Just to have a feel and open minded opinion as to why we needed to change Nigeria's capital city.
Not as if am against the change.

Well, one thing's for sure, the coast was made capital cities by the colonialists because they came to Africa by ship and their first point of call was the coastal cities and you would find out these locations became the most developed areas of each ECOWAS state on the coast.

I once heard it was because Lagos was being more developed than every other part of Nigeria.
I have also heard that its because our Ex-President wanted to make Niger State Nigeria's capital.
The most common one is that it is the geographical centre of Nigeria, i.e. Heart.

So many other reasons, so kindly give ideas to broaden our knowledge.

babaogun:

Just to have a feel and open minded opinion as to why we needed to change Nigeria's capital city.
Not as if am against the change.

Well, one thing's for sure, the coast was made capital cities by the colonialists because they came to Africa by ship and their first point of call was the coastal cities and you would find out these locations became the most developed areas of each ECOWAS state on the coast.

I once heard it was because Lagos was being more developed than every other part of Nigeria.
I have also heard that its because our Ex-President wanted to make Niger State Nigeria's capital.The most common one is that it is the geographical centre of Nigeria, i.e. Heart.

So many other reasons, so kindly give ideas to broaden our knowledge.

coastal territories are usually very successful for obvious reasons. They are places where historically, countries can trade with each other and spots that make a country open and accessible to others. The earliest civilizations started along coasts or water bodies (Nile in Africa etc). They usually grow into cities.
Lagos however was becoming too over crowded and Abuja is located right in the center of the nation. I think these are the only two arguments i've heard for why they changed the capital.
I really don't know much either and it'll be interesting to hear from knowledgeable people on this topic.

I got this from wikipedia though:
"Historically, the major economic center of a state or region often becomes the focal point of political power, and becomes a capital through conquest or amalgamation. This was the case for London and Moscow. The capital naturally attracts the politically motivated and those whose skills are needed for efficient administration of government such as lawyers, journalists, and public policy researchers. A capital that is the prime economic, cultural, or intellectual center is sometimes referred to as a primate city. Such is certainly the case with London and Buenos Aires among national capitals, and Irkutsk or Salt Lake City in their respective state or province.

Capitals are sometimes sited to discourage further growth in an existing major city. Brasília was situated in Brazil's interior because the old capital, Rio de Janeiro, and southeastern Brazil in general, were considered over-crowded.

The convergence of political and economic or cultural power is by no means universal. [/b]Traditional capitals may be economically eclipsed by provincial rivals, as occurred with Nanjing by Shanghai. The decline of a dynasty or culture could also mean the extinction of its capital city, as occurred with Babylon and Cahokia. [b]Many present-day capital cities, such as Abuja, Brasília, Canberra, Islamabad, Ottawa and Washington, D.C. are planned cities, purposefully located away from established population centres for various reasons, and have become gradually established as new business or commercial centres."

Great insight from you TLolive.
This is a well thought about response.
Cheers.

@topic,

Let me add some conspiracy type reason why the Capital was moved to Abuja. from what i gathered in those days, it was part of IBB's grand scheme to hold unto power at all costs. if you remember, the Gideon Orkar coup almost toppled him. His ADC was killed defending him during the coup D'etat. IBB felt he had no control over Lagos and that it will be ungovernable in the event of civil unrest. The best place he could go without feeling much of the heat was Abuja.

While this reason may not be tenable for academic purposes, I kind of believe there is some truth to the story.

it wasnt ibb that thought out the relocation to abuja but murtala.he did this way back in 1975/76 a on the panel were the greatest some of the brain in nigeria such as a.aguda,the world reknowned prof of human geography akin mabogunje et al, for on thing as somebody that study geography and planning and frequENTLY SHUTTLES LAGOS AND ABUJA i know it was know political,but sheer brillance and visionary planning.IBB just tried to keep to the plan

Nice response from TLOlive.

I noticed as I went through various discussion topics on this forum that when references are made to historical pasts it always without exception is fixed around colonial establishments and their residual chaos.

