Nigeria bulldozes slums to polish capital

By Randy Fabi

ABUJA (Reuters) - Scavenging through mounds of rubble in Nigeria's capital Abuja, Usman Landam plucks out the biggest mud blocks he can find, determined to rebuild his two-bedroom hut after government bulldozers knocked it down.

Landam's plight illustrates a stark discrepancy lurking at the heart of the world's eighth biggest crude exporter.

As oil prices surge, producer nations are reaping heady financial rewards. But in many of those countries, only a few are lifted by the swell while millions more are buffeted by waves of food and fuel inflation.

Or in Landam's case, swept aside by the new wealth.

"My house used to be there," the 25-year-old said, pointing to the pile of crushed rocks, splintered wood and corrugated metal left after his home was destroyed last month.

"I hope to make a new home for my wife and child, but it will take some time," he added.

The OPEC member nation's government says homes in the shanty towns around Abuja, most of which lack electricity or piped water, are illegal and do not fit into its master plan to develop a prestigious capital.

Like most Nigerians, Landam cannot afford to live in the sumptuous villas and apartments that have been built in Abuja, one of the most expensive cities in Africa.

Instead they are relegated to shanty towns, like Toge, on Abuja's fringes -- dusty settlements of homes, schools, churches and bars that have become a major irritant to a government bent on creating a pristine city.

Nigeria, which produces 2 million barrels of oil a day, is spending hundreds of millions of dollars modernizing Abuja, a mixture of office blocks, luxury hotels and huge mansions surrounded by granite hills.

Many poorer Nigerians resent Abuja's development at the expense of other regions and see it as an artificial, sanitized city where even "okadas" -- the cheap motorcycle taxis that are the most popular form of transport in Lagos -- are banned.

Its grandeur is also a world away from most Nigerians' lives: of the country's 140 million people, nine out of 10 live on less than $2 a day, according to U.N. statistics. They struggle with a lack of water and electricity, appalling roads and crumbling public services.

"Abuja is for the politicians and millionaires. It's not for the ordinary man," said Isaiah Ayuba, a 20-year-old living in Gosa Sariki, a shanty town near the international airport.

TALE OF TWO CITIES

The authorities have demolished more than 800,000 homes in slums around Abuja since 2003, according to the Swiss-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE).