Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria - Politics - Nairaland
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| Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by Afam4eva(m): 7:42pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
This question has been bugging my mind for sometime now. How exactly does the government decide where to cite the capital of a country? Do these places have indigenes? Is there an agreement that everybody from that country will become an indigene of that country since the capital will built with the nation's fund and not that of the chosen city? For instance, if Nigeria breaks up tomorrow, Abuja will belong to the north abi? Lagos will also belong to the west abi? Even though this two cities were impacted by the fact that they were the country's capital. What will happen to the Niger Delta and other parts of the country where the money that's used to build these cities come from. |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by werepeLeri: 8:22pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
Nigerians. Abuja was carved out central to Nigeria - why will u say it belongs to the North or it will go to the North? Not sure the essence of the question, but my own question is, why is Abuja not the capital of Nigeria? The government looked for a central location geographically and hence decided to develop Abuja. Maybe from your question- each part of the country should share in having the capital located within their region? Not sure the aim of this question. |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by Afam4eva(m): 8:23pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
Why was Lagos made the capital in the first place since a capital is supposed to be in the middle. |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by Ejine(m): 8:34pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
Oga mi, in the case of Nigeria, na raffle draw we dey carry do am  |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by ektbear: 8:47pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
Ask the Brits I suppose why Lagos was made capital. Regarding Abuja, ask the military regimes who chose it. 1 Like |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by cashmentor(m): 8:51pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
afam4eva:the north claimed that Lagos is to close 2 d sea and thus, could b easily attackd if war eventualy breaks out, Hence, d North (who held power then) decided 2 move it 2 their region, But u and i know that all that were just filty excuses, the north just want 2 hold and control d country by all means, It is not a news now that all feds. agencies in Nig has their head quaters in Abuja, And yes, since d capital is in d North, should Nig split up, Abuja blongs 2 d North 500%, a very good strategy if u ask me! 5 Likes |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by Ejine(m): 8:52pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
ekt_bear: It was under Shagari's administration, and he was a civilian. |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by ektbear: 8:55pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
I thought they decided on Abuja as capital during the 70s? Around Murtala Mohammed's time? 1 Like |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by GAR3TH(m): 8:58pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
To be frank, I hate abuja, at least the location. Why must everything revolve around tribes in Nigeria. Who cares if it on one mans land or not and why put the capital in the middle of the country? worst case scenario i would have preferred lokoja, but why build a city in the middle of nowhere? |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by PROUDIGBO(m): 9:01pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
I think i understand Afam4evas' point. If Nigeria breaks up today (for example into north/middlebelt/Oduduwa/Niger Delta/Biafra: not saying this is how it would be) what he's saying is that our commonwealth has been used to develop Lagos and Abuja which the Yorubas and Northerners each get to keep, while the Niger Delta, Biafraland and maybe Middle-belt will be left high and dry, with only a 'WTF JUST HAPPENED  ' look of surprise on their faces after they realise they've been had. When resources are being spent on places like Abuja and Lagos, fairness demands that a concerted effort be made to develop at least one major city in the other geo-political zones as well. Enugu for instance has next to nothing by way of federal presence/institutions or federal assisted projects that impact the lives of the indigenes positively (of course the situation's changed slightly with Jonathans' government).On the reason for placing federal capitals where they've been thus far, i can understand the reasons for the nations capital being in Lagos, but the one of Abuja escapes me and i feel is just plain