Kubwa, the pride of Bwari Area Council and largest satellite town in Abuja, is located on the right hand side of Abuja-Kaduna express road, between Dutsen junction and Brick estate.It is about 26 kilometers from Wuse.
Kubwa is an ancient town with its indigenous people before Federal Government resettled displaced Gbagyi from City centre in it sometimes in 1990. Since then, Kubwa population has been growing rapidly as well as the land mass.
With this growth in population, comes the challenges of infrastructure and urban poor dwellers.
Although cost of living in Kubwa is relatively cheap compared to its neighbor, Gawrinpa, the condition of living in most part of Kubwa, leaves one wondering, if these parts of Kubwa are part of Abuja.
One of such parts, is Bazango Extension or Bazango layout. Bazango, is one of the communities inhabited by indigenous people of Kubwa.This community is neglected by administrators of Bwari Area Council. As Kubwa population grow with “foreigners”, farm lands of the indigenous people of Kubwa, are chiseled out into layouts and sold by government. Most often these layouts, apart from laid out inter connecting streets, there is no presence of government.
Bazango extension, is one of such layouts. It is situated and lying behind NYSC camp to Arab road on one stretch and from pipeline at Kubwa/Byazhin road to Kubwa express road. This area, is a ghetto. All its entrances are untarred, dirty and dusty, assaulting you with the impression that you are entering a concentration camp.
The inner roads in this layout, are also dirty, with nylons of different colors sticking out from the uneven ground. The drainage system where it manages to be crudely constructed, is clogged with refuse.
Like typical of ghetto, the social life in Bazango extension, hovers around religion and cheap alcoholic joints. A good number of the drinks here, are adulterated, a serious challenge to the livers of residents here but they don’t care, they need cheap high to forget their living conditions.
Almost all the Christian denominations in Nigeria, have intimidating presence in this ghetto with more than one parish. Mosques are also littered around this filthy environment. We learnt that most leaders of these churches, particularly the Pentecostals, do not live in this ghetto, they only drive in during days of their church programs.
There is a little ray of sunshine in this ghetto. It has sprinkle of big men in fine houses. Their fine houses are fortified with big fences and ferocious dogs, from the bass of their barking, you will know that what it costs to feed them, is enough to feed two families in this ghetto.
A tour round this ghetto, will leave you wondering if there is a minister in FCT. Where has he snuck in the allocations given to his office for the development of Abuja? Is Abuja only Wuse, Garki, Asokoro and Maitama?
Those within whispering distance to the FCT minister, should shout to his hearing that the conditions in this Kubwa ghetto is a threat to health of all those living in posh estates in city centre. Any breakout of epidemics in this ghetto, will rapidly infect others as residents of this concrete jungle, go to eke out a living in city center daily.
