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The Political History of Nigeria's New Capital

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Jonathan Moore
Jonathan Moore
Affiliation:
Associate of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
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Extract

On 4 February 1976 the Federal Military Government of Nigeria promulgated Decree No. 6, initiating the removal of the national capital from Lagos to Abuja. Thus Nigeria followed Brazil, Botswana, Malawi, Pakistan, and Tanzania to become the most recent developing country to arrange for a transfer of its centre of government. The proliferation of new capitals constructed in the twentieth century has captured the world-wide attention of geographers, architects, planners, and demographers, but the literature on the subject examines these projects almost exclusively with a focus on planning for national development. This viewpoint too often neglects politics as the paramount force in the relocation of a nation's capital city.

Type
Africana
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , March 1984 , pp. 167 - 175
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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References

page 168 note 1 White, Jeremy, Central Administration in Nigeria, 1914–1948: the problem of polarity, (Dublin, 1981), p. 63.Google Scholar

page 168 note 2 Lugard to L. V. Harcourt, on train in Jebba, 7 October 1912; C.O. 5704/12.

page 168 note 3 Lugard to Secretary of State, 31 May 1913; C.O. 8285/12.

page 169 note 1 Action Group, Lagos Belongs to the West (Lagos, 1953), p. 27.Google Scholar

page 169 note 2 Ibid. p. 28.

page 170 note 1 Daily Times (Lagos), 5 12 1972, p. 7.Google Scholar

page 170 note 2 New Nigerian (Kaduna), 14 02 1973, p. 7.Google Scholar

page 170 note 3 Interviews with Yakubu Gowon in England, 18 September 1982, and with Danjuma, T. Y. in Lagos, 27 October 1982.Google Scholar

page 171 note 1 Dent, Martin J., ‘Corrective Government: military rule in perspective’ in Panter-Brick, Keith (ed.), Soldiers and Oil: the political transformation of Nigeria (London, 1978), p. 135.Google Scholar

page 171 note 2 Interview with DrGandonu, Ajato in Lagos, 17 November 1982.Google Scholar

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page 172 note 1 Nigerian Tribune (Ibadan), 20 09 1971, p. 4.Google Scholar

page 172 note 2 Ibid. 4 February 1973, p. 4.

page 172 note 3 Daily Times, 10 July 1975. p. 7.

page 172 note 4 Although Reverend Colonel Pedro Martins did not wish the capital to be moved, as he explained later, it was ‘obvious to everyone that Lagos must go’. Interview, Lagos, 19 February 1983.

page 172 note 5 Justice Aguda, T. Akinola took the view that ‘a traditional place could not be a good place for the location of a federal capital’. Interview, Lages, 7 November 1982.Google Scholar

page 172 note 6 Ministry of Information, Final Report of the Committe on the Location of the Federal Capital (Lagos, 1976), p. 64.Google Scholar

page 173 note 1 General Danjuma, T. V., Speech to the Board of the Federal Capital Development Authority, Lagos, 12 April 1976.Google Scholar

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