Arc. Ali Ukele who is the director, FCT Parks and Recreation Department, speaks on the decision to sanitize parks and recreational centres in the FCT particularly the revocation of licences of operators who violate park regulations.
What are the major responsibilities of the Parks and Recreation Department?
What we do here is that all the green areas in the FCT are within the province of parks and recreation. So we do design, monitor development, management and control of all geared towards the recreational needs of the FCT residents.
What are the steps to take if one is seeking for allocation of a park?
If you are seeking for a park to be allocated to you, first of all you apply to the Department of Parks and Recreation. Due diligence is carried on your application and if we think you have passed all the necessary criteria, especially when you have the passion and the financial capability to be able to develop the park and probably technical competence, it will now be taken to the Land Use and Allocation Committee (an advisory body to the FCT Minister on issues related to allocation of land and park). If the said park is found to be okay, then it will be recommended to the minister for his endorsement and that is when you can get a park to manage.
Why are some parks’ structures and facilities converted to business centres, night joints and places for parties?
Parks are being converted to clubs which is wrong because from the beginning we had a clear cut mandate for the parks that they are not meant to be used for business, they are not supposed to be used to do activities they are now turned into like the night joints and clubs and even places for women to be patronized. They are meant to provide avenues for recreational needs and when we say recreation, it is not about taking alcohol or selling pepper soup, we want people to go into a serene environment and relax with families.
In some parks we have play equipment for children and adults, game arcade and sometimes football field and even lawn tennis and the rest of them; these are the things allowed in parks – that is what a park is supposed to be not a business outfit.
What is the administration doing about this?
The minister is very serious in repositioning parks in the FCT and a committee has been set up to look into it and the members have done their work. It has been taken to the Land Use and Allocation Committee (LUAC) and fundamental decisions are going to be taken and by the time the minister approves the decisions, then we will come back and begin to enforce the terms of every park in the FCT because all parks are not to be the same although the fundamental idea is recreation – some of them are just avenues to sit and relax with park benches and the rest of that. Others could go for sculptures, gardens, Disney’s and all that. So, each park will have its terms and if you go out of the way, government will enforce the law strictly because every park will have its license as it is.
What about parks where the facilities are aging, do you have plans to revive them?
They are all part of what we are discussing. If you go to these parks, you will notice that they are not aging as said, but they suffer lack of maintenance from whoever is managing them. When you get to the park what you go there is the sale of alcohol, pepper soup and the rest but they don’t care about taking care of the environment that they are earning money from.
So, by the time we reposition these parks, people who violate the parks regulations will have their license and even the allocation revoked. We will allocate them to people who have passion, competence and financial capability to manage them as parks.
What about people who build structures and live right inside the parks; what are you doing about that?
They are not supposed to build houses there, the structures are meant to be either temporary or semi-permanent structures but people are sleeping right inside the parks, they have turned the parks into brothels. There are some parks that if you go to you will be very shocked at what you will see there and when we go to remove the structure there will be outcry, the press will come in, human right people will also come in.
They play live bands to disturb the neighborhood and you have young girls roaming about in the parks. The media will also have to help us in doing our work because if you look at it, it is not good for the society. So, we will definitely bring down all these illegal structures in parks within the FCT.
With the coming of new districts in Abuja, will there be new parks also?
Yes, every district has its land uses. Apart from the regular plots for commercial, residential, places of worships and all that, we also have the green areas and designated parks. So, all these new layouts also have these green areas. But not until LUAC has done its work, we cannot go there and begin to allocate parks.
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