The presence of the federal government in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is about to be reduced following the plan by the aviation minister, Festus Keyamo to move the operations of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to Lagos.
The plan to move FAAN to Lagos is contained in an internal memo dated January 15th, 2024 from the managing director of FAAN, Olubunmi Kuku to the Director, Human Resources and Administration.
In the letter entitled, “Relocation of FAAN Headquarters From Abuja to Lagos, Kuku requested the implication of moving the operations at FAAN headquarters to Lagos.
The letter reads, “The Honourