Tinubu Has No Plans To Move FCT To Lagos – Onanuga
The Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga has debunked reports that the president plans to move the federal capital from Abuja to Lagos.
According to him, the current controversy that arose from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN’s decisions to move their departments from Abuja to Lagos has misrepresented the situation.
In his view, the plot is being driven by “dishonest, ethnic and regional champions,” and the FAAN’s relocation to Lagos has nothing to do with the federal capital’s relocation.
Onanuga said: “The movement of FAAN, a department of Aviation Ministry to Lagos, where it was based before former minister Hadi Sirika moved it to Abuja during the last administration, does not amount to moving the FCT to Lagos.
“The administrative move should have attracted scant attention, as Lagos is the commercial capital and the hub of aviation business in Nigeria. FAAN should be no where else but near the industry it regulates.
“FAAN will still maintain some presence in Abuja, as it is not a wholesale movement.”
On the CBN’s move, he wrote: “Similarly, the movement of some departments of the CBN to Lagos should not trigger any hoopla. The departments concerned, including the bank supervision department, are those dealing with commercial banks, all with headquarters in Lagos. A regulator ought to be close to the businesses it regulates.”
“There are many parastatals that are not based in Abuja depending on their mandate. NIMASA is in Lagos. So is NPA. National Inland Waterways Authority( NIWA) is in Lokoja, not Abuja. Will the people opposing the movement of FAAN and some CBN departments want those agencies to be in Abuja, where there is no single port and no maritime activity?”Onanuga added.
