ABSTRACT
Was the development of Abuja a national development project or a military conspiracy against Lagos in the service of the country?
In 1976, seven more states were founded from the existing twelve states in the country, bringing the total to nineteen, and their capitals were established. Also, with the handover to the civilian rule looking like a done deal, and with the acceptance of the recommendation of The Committee for the Location of the Federal Capital of Nigeria (TCLFCN) that a new capital city should be built for the country outside Lagos, the Obsanjo government feared the succeeding civilian administration might suspend the implementation of the Abuja development plan. General Obasanjo realized that the capital city would be one of his legacies for the country and he wanted to develop the FCT to the extent that no government coming in when the military handed over to an elected president would be able to undermine the program. We have the account of Aluko (1994), who later became the Chairman of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA):
But again, early in 1976, I was appointed by the Federal Military Government a member of the Federal Capital Development Authority. Government took a most momentous decision a year before to build a brand new capital in place of Lagos which had become unsuitable [as] a capital for a variety of reasons. I was in the throes of my Ph.D. thesis and I earnestly pleaded to be excused. The Chairman Moboloaji Ajose-Adeogun pleaded that I should not excuse myself. We arrived at a compromise that I should finish my Ph.D. exam before joining the rest of the team. That was after November 1976. I [had] however attended the inaugural meeting before that date when the member of the Supreme Military Council in charge of the FCDA, Major General T.Y. Danjuma, announced to us [the] government’s decision that we must proceed with such speed that whichever civilian government came to power in October 1979, when the military were due to hand over to civilians, it would find that so much work had been done in building the city that it could no longer reverse the decision to build it.