politics. They come up with the excuse of being 'centrally located' when looking for a plausible 'tory' to justify their action and pull wool over our faces in the process. To me, 'centrally located' doesn't have to mean in the 'geographical sense, as a place like Lokoja would have been perfectly ok, but it's not 'northern' enough for the powers that held sway at the time. THe governance of places like Lagos and Abuja thus far tells you that even though they are 'federal territories' on paper, the reality on ground is different as not just anyone from any part of Nigeria can aspire to the top positions in these cities (Abuja to a lesser degree). |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by Oba234: 9:05pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
don't know, but why put capital in the middle of nowhere? I thought you normally put a capital on the coast because of the access to water at least a place that have access to water. Washington DC is the capital of the U.S. and it's on the coast. Lagos was a good choice for a capital and the Europeans that chose it knew what they were doing. |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by GAR3TH(m): 9:08pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
@PROUD-IGBO Actually throughout Nigeria's history the south-south has receives the most money from the FG followed by the south-east. by just having a capital doesn't mean they have gained anything. 1 Like |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by Kobojunkie: 9:13pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
A Capital is supposed to be in the middle? Where did that come from?? |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by PROUDIGBO(m): 9:20pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
GAR3TH: ^^^I thought we were talking of individual cities being developed in certain regions with the 'nations commonwealth', and not monies allocated to states from the federation account based on what ordinarily would be their due as per the federal allocation. The point you raised of the South East receiving the highest amount in Nigerias' history after the South South is laughable  . I wish i were true though. Could you refer me to any link/document to buttress your point?2 Likes |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by DRANOEL(m): 9:29pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
@cashmentor it wasnt just northners that suggest the moving of the capital to abuja,infact the aguda headed 6man panel had only one northner! the idea then was to look for a place more suitable to all nigerians and to correct the mistakes of lagos,also security of the location from external attacks was considered! among the places considered were lokoja,makurdi,jos,keffi! but these places already had established towns/cities and as such were ruled out! the place we now call abuja was actually suleja but the name was changed and abuja became suleja and vice versa |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by paniki(m): 9:39pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
It's modelled after Brazil's capital Brasília |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by paniki(m): 9:40pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
It's modelled after Brazil's capital Brasília |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by GAR3TH(m): 9:57pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
PROUD-IGBO: After doing some research I'll take back my statement that the south-east zone receives the second highest amount of allocation. It turns out that they receive one of the lowest amounts of allocation. But you have to remember that the south-east is the smallest geopolitical zone and is about the same size as kaduna state. According to a 2005* article Kaduna state receives about N65.4 billion from allocation while the south-east zone, about the same size, received N237.4 billion through allocation. The south east is receiving more money for the same piece of land as other parts of the country. the reason why the south east gets "tiny" allocations is because the south-east zone is small compared to other zones. But in terms of "allocation per square mile" it receives the second most, after the south-south if rivers state was to become a geopolitical zone tomorrow it will have the smallest allocation compared to other zones but it will be the richest in term of land mass. *though its a 2005 article the allocation formula has remained the same throughout the years http://www.nigerianmuse.com/nigeriawatch/allocations/?u=media_accounts_five_year_allocation_summaries.htm |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by jason123: 10:13pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
^^^ Thank you jare! We also have the ministry of ND. I frankly think NO one is marginalised in Nigeria! |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by PROUDIGBO(m): 10:20pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