When talking about capital cities of West African States and their historical beginnings we must account for Songhay, Oyo, Benin, Ashanti, Kanem and their respective capitals. Benin is the only exception here, all others had land-locked capitals. The only commonality is that while they are not necessarily on the coast, these capitals nonetheless were situated close by a large body of water. Before the white colonialists came to our lands we were self-governing and we had city and urban planning administrators. How do you explain Timbuktu, how do you explain the Kano city walls with its sentry gates? Some capitals were best located in a valley and the terrain of the sorrounding ridges and mountains gave natural cover for defense against intruding armies.

On matters of political discourse relating to our motherland responses must be fed from our soul, not from what the white man has taught us to believe. In our souls we hear a different rhythym than the drumbeat that the European listens to and so their yardstick of measure for the beginning of our civilization is not accurate. We must break free in our conscience, our minds and our souls from their timeline of our beginnings. They have educated us in their schools and in their books, we must now re-educate ourselves in our ancestry and nature.

Meshimo.

a needless thread in my humble opinion.

Tayo-D:

@topic,

Let me add some conspiracy type reason why the Capital was moved to Abuja. from what i gathered in those days, it was part of IBB's grand scheme to hold unto power at all costs. if you remember, the Gideon Orkar coup almost toppled him. His ADC was killed defending him during the coup D'etat. IBB felt he had no control over Lagos and that it will be ungovernable in the event of civil unrest. The best place he could go without feeling much of the heat was Abuja.

While this reason may not be tenable for academic purposes, I kind of believe there is some truth to the story.

This is the type of reasoning you get from misinformed Nigerians who think they know anything about Nigeria and will gladly fight over nonsense.

So, Abuja has now been twisted to be IBB's baby? This is a shame, huge one.

@Afam,

This is the type of reasoning you get from misinformed Nigerians who think they know anything about Nigeria and will gladly fight over nonsense.

You have started with your juvenile tantrums again abi? What part of "conspiracy theory" don't you understand? You think I am like you to make references to non-existent data in writing a bull-shit article? When I refer to facts, I back up the facts. When something is no other than hear-say or conspiracy theories, I will surely refer to it as such.

So, Abuja has now been twisted to be IBB's baby? This is a shame, huge one.

No one ever said Abuja was IBB's baby. You need to understand what you read before you start to foam your shame on the www.

I know it is paining you that I revealed your infantile reasoning when you came on nairaland to declare that the way to bring about uninterrrupted power supply in naija is by taking our industries off the power grid while providing just 2 or 3 light bulbs for each household and possibly enough power to for one TV per home. Trying to twist my words to make your self look good is not the way to redeem yourself.

And by the way, you are yet to tell us what qualifies you to speak on Naija's power industry other than the fact that you peddle inverters.

Tayo-D:

And by the way, you are yet to tell us what qualifies you to speak on Naija's power industry other than the fact that you peddle inverters.

Hehehehehehehehehe

Anyways. . . . .I kinda understand the whole IBB angle concerning the move to Abuja.

It might not have been his 'baby' but he sure hastened the move after the Orkar coup
even with the unpreparedness of Abuja for such a migration.

@doyin13,

Anyways. . . . .I kind of understand the whole IBB angle concerning the move to Abuja.

It might not have been his 'baby' but he sure hastened the move after the Orkar coup
even with the unpreparedness of Abuja for such a migration.

Absolutely. The way the move was carried out gives credence to the theory. That it is an angle worth investigating is not in doubt. The one crying Abuja being IBB's baby has no clue what he is saying.

Some of us had the priviledge of working with some of the Master Planners for Abuja, so we know what we are talking about.

Absolute rubbish.

Abuja was created by Murtala through its committee which include Aguda + Tai Solarin.

It has nothing to do with IBB

The main reason was:

1. decongest lagos

2. central location

3. a place where all Nigerians can be at home

I know for a fact these reasons were not-well thought through.

@landis,

Absolute rubbish.

Abuja was created by Murtala through its committee which include Aguda + Tai Solarin.

Is anybody contesting this with you? At least no one has said here that it was not his brain child. However, why the rush by IBB which happens to have been accelerated after the coup? What role did the coup and possibly his desire to hold on to power have play with respect to the move? That is what we need to consider.

Tayo-D:

@landis,
Is anybody contesting this with you? At least no one has said here that it was not his brain child. However, why the rush by IBB which happens to have been accelerated after the coup? What role did the coup and possibly his desire to hold on to power have play with respect to the move? That is what we need to consider.

That's circumstancial. It does not hold. Abuja was created in 1977 legally.

