A Highlife concert before the Jumbotron

Ibom Plaza

By Kevin Lambert

First-time visitors to cities in the developing world often gasp – figuratively and literally – when they see the traffic congestion. From dawn to dusk, one is caught in a barely regulated, amorphous mass as stubborn and impenetrable as an oil slick. Cars have taken over completely, and they rule as clumsily as Idi Amin. No provision was being made for pedestrians in countries where about 80% of all trips were made by public transport and by foot.

Developing cities are noted for lack of sidewalks, lousy road surfaces, integration of high level traffic and high speed traffic, poor design, absence of pedestrian infrastructure, and exposure to the elements, which include extreme noise and pollution.
This isn’t, of course, an exclusively African problem. The United States and Canada have resisted things like pedestrian amenities and the relatively new concept of traffic calming. Cars, like drunks on a Saturday night, don’t want anyone to calm them down.
This was another sticky problem of governance for Akwa Ibom. And rather than throw up his hands, Governor Attah went to it with the same resolve that brought the oil revenue from the federal government. He put his architect’s eye on the mess, and out of this came Ibom Plaza.

"It was a practical solution to a practical problem. That circus you saw there was much smaller in diameter than even the actual circus itself. And it was a five-route junction. Traffic was just impossible, trying to go around that roundabout.

"The only solution was to create a wider loop from one road to another, then to cut off two other roads from making contact. The circus became a three-road junction, and that is what became the Plaza." The three-road junction met in a circle, which he widened, and then they decided to dress it up.

So, almost by accident, Ibom Plaza was born, and Akwa Ibom became the first state in Nigeria with a pedestrian zone, one that was "created to solve a very practical traffic problem. And that creates that oasis or island in the city. And it works!"

Ibom Plaza has been graced with fountains and a pedestrian walk. Its real function is a village green. Anybody can come out and mingle with the rest of his tribe, not his birth tribe, but his Uyo tribe. Aside from the goods in the market, there are the inevitable head carried basket vendors selling snacks, from fruit to shish-kebobs. Everybody is in a pleasant mood. The Washington Times team saw none of the hungry beggars or sullen hustlers found in other developing lands. When people bump against each other here, a simple "Excuse-O" takes the place of a crash and a lawsuit.

Quiet Flows the Crowd

Any normal day in Ibom Plaza finds hundreds of people milling around, buying, selling, strolling and relaxing. The plaza can be used to lighten the load of a walking commute or it can be just a place to hang out in sidewalk cafes, in one of the few spots in Africa with a sidewalk. People in Nigeria work very hard, and money is not easy to come by, so the Plaza can work as a spot to de-stress, to rest the brain from the constant roar of traffic, and talk with your neighbor without having to shout.

Joseph Tim and James Ogbu, young men who have lived in Uyo most of their lives, are huge fans. Ogbu considers the plaza to be "a bright idea. If not for Ibom Plaza we would not have met half the people we meet." Tim is especially fond of the churchlike, "pool of peace" aspect that is so hard to find in African cities. "Sometimes the peace here allows me to think and have happy, positive thoughts," he says, sipping a soda by the café.

"Within that Plaza, we decided to have sections," says Governor Attah. "The flea market or commercial section faces the existing market and connects to it with an overhead walk. Therefore we were able to solve the problem of street trading. All those people used to be roaming the streets or setting up booths, which was really littering."

Immediately behind the market is the amphitheater with an enormous Jumbotron screen, and all kinds of performances are presented at no charge. Soccer matches, in real time, fill the place up with thousands of fans. The latest World Cup was broadcast live there, and approximately 3,000 people watched it.

What with moving people out, changing the street patterns, and getting the money together, Ibom Plaza took 18 months to build. Like most pedestrian zones, it raised a lot of conflict. But it wasn’t so much enmity from angry motorists – as it has been elsewhere – as confusion in the ranks, and false witness at a local church.

"A lot of people (under the military governments) failed to understand or grasp the concepts," says the governor. "Even the military governors before me had tried to read what I had in the master plan, and they couldn’t fully understand it. They all shied away from it. And the military government usually changed people quite frequently and rather whimsically, so the one man that came closest to understanding it wasn’t even sure what his tenure was going to be. So nobody wanted to touch it because of the social problems, if you want to call them problems, associated with creating an urban renewal program."

Then there was the church. His political enemies started up false rumors that he intended to demolish that church. "Oh, there were preachers from the pulpit, curses were pronounced on me, and so on. It’s OK, so long as they curse me for coming to demolish their church, because I had no such intention. But if, in the end, I don’t demolish their church, I believe those curses will (merely float around). It was something I needed to do because it had to be done. And now, in fact, frequently, we’ve had anniversary celebrations of the state’s creation in that church, so they now appreciate it."

Uyo Joins the Big Leagues

Architectural journals – the antennae of urban development – tick off lists of places that have revitalized themselves by creating great public places.

Melbourne keeps its streets pedestrian-friendly by widening sidewalks and adding attractive features, which brought about a spectacular increase in people going out in public and actually using the city. Cordoba, Argentina turned its riverfront into a series of popular parks. Portland demolished a downtown parking garage to build Pioneer Square, which is the focal point of a now-vibrant downtown.

Sub-Saharan Africa has always been the weakest member on this list. Windhoek, Namibia; Bagamoyo, Tanzania and many cities in South Africa have one, but that’s about it. But now Uyo, formerly a small, insignificant town, has – without any real fanfare – joined the ranks of the civilized cities, run by those who realize that a city without a pedestrian zone is missing a vital part of its architecture, and may not even know it.Award for transparency, integrity and steadfastness.