GAR3TH: ^^^ Cheers GAR3TH. Just checked the link, and besides the South East receiving the lowest amount amongst all the regions, another thing that struck me was that of Local Government disbursements, with Kano State receiving the highest . Now WTF do they do with all that money they've been getting over the decades b'cos -even with all the shenanigans and wuru-wuru- the South East is still better off in all indices. I've said it, and i'll continue to say it that Ndigbo are being shortchanged in this set-up as things stand. The talk of landmass -though valid up to a point- does not give the full picture of the situation as there are monumental problems like erosion and bad roads that we've got to contend with and the area is densely populated. You would have thought (given the argument of small landmass) that it would be a reason to easily fix roads like Enugu-Onitsha and Enugu-Port harcourt expressways, but then this is Nigeria we're talking of: a place were logic and fairness goes out the window the moment ethnic/bigoted/vindictive considerations step into the room. In this dog-eat-dog country, Ndigbo would have been an endangered species if not for our self-help and industry. 1 Like |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by realchange: 10:29pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
how can anybody allocate money based on land, even if the land is not contributing much to the center? what happened to population and production? |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by jason123: 10:30pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
PROUD-IGBO: Its crazy how the NE can receive more money than the SE? Is it based on land mass or what? |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by jason123: 10:30pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
realchange: You beat me to it! |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by dayokanu(m): 11:06pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
realchange: Allocation based on pupulation the SE still deserves the lowest Cos the NW, SW, are more populous not sure about SS and NC though |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by VoodooDoll(m): 11:36pm On Dec 14, 2011 |
Zonal allocation Instead of speculating on the allocations why don't we check the facts out: September 2011 is the latest federal allocation by state that has been published: http://fmf.gov.ng/images/FAAC/faacrepSep2011.pdf It is in PDF, but any body interested in the breakdown can take a look. The SS is doing quite well when the total gross amount is taken into account. The second page may be the useful page. Sept allocation: SS: N76.3bn (twice as big as NW) NW: N38.3bn SW: N32.5bn NC: N24.8bn NE: N21.7bn SE: N20.8bn TOTAL: N214.6n Would also be good to know the numbers per capita (per capita data is further below, the SE's position improves as it is reported to have a lower population). |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by VoodooDoll(m): 12:12am On Dec 15, 2011 |
STATE GROSS ALLOCATION - SEPT RANK ZONE NIGER 4,839,001,829.97 15 NC BENUE 4,516,409,876.51 17 NC KOGI 4,200,217,007.05 22 NC PLATEAU 4,116,090,731.45 26 NC KWARA 3,601,761,866.67 33 NC NASSARAWA 3,557,236,344.75 34 NC 24,830,717,656.40 BORNO 4,944,656,388.54 11 NE BAUCHI 4,858,691,740.96 14 NE ADAMAWA 4,178,297,323.39 24 NE YOBE 4,038,372,712.83 29 NE GOMBE 3,701,054,477.02 32 NE 21,721,072,642.74 KANO 6,674,241,014.31 6 NW KADUNA 5,309,174,726.28 8 NW KATSINA 5,042,564,487.97 10 NW JIGAWA 4,614,496,358.90 16 NW SOKOTO 4,342,627,951.23 18 NW KEBBI 4,196,742,969.91 23 NW ZAMFARA 4,096,750,856.25 27 NW TARABA 4,061,542,356.17 28 NW 38,338,140,721.02 IMO 4,885,879,143.46 13 SE ANAMBRA 4,272,515,349.08 20 SE ABIA 4,214,342,462.96 21 SE ENUGU 3,979,318,181.99 30 SE EBONYI 3,497,910,458.91 36 SE 20,849,965,596.40 RIVERS 18,478,177,166.31 1 SS AKWA IBOM 17,553,954,603.08 2 SS DELTA 16,577,716,313.58 3 SS BAYELSA 14,353,041,176.96 4 SS EDO 5,095,899,922.46 9 SS CROSS RIVER 4,280,337,681.01 19 SS 76,339,126,863.40 LAGOS 10,076,271,301.28 5 SW ONDO 6,008,184,729.92 7 SW OYO 4,913,893,369.91 12 SW OGUN 4,125,011,226.87 25 SW OSUN 3,913,690,147.37 31 SW EKITI 3,526,364,205.05 35 SW 32,563,414,980.40 The top 5 states that received allocations are all oil producing states that received 13% derivation. Feel free to cross-check the table in case I have made any errors or if you have better data. Also if there is a per capita analysis (ie per population). |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by dayokanu(m): 12:24am On Dec 15, 2011 |
^^ Can you also give us a breakdown of population by Geopolitical zones |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by VoodooDoll(m): 12:26am On Dec 15, 2011 |
I havent seen any reliable updated population per zones, but I may cross-refer to some tables I used during the elections. |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by VoodooDoll(m): 12:50am On Dec 15, 2011 |
