Maxim Trudolyubov grew up in Moscow and knows her neighbourhood well. She now takes on a "political" kite recently flown by President Vladimir Putin and his handpicked Mayor of Moscow. If Putin and Co can revisit post-Stalin housing policies inroduced 60 years ago in the Chkruschov era, perhaps Nigeria should start right now to correct the masses - unfriendly Housing Policy it has been pursuing in Abuja these past 30 years.
Hear Maxim:
"So-called “mikrorayony” (microdistricts, or neighborhood units designed to house tens of thousands of inhabitants each) were reproduced throughout the Soviet Union.
"So-called “mikrorayony” (microdistricts, or neighborhood units designed to house tens of thousands of inhabitants each) were reproduced throughout the Soviet Union.
"The vast majority of Russians, myself included, grew up in such a microdistrict. Microdistricts WOULD NORMALLY HAVE GREEN SPACES, APARTMENT BUILDINGS SCATTERED AT 50 TO 200 METRES' DISTANCE FROM EACH OTHER, A METRO STATION SOMEWHERE IN THE VICINITY AND MOST AMENITIES WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE."
And I ask. What were the designers of Abuja thinking? In all thinking advanced societies, it is the well-heeled elite that live in the suburbs removed from the city centre as in downtown. Anytime this arrangement is reversed through re-gentrification of downtown, new problems do crop up. Abuja's problems were instituted on day one. Very sad!
Maxim continued,
"It would have made for a beautiful living if the apartment buildings had been a little nicer and if the shops had had better food—or sometimes any food at all. But we loved it anyway. We did not have much to compare it to. And of course, we valued the clean air, the walks in the woods, the skiing in winter, the cycling in summer."
"It would have made for a beautiful living if the apartment buildings had been a little nicer and if the shops had had better food—or sometimes any food at all. But we loved it anyway. We did not have much to compare it to. And of course, we valued the clean air, the walks in the woods, the skiing in winter, the cycling in summer."
That is NOW besides the point, a historical milestone. In Lagos we survived Jakande "temporary" housing and have since moved on. Russia was poor. Period. Abuja, (not to mention Ajaokuta, another story!) was built while Nigeria was awash with petrodollars. We didn't have and still do not have any excuses for the deliberate scatter - brain mass housing design in the Abuja masterplan.
Are we ready to learn now?
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