The pedestrian bridges are gradually becoming a source of mockery for the authorities and residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Once, they were not there, and many residents were hit and killed or injured by motorists while dashing across the highway. Many cried foul, calling on the authorities to build bridges across the roads. Eventually, the bridges were contructed, and good ones at that, but what happened afterwards?
Residents, it was discovered, still seemed to prefer making the dash to safely taking the bridge steps.
Now, there is a new worry: not only are the bridges sparingly used, they are steadily becoming refuse dumpsites.
Maintaining the structures seems to be a problem. Many now say that soon after the administration completes a bridge, it looks the other way, not caring what happens to it.
The major streets and roads in the city centre actually look relatively clean until you climb some of the bridges.
Most of them look like a place that refuse retires. It is not that the bridges are unusable as a result of heaps of waste. Sometimes they are swept, but the sweepers do not do a good job and are far from committed to their duties. It looks as if they come to work once or twice a month.
For instance, a little tour on the Papei Bridge can be quite irritating for someone with a light stomach. The bridge is so dirty. Because of the rains, refuse seems to decompose much faster on the bridges and stick to its floor like a second skin and the fact that it is not always swept makes it so irritating. Many people rather run across the highway than take the irritating steps.
The Second Gate/NNPC Junction Bridge in Kubwa is another untidy sight. Residents of Kubwa have become accustomed to the dirt especially since the bridge is the busiest overhead bridge in the whole of Kubwa but recently, a popular beggar on the bridge has taken it upon himself to sweep it daily.
This beggar who is crippled and can only navigate on a small board with wheels, sweeps the whole bridge every morning before settling down to his usual spot to beg for alms. Residents mostly appreciate the gestures and can be seen giving him money as they walk past every morning.
Even though he refused giving The Nation his name, he said, “I don’t like being in a dirty environment, since they are not ready to sweep it and this is where I stay, I decided to always sweep it every morning before settling for the days business.”
Mrs Sarah, a resident of Kubwa and ardent user of the bridge said, “what he does is really impressive, I used to be really apprehensive about taking the bridge because I hate dirt, especially those that have been around for a while, in fact, sometimes back, someone excreted on the bridge, just next to the stairs, so that you see it and will have to avoid matching it as you climb the bridge.
“You will not believe that thing stayed there and took weeks until it dried up and disappear on its own because no one bothered to sweep it away. I like that he is keeping the bridge clean and I often give him the little change i have when i walk by as a reward for his foresight and hardwork, especially knowing how difficult it must be for him being handicapped.”
The Gwarimpa Bridge is another example of the dirtiest bridges. It is a known and popular alternative market on the Kubwa express and always busy with people buying and selling and pedestrians trying to cross to the other side of the road. The traders sweep refuse aside and recently this traders have devised a way of packing the refuse into sacks and hanging it on the rail, so it dangles at a slight platform on the bridge that could tilt dangerously and even fall onto oncoming vehicles.
As it is typical with most Nigerians, the traders try to keep the position where they sell clean so you find them sweeping refuse from the part of the bridge that they are using and dumping it on the staircases as well, sometimes it can get so messy that passerby’s will have to carefully pick their ways through the refuse to avoid falling down.
When asked, one of the traders explains, “This is where we sell our market and get money to eat so we try to keep it as clean as possible; the government does not always care about sweeping the bridge so everybody sweeps in front of his place and we dump it on the stairs and when they get ready and feel like sweeping it, they come and sweep it.”
These days unfortunately most of the pedestrian users will observe that the bridge is no longer just a means of crossing the road but has turned into a market that can sometimes get annoying with the way buyers and sellers sometimes block the road without a care, this is common around the Banex, Nicon, Gwarimpa, Galadima and as far as the Dei-Dei junctions with people not only having to contend with the market at the Dei-Dei junction but the ever presents thugs and drugs users always hanging around.
Another common scene on the Abuja bridges are the sites for beggars who can sometimes get pushy or aggressive with people who fail to give them money. It is even worst at the Maraba Bridge although technically Maraba is not in Abuja. Here, the female beggars who cluster on the steps cannot not only touch people in the process of begging but also grab.
One might say that those bridges are a bit outside the city centre and might be expected to be neglected but even those in the centre like Banex and Nicon junctions for instance are not always kept clean, they are not left out in the mess even though it is not always as messy as those outside the city centre.
The Nicon and Banex bridges are amongst the latest over head bridges recently constructed but to be honest, that of Banex for instance looks like it is a thousand years old mostly because even an amateur or architectural illiterate will know that it was done poorly, it honestly looks like the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) gave the job out to someone that was not in the mood of doing a good job.
The most difficult bridge to climb in Abuja is the Banex bridge, it was steps are constructed in a way that as a person climbs, the person will have to bend is body slightly and probably hold unto the rail to keep from falling backwards. The floor of the bridge from day one after it was ready for use looked like a bridge that its floor was never plastered and when climbing the bridge and observant person will be able to detect holes and cracks when the bridge is actually less than 6 months old.
So climbing the bridge is so tasking and stressful that most residents only take it because of the barricades constructed to avoid people running across the road and some stubborn residents still find a way to run across the road with all the barricades.
Rhoda Daniel, a resident of Kubwa who spoke on the state of the Banex bridge said, “I honestly don’t know what they did on this bridge to claim that they have worked, if you check, you will probably realise that they will claim to have used so much money to construct this bridge that looks like it might crumble any day, sometimes it is so disgusting walking on this bridge.
“they do not send their people to check on it and the beggar that sits on the stairs sometimes makes her daughter defecate down the stairs, not even inside the bush but you will see the child clearly defecating by the stairs where if someone is not watchful when trying to climb the bridge, he might match it.
“If she knows that she can get severely punished for it, i am sure that the beggar will not allow her daughter do it but she does not care because it seems like no one else cares.”
So the truth is that when residents curse and abuse pedestrians for not taking the bridges, this can be seen as a reason for the failure of most people preferring to run across the road even though this excuses or reasons may honestly not be enough for residents to risk their lives since the bridges are not places in which they are expected to sit and relax but dash across to their more important business.
Authorities of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) could not be reached for comments on the state of the bridges as at when contacted and an SMS to them was not replied as well.
