By Favour Nnabugwu
Presidency has denied the rumour making rounds that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu planned to move the federal Capital to Lagos.
The Special Adviser to tPresident Bola Tinubu on Information and Startegy, Mr Bayou Onanuga said the status as federal Capital has come to stay it is backed by law
Abuja, as the FCT is backed by law and has come to stay, adding the movement of FAAN, a department of the Aviation Ministry, to Lagos does not amount to moving the FCT to Lagos
The statement reads, “President Tinubu has no plan whatsoever to move the Federal Capital to Lagos. The rumour first surfaced during the campaign last year by opponents looking for all manners of weapons to stop him. We trashed it.
“Those peddling it anew are dishonest, ethnic and regional champions, trying to draw attention to themselves. Abuja has come to stay. It is backed by law
The movement of FAAN, an agency of Aviation Ministry, to Lagos, where it was located before former Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, moved it to Abuja during the last administration, does not amount to moving the Federal Capital to Lagos.
The administrative move should have ordinarily attracted scant attention, as Lagos is the commercial capital and the hub of aviation business in Nigeria. FAAN will still maintain some presence in Abuja. It is not a wholesale movement.
Similarly, the movement of the Department of Banking Supervision of the CBN to Lagos should not trigger any discord within the polity. The department concerned deals with commercial banks, almost all of which have their headquarters in Lagos.
There are many parastatals that are not based in Abuja depending on their mandate. The headquarters of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), for example, are in Lagos.
In the same vein, the headquarters of National Inland Waterways Authority( NIWA) is in Lokoja, while that of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), was commissioned by former President Muhammadu Buhari is in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
It must be pointed out that these decisions are purely administrative that should not be politicized by people of goodwill and those who wish our country well.
