] FCT size in comparison with world capitals
giving rise to complete evacuation of indigenous people from their ancestral homelands to other areas, and allocating same to new group of citizens from elsewhere. Rather most new capital cities around the world were built on existing towns and cities with proper integration schemes”. This conclusion was derived from the table he presented.
The countries and their capital cities he focused were 14. Among those we can mention here are: firstly, Kenya with a national population of 44 million. It had its old and new capital cities at Mombasa and Nairobi respectively. Established in 1899, Nairobi has a land size of 686km2 with a population of 3,375,000 inhabitants. Tanzania had its old capital at Dar-e-salam and new at Dodoma. Its national population is 45million. Established in 1974, Dodoma has a land size of 995km2 and population of 410,956. Pakistan has a national population of 183 million. It had its former capital at Karachi and present capital at Islamabad. Islamabad has a total land size of 906km2 and population of 805,235. India with a national population of 1.2 billion, had its former capital at Calcutta since 1507 and the present at New Delhi established in 1947. The land size of New Delhi is 1,484km2, while population is 11,007,835.
Other countries in the scholar’s statistics were: Brazil which total population is 202 million. It had its former capital at Rio de Janairo and the new one at Brasilia. Established in 1961, Brasilia has land coverage of 5,802km2 and population of 2,739,761. Australia has a population of 23 million. Its former capital is Sydney and the new is Canberra. Canberra was established in 1927, with land area of 814.2km2 and population of 381,488. The final one we can mention here is USA. Its former capital since 1624 was New York and new one is Washington DC, established in 1800. Its land size is 177km2 population is 646,449.
In comparison to all the nations and their new capital cities mentioned above, Nigeria with a total population of 175 million had its former capital in Lagos and a new one in Abuja established in 1975, with a land size of 8,000 km2 and population of 1,405,201 as at the 2006 census. A curious look at the land size of the area recommended by the Justice Akinola J. Aguda Panel to the Federal Military Government for the development of the new Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was to say the less over ambitious. The panel recommended land size of 8,000km2, two-and-a-half the size of Lagos for immediate and future use, when none of the eight countries and new capital cities visited by the panel occupy such land size.
Pakistan and Brazil are the only countries that had acquired significant land areas for their new capital cities of the eight countries visited by the panel. Pakistan acquired 906km2 for its new capital city in Islamabad, and 1,200 km2 was acquired by Brazil for its new capital city at Brasilia respectively. The reasons to acquire such vast land areas for their new capital cities may be attributed to the populations of both countries. Pakistan had a population of 183 million, a little more than Nigeria with 175 million while Brazil had a population of 202million, over a quarter more than Nigeria’s.
The rest countries visited by the panel acquired less than 700km2 each for their respective new capital cities. But surprisingly the land area acquired by the Federal Military Government for Abuja, as a country alone was far more than the size of the new capital cities of the eight countries visited by the panel put together.