Paying the price of urban renewal

By Ruona Agbroko
September 5, 2009 02:11PMT
It starts to drizzle and Obinna Davidson finally lets his tears fall, probably relieved that his siblings and the journalist poking a recorder in his face, will be unable to distinguish between his tears and the rain. The Rivers State government began a demolition of structures at Njemanze, Port Harcourt, where Mr. Davidson has lived since birth, on August 27, and will proceed to neighbouring Abonnema Wharf community [pictured] after that.
Both are waterfront settlements in the state capital where, according to UN-HABITAT, the United Nations agency for human settlements, at least 45,000 people live. The scene at the Njemanze waterfront would rival any of the world’s worst hurricanes; only, this “disaster” is man-made. A bulldozer hums in the background, reducing an estimated 800 buildings to debris, some of which finds its way into the water and floats to the creeks beyond. Armed soldiers patrol the area, causing residents to occasionally run in fear and making news hounds thankful for zoom lens. Mr. Davidson joins about 40 men, children and burly women who defy the soldiers and roam the vast area, which was once home to them.
They scavenge through the heaps, some retrieving planks which they claim will be sold for their upkeep. Watching the remnants of a small refrigerator float by, he turns his back and finally speaks; “We are here to see what we can carry. Government is a disappointment; many people have gone to the village... There were more than two villages here, and these are the amounts of people they chased away from here.

Many old people have died because of hypertension.” His brother, a little boy of about eight years, chips in: “When school starts, nothing for us,” and Mr. Davidson continues, “They say it is because of bad boys, for safety of the people, that is why they destroyed the place; some say it is for cinema... We don’t know what is going on, but they should have had more patience with us, that is all I want to say.” A question of how Being the capital city of oil-rich Rivers State, Port Harcourt, a town set up around 1914, strictly for the movement of coal from Enugu, witnessed an influx of rural populations that began reclaiming land along the Bonny River as far back as the 1940s.
According to Datubo West, another resident of Njemanze, the oil boom and increased scarcity and cost of accommodation in the ‘upland’ areas forced the people to sand-fill land, resulting in the over 50 densely populated waterfront communities, which existed side by side before the demolition began. In February 2009, Osima Ginah, the state commissioner for urban development, reportedly disclosed that all waterfronts would be demolished, beginning with Njemanze and Abonnema.
Jim Tom-George, the spokesperson for the Abonnema Wharf Community House Owners Association, told NEXT the organisation wrote to Mr. Ginah four times - beginning from August 2008 - and received no response. In February 2009, he paid them a visit, to issue a seven-day pre-eviction notice.

This culminated in the demolition which took place between February 10 and 13, 2009. During the exercise, 40 to 50 buildings were demolished along the upper part of Abonnema Wharf Road, by Njemanze. About 10,000 people were directly affected, according to C.W. Enwefah, the secretary-general of the National Union of Tenants of Nigeria. This was despite a court ruling requiring Mr. Ginah to effect a halt on demolitions as the case was still being heard.
Calls and text messages to Mr. Osima Ginah and his counterpart, Ogbona Nwuke, who is the Commissioner for Information, on why the exercise went on despite the court case, went unanswered. An official of the Greater Port Harcourt City Development Authority, who pleaded anonymity, was quick to distance the organisation from the large-scale demolitions; “We are not the ones demolishing. It is the urban development people; it is commissioner for urban development, the ministry of urban development that is in charge of that demolition in Njemanze and Abonnema,” he said.
Mr. West, whose business premises in Njemanze has been demolished, says; “we need a government who has human feeling, not a Pharaoh. We are squatting about, scattered. They went as far as saying that everybody here are criminals “We demonstrated on the 3rd of August, asking that as they settle the landlords, we the tenants should be included. The police threw teargas, beat up women just at the UTC Bus Stop, on the way to the government house.” Mr. Enwefah said about 1000 residents were arrested, while five have been charged to court over “a non-violent demonstration”. The UN-HABITAT embarked on a fact-finding mission to the area in March and released a formal report asking for a stop to the demolitions and dialogue between tenants and the government.
This became necessary due to the numbers of residents affected in the area. Johnson Falade, Habitat Programme Manager, Nigeria, said in a telephone interview on Thursday: “When our report came out, we instead saw more of the bulldozers being pulled out.” Diamond Ojiaka, another tenant, told NEXT: “As I speak to you, my marriage is at stake. My wife, Mary, with our new-born baby, has had to go to our village, Buguma. They are carrying the landlords along, what about us the tenants?”