Abuja is Good Enough

Adewole Adebayo traces the history of the relocation of the capital of Nigeria from Lagos to Abuja to pre-independence agitation by former Premier of the Old Western region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and stresses that President Bola Tinubu has constitutional power to relocate any parastatal from Abuja to any part of the country in the interest of the nation.

There are so many uncertainties these days and Ship of State is constantly missing her anchor. Nigerians are not just questioning the credibility of one another, we are questioning the rationale of our own existence!

Life is about change and its constancy. Yet, however much a stable entity gyrates in response to internal or external stimulus, the core ought to be stable.

Nigeria by now has a number of cores, including federalism, multiethnic and multi religious diversity and unity in that diversity. The idea of a Federal Capital Territory in Abuja is a major core. We should all be able to accept that Abuja as a centre of unity is no longer available for debate.

Recent attempts to raise partisan skirmishes and cross swords in regional tournaments over the status of Abuja are coming at a time when statesmen and elders are absentmindedly avoiding life threatening abominations at our door steps.

I want us to rest the issue of Abuja and focus on ensuring that we have an actual government in place, willing and able to exercise authority in Nigeria and enforce its writs.

The establishment of Abuja and the relocation of the Federal Capital Territory from Lagos to Abuja was the idea and initiative of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his Action Group who started campaigning for the relocation of the Federal Capital to an equidistant point at the centre of Nigeria. Chief Awolowo even volunteered that if the Federal Government had no money to fund the relocation, the Western Region was prepared to make significant contributions to the cost of building the new Federal Capital and relocation of the Federal Capital from Lagos to the new Federal Capital on the condition that Lagos should be merged with the Western Region.

This idea was opposed by the Northern People’s Congress led by Sir Ahmadu Bello and the NCNC led by Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe who both insisted that Lagos should remain the Federal Capital and no new Federal Capital Territory should be established. Awolowo’s proposals were voted down at the Lancaster House Conferences that led to the Independence Constitution of 1960.

During the military interregnum after the 1966 coups when Awolowo served under Gowon, the idea resurfaced as part of the conditions that Awolowo gave to serve under Gowon. State creation was the most prominent of Awolowo’s conditions, especially the creation of Lagos State amongst the 12 States created in 1967. However Gowon was not eager about relocating the FCT away from Lagos, but the idea remained an article of faith for the Western State political elite.

When Murtala Muhammed took over, the Western State elites, both civilian and military, prevailed on Murtala to act on the relocation

with automatic alacrity.

They provided the manpower led by Justice Akinola Aguda, Tai Solarin, Fola Alade, etc who are majorly Awoists to name Abuja because it was already mathematically preordained as the geocentre of Nigeria. Awolowo had in 1953 originally proposed somewhere around Kafanchan.

Therefore:- Abuja was not and it is not a northern agenda or plot or conspiracy.

Tanzania, Australia, Brasil, Ivory Coast, etc have done similar relocations.

It can never be in the interest of Western Nigeria to have Lagos reinstated as the Federal Capital Territory, as this would be a monumental relapse and loss of a significant victory in a struggle that began about 80 years ago. No reasonable, thinking and sensible person in the West would wish to have the capital of Nigeria in Lagos or anywhere in the six South West States!

Abuja is a fantastic place to have the Federal Capital Territory and it should remain so. All Federal Government agencies should be headquartered in Abuja, with flexibility to operate remotely or physically in every part of Nigeria.

FCT in Abuja is not an achievement of the Northerners and it is not a legacy that the northern political elite can claim pole position to protect.

It will be unconstitutional, unwise, counterproductive and wasteful for President Bola Tinubu or any other president to even conceive the nonsensical thought of reversing the establishment of Abuja as the Federal Capital Territory.

-Adebayo, a presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, writes from Lagos

NOTE: Interested readers should continue in the online edition on www.thisdaylive.com