Spying a brewing political storm, the Presidency has swiftly moved to quell rumors that President Bola Tinubu harbors any intention of shifting Nigeria’s capital from Abuja to Lagos.
The clarification, issued on Wednesday by Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, comes in response to a recent outcry triggered by the planned relocation of departments within the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) from Abuja to Lagos.
These planned agency relocations, while unconnected to any capital city shift, ignited speculation and fueled accusations of regional bias favoring Lagos, Tinubu’s political base. The Presidency’s prompt reaction aims to nip such allegations in the bud, emphasizing that “there is no plan whatsoever to relocate the Federal Capital Territory from Abuja.”
Onanuga further clarified that the CBN and FAAN departmental moves are internal administrative decisions driven by operational considerations, not driven by any political motives.
He stressed that “the relocation of some departments and parastatals of the CBN and FAAN to Lagos is strictly a business decision and has nothing to do with the movement of the Federal Capital.”
He wrote: “The movement of FAAN, a department of the Aviation Ministry, to Lagos, where it was based before former minister Hadi Sirika moved it to Abuja during the last administration, does not amount to moving the FCT to Lagos.
“The administrative move should have attracted scant attention, as Lagos is the commercial capital and the hub of aviation business in Nigeria. FAAN should be nowhere else but near the industry it regulates.
“FAAN will still maintain some presence in Abuja, as it is not a wholesale movement.
“Similarly, the movement of some departments of the CBN to Lagos should not trigger any hoopla. The departments concerned, including the bank supervision department, are those dealing with commercial banks, all with headquarters in Lagos. A regulator ought to be close to the businesses it regulates.
“There are many parastatals that are not based in Abuja, depending on their mandate. NIMASA is in Lagos. So is NPA. The National Inland Waterways Authority( NIWA) is in Lokoja, not Abuja. Will the people opposing the movement of FAAN and some CBN departments want those agencies to be in Abuja, where there is no single port and no maritime activity?”