ON A PER CAPITA BASIS (Ie with population) SEPT ALLOCATION PER HEAD SS: N3,242 NC: N1,175 NE: N1,162 SE: N1,135 SW: N1,053 NW: N898 All Zones average per head (incl SS): N1,382 All Zones average per head (excl SS): N1,049 STATE GROSS ALLOCATION - SEPT Population Per capita RANK ZONE NIGER 4,839,001,829.97 4,425,910.63 1,093.33 15 NC BENUE 4,516,409,876.51 4,727,296.15 955.39 17 NC KOGI 4,200,217,007.05 3,673,259.70 1,143.46 22 NC PLATEAU 4,116,090,731.45 3,561,470.49 1,155.73 26 NC KWARA 3,601,761,866.67 2,656,599.12 1,355.78 33 NC NASSARAWA 3,557,236,344.75 2,087,637.67 1,703.95 34 NC 24,830,717,656.40 21,132,173.76 1,175.02 STATE GROSS ALLOCATION - SEPT Population Per capita RANK ZONE BORNO 4,944,656,388.54 4,651,050.92 1,063.13 11 NE BAUCHI 4,858,691,740.96 5,239,572.53 927.31 14 NE ADAMAWA 4,178,297,323.39 3,549,581.79 1,177.12 24 NE YOBE 4,038,372,712.83 2,601,140.91 1,552.54 29 NE GOMBE 3,701,054,477.02 2,637,316.81 1,403.34 32 NE 21,721,072,642.74 18,678,662.96 1,162.88 STATE GROSS ALLOCATION - SEPT Population Per capita RANK ZONE KANO 6,674,241,014.31 10,513,600.01 634.82 6 NW KADUNA 5,309,174,726.28 6,797,055.39 781.10 8 NW KATSINA 5,042,564,487.97 6,490,080.13 776.96 10 NW JIGAWA 4,614,496,358.90 4,872,283.20 947.09 16 NW SOKOTO 4,342,627,951.23 4,142,166.02 1,048.40 18 NW KEBBI 4,196,742,969.91 3,628,601.16 1,156.57 23 NW ZAMFARA 4,096,750,856.25 3,652,374.08 1,121.67 27 NW TARABA 4,061,542,356.17 2,577,774.70 1,575.60 28 NW 38,338,140,721.02 42,673,934.69 898.40 STATE GROSS ALLOCATION - SEPT Population Per capita RANK ZONE IMO 4,885,879,143.46 4,408,712.29 1,108.23 13 SE ANAMBRA 4,272,515,349.08 4,685,603.34 911.84 20 SE ABIA 4,214,342,462.96 3,175,249.54 1,327.25 21 SE ENUGU 3,979,318,181.99 3,649,519.27 1,090.37 30 SE EBONYI 3,497,910,458.91 2,435,218.94 1,436.38 36 SE 20,849,965,596.40 18,354,303.37 1,135.97 STATE GROSS ALLOCATION - SEPT Population Per capita RANK ZONE RIVERS 18,478,177,166.31 5,809,789.96 3,180.52 1 SS AKWA IBOM 17,553,954,603.08 4,392,252.30 3,996.57 2 SS DELTA 16,577,716,313.58 4,591,890.87 3,610.22 3 SS BAYELSA 14,353,041,176.96 1,908,464.58 7,520.73 4 SS EDO 5,095,899,922.46 3,605,861.25 1,413.23 9 SS CROSS RIVER 4,280,337,681.01 3,236,835.28 1,322.38 19 SS 76,339,126,863.40 23,545,094.24 3,242.25 STATE GROSS ALLOCATION - SEPT Population Per capita RANK ZONE LAGOS 10,076,271,301.28 10,098,881.35 997.76 5 SW ONDO 6,008,184,729.92 3,855,368.28 1,558.39 7 SW OYO 4,913,893,369.91 6,264,889.43 784.35 12 SW OGUN 4,125,011,226.87 4,177,009.75 987.55 25 SW OSUN 3,913,690,147.37 3,835,773.38 1,020.31 31 SW EKITI 3,526,364,205.05 2,671,302.30 1,320.09 35 SW 32,563,414,980.40 30,903,224.49 1,053.72 TOTAL - all zones 214,642,438,460.36 155,287,393.52 |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by dayokanu(m): 1:02am On Dec 15, 2011 |
Thanks a lot That shows that SE is the least populated of all the GeoPolitical zone So what spin are we expecting now? |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by sheyguy: 1:04am On Dec 15, 2011 |
realchange:smaller allocation to small land mass is perfectly normal, even when they contribute less income. This is normal practice all over the world, the logic here is that zones/constituencies with larger land mass need more to carter for there basic need like roads, health, water e.t.c. The more the land mass the longer the road needed to connect two locations, the longer the distance an ambulance will travel to get to a hospital or the more hospitals will have to b built to match the size of that land, and more pipes will be laid out/maintained to supply water as well to a population that is probably bigger. Where the injustice comes in is the failure of these constituencies to contribute more tax as a result of low level industrialization, as a matter of fact the low level of industrialization in these area is used to priotize the zone that gets more allocation. The summary for allocation formular is always a balance between population and land mass, example is lagos and kano. While lagos has clearly has more population and smaller land mass kano has moderate population (in reality) which they claim is poorer than Lagos and a larger landmass which they claim is less developed and is actually is, any govt be it Nigerian or abroad will consider kano for more allocation under this arrangement. The best hope for N-Deltans is a increased oil revenue allocation which is already at 13% and quit high enough for any serious govt (even Imo/ekiti state being the lowest are balling) to use to a great advantage. Niger delta has no real excuse for under-developement, if u still dont get it u can ask a jos/plateau person abt their own story with tin minning and its after effect. |
| Re: Why Is Abuja The Capital Of Nigeria by sheyguy: 1:04am On Dec 15, 2011 |
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