reduce the traffic gridlock always witnessed on the Nyanya/Maraba road and make life easy for them.
Resident of Orozo, Michael Obi said, “The resean why most people are afraid of this area is because of the terrible traffic witnessed around Nyanya and Karu Junctions but the new road that is being created from here to Apo will actually make the journey faster, if only the new government will finish the road, more people will want to relocate to Orozo and the centre and other parts of Abuja will be decongested because with the level at which developers and private owners are building now in Orozo, this place will not be known in the next two years.”