Shagari actually built Aguda house in 1983 in Abuja.

IBB relocated to Abuja in 1990, this is clearly 13yrs after. Nothing to do with his consolidation on power or Okhar Coup.

NOTE: I am no FAN of IBB. I just set the record straight.

@landis,

That's circumstancial. It does not hold. Abuja was created in 1977 legally.

Are circumstancial evidences ignored in a court of law?

Tayo-D:

@landis,
Are circumstancial evidences ignored in a court of law?

It not cannot be used by a serious competent court of law to jail anyone.

anyway, we are not in law-court.

Just that we should erase the notion IBB moved seat of Power to Abuja because of Coup or Power consolidation is idle talk.

Which ever leader that would have done it would be accused of same.

The fact on ground was Abuja was created in 1977 and it became seat of power from that moment.

Some historical background of Abuja:
http://medlibrary.org/medwiki/Garki_District%2C_Abuja#History

@landis,

Just that we should erase the notion IBB moved seat of Power to Abuja because of Coup or Power consolidation is idle talk

Did you read the following statement that I made in my first post: "While this reason may not be tenable for academic purposes, I kind of believe there is some truth to the story."

The fact on ground was Abuja was created in 1977 and it became seat of power from that moment.

Abuja became the seat of power in 1977?

Tayo-D:

@landis,
Did you read the following statement that I made in my first post: "While this reason may not be tenable for academic purposes, I kind of believe there is some truth to the story."
Abuja became the seat of power in 1977?

There is no truth to it. It is only a wishful thinking.

Yep. Abuja became legal seat of power in 1977 when it was created.

IBB only physical moved in 1990.

@landis,

There is no truth to it. It is only a wishful thinking.

Can you tell us why there was such a hurry to move to Abuja after the coup? Please don't regurgitate the Murtala idea again as that is well known by all.

Yep. Abuja became legal seat of power in 1977 when it was created.
IBB only physical moved in 1990.

Was there any decree promulgated in 1977 saying Abuja was now the legal seat of power from that year? That plans were made to make it the seat of power doesn't confer that status until the move was finalized. Up until the move, Lagos was considered the Capital of Naija, and only became the commercial Capital after the move.

Yorubaland Lagos is too dirty to be a capital of a country

Personally, I'm happy that Abuja is the nation's capital. Apart from the fact that Lagos gets decongested, Abuja is geographically situated at the very heart of Nigeria. Military-wise, Abuja's location gives it huge stategic advantage over Lagos.

PH / Calabar for capital. GBAM!!!!

@Afam and Tayo-D


you guys're still here bickering at each other? Well, It's denex reincarnated.



@Topic

Nigerians say that a project which took 13 years to complete was hurried. This really scares me. It shows that Yar'Adua is working at the right pace for Nigeria.


It is very perilous for any nation to leave its capital on the shore where it did not voluntarily situate it, but inherited it from a foreign dictatorship. For security reasons, Abuja had to be it.


For every region to have a sense of belonging, there had to be a capital centrally placed. Too.


For better planning, especially in the face of population explosion in Lagos, the capital had to move to Abuja.

denex the cancerstick swallowing crab from days past ? whauu

opon ti sun

crab

i thought i was the only one that noticed this.
i noticed this about 7 years ago or something.
yeah but it used to be lagos, i was thinking "if they never moved the capital, all countries along the coast, up and around to Libya, would have their capital on the coast"
lol
nigeria sha, but i guess.

landis, the reason you gave at the time was stupid, how can you decongest lagos, Lagos was small at that time. Look I remember very well in 1976.  Oshodi to mile 2 was empty land. from mile 2 to  badagry was empty in 1976. from from gbadaga to Berger bus stop was empty land.

Now that abuja is now congest?

Yamoussoukro, the Capital City of Ivory Coast is not Coastal too.

folem:

Yamoussoukro, the Capital City of Ivory Coast is not Coastal too.

i just noticed that when pulling up the map.
hmmmmm, but i guess.

you know what they say. "ignorance is no defense"

I kind of want the capital of Nigeria to be Calabar, but the other half of the country would say that it's too southern.

Calabar is clean compared to Lagos, and not heavily invested with crime.

Then again, Calabar really is an Efik city. Don't know how it could just be hijacked from them like that.