On Monday, Abuja, the federal capital,turned 20 years as the seat ofgovernment. Sulaimon Olanrewajuwrites on events that have shaped theburgeoning African capital.NONE of the minds that conceived the idea of relocating the federal capital from Lagos to Abuja would believe the transformation that has come upon the new federal capital city since the seat of government moved there on 12 December, 1991. The place once described as a jungle has become a lovely city that houses some of the best architectural designs the world can boast of, from government buildings to company headquarters to foreign missions and world-class hotels. Abuja has moved from being a deserted terrain to a besieged land as the crme de la crme always find their way to the city for one thing or the other.The journey of making Abuja the nation's new capital city started without Abuja being in the picture. The Murtala Muhammed administration in 1975 set up a seven-man panel (Justice Akinola Aguda, chairman; Dr Tai Solarin, Colonel Monsignor Pedro Martins, Alhaji Musa Isma, Chief Owen Fiebai, Dr Ajato Gondonu and Prof O. Ogan) to examine the suitability of Lagos as the nation's capital city. The panel, known as Aguda Panel, was also empowered to advise the government on alternative locations should it find Lagos unfit to continue as the federal capital.Aguda Panel returned a verdict of Lagos' inappropriateness as federal capital. This was hinged primarily on the population explosion of the city coupled with the limited opportunity for expansion. Thus, going by its terms of reference, the panel considered about 30 other locations using a set of 13 criteria. The panel eventually picked Abuja, a virgin land, principally because of its location in the centre of the nation and its ethnic neutrality.The panel, in its report, observed that, 'It is needless for us to state the obvious that we are just in the process of building a nation of the many nations which occupy the geographic area known as Nigeria. It is our belief that one way of forging the idea of unity of this nation is by building a capital city which will belong to every Nigerian, where every Nigerian will rest assured that he has opportunity to live in parity with every other Nigerian, and where no Nigerian will be regarded either in law or on the facts as a native foreigner.'The Federal Government accepted the panel's recommendation that 'a centrally located federal capital in a spacious area with easy access to all parts of the federation would be an asset to the nation and would help in generating a new sense of national unity.'The government also stressed that Abuja was to be 'a symbol of Nigeria's aspiration for unity and greatness and to be the seat of government, a place of and a symbol of unity, a melting pot of Nigeria's diverse cultures, a magnet of diverse peoples and nations and a place of physical beauty and an exemplary physical environment.'With that, the end of the reign of Lagos as the federal capital began as the stage was set for the relocation of the nation's capital to Abuja.With the report of the panel submitted and approved by the government, the military administration in power then promulgated a decree to establish the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and also the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), which was charged with the responsibility of planning, designing and developing the FCT.By February of 1979, the Abuja Master Plan was ready but the building of the city did not really commence until 1980, after the assumption of office of Alhaji Sheu Shagari as the nation's president. He devoted much time and attention to the building of the new capital city. The construction work going on in the budding city during the Shagari presidency was so much that Abuja was referred to as the largest construction site on earth. While the city was still under construction, the Shagari administration on October 1, 1982 held the 22nd independence anniversary in Abuja.However, construction work in Abuja was halted following the ousting of Shagari from power by the duo of Mohammed Buhari and Tunde Idiagbon in a coup d'tat on December 31, 1983. No additional block was added to Abuja while Buhari held sway as the head of state because the military government he headed viewed the civilian government it kicked out of power as profligate. It was not until General Ibrahim Babangida took over power that work resumed in Abuja.The Babangida administration also took the development of the new federal capital seriously and brought development in Abuja to an appreciable state, which necessitated the movement of the presidency from Lagos to Abuja on 12 December, 1991. With the presidency moving to Abuja, a number of ministries were also moved to the new capital city but the bulk of ministries as well as foreign missions remained in Lagos.The ascension to power of General Sani Abacha, in 1993, saw an improvement in the status of Abuja as the capital city, especially following his directive to all ministries, agencies and foreign missions to move to the federal capital territory.Although there is no argument about the beauty of the federal capital, some people are of the opinion that the exquisiteness would have been more pronounced had the government not allowed a deviation from the city's original master plan.In a paper titled The City as Public Space: Abuja - the Capital City of Nigeria, Goomsu Ikoku posits that, 'As built, the National Assembly Complex is situated in its proposed location on a knoll overlooking the rest of the Central Area. It is the terminus of the axis centring on Aso Hill, symbolising the Legislature as the place where the nation's laws are made, by focusing all other functions in the Central Area, and implicitly the nation, on it.'The rest of the composition of the Central Area has changed considerably. The Executive (Presidential Villa Complex) and the Judiciary (Supreme Court Complex) have been relocated to two knolls next to the Legislature (National Assembly Complex). The road network has been altered encircling all three arms of government in one location, hence the name The Three Arms Zone. This arrangement is propitious in that it consolidates the Aso Hill terminus of the axis and amplifies the symbolism of The Three Arms Zone as the focus and centre of the nation.'He also observes that, 'The other changes however are not as auspicious. The mall and the four minor squares are no more. The site of the Central Square remains, though it is yet to be built. However, another national square, variously called Eagle Square or Festival Ground, has been built. It is located where the Central Park was proposed and has an adjoining Memorial Arcade jutting into The Three Arms Zone.'But the alteration is not restricted to government buildings alone. The government, probably in its bid to fast track development in the capital city, allocated wrong spots to people and organisations. This precipitated a wave of slapdash constructions not in tandem with the master plan. Consequently, a number of slums sprang up and uncoordinated constructions emerged even close to the sewers and in green areas.It was the alteration of the master plan, with buildings springing up in wrong places, that forced Mallam Nasir el Rufai, former Federal Capital Territory minister, to insist on the demolition exercise that he embarked upon. According to the former minister, it was imperative for the nation to preserve the beauty of the capital city. But the exit of el Rufai from government has not led to the end of the demolition exercise as efforts are still on to rid the federal capital of anything that would detract from making it a city that would elicit pride from Nigerians and foreigners alike.Speaking recently on the effort of the government to improve the state of Abuja, the current FCT Minister, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, said the FCT Administration was doing its best to upgrade infrastructure and facilities in the city to meet best international standards.He added that the FCT Administration was committed to the development of not just the Abuja city but also the satellite towns as a deliberate way of decongesting the city centre. He also disclosed that the administration was improving the transportation links between the Federal Capital City (FCC) and the area councils through the construction of light railway networks and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lanes for mass transit buses.However, despite the splendour of Abuja, the major concern of the common man is that the initial plan of making the Federal Capital Territory a home for every Nigerian is fast becoming a mirage. The ongoing urban renewal exercise in the city has driven away many low-income and middle-income earners from the city because the cost of living in the capital city is way above the means of the average Nigerian. So, to the average Nigerian, Abuja, the federal capital, is for the very wealthy and the political class and not a home for all.
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