Abuja’s city centre floods as cost of abuse

For most of the last decade, flooding in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, was a story that residents of Lokogoma and Trademore Estate in Lugbe knew too well. Every rainy season brought the same grim ritual, which left a trail of submerged compounds, ruined furniture, and, in the worst years, lost lives. Flooding in Lokogoma and Trademore was always treated as a peripheral problem of communities built on the city’s expanding fringe, far from the well-manicured avenues of the city centre. That assumption collapsed last weekend, precisely on August 15 2026, when the heavens opened and sent floodwater surging through Wuse 1 and Wuse 2, Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent, Garki, Katampe, Gudu, Durumi and Ga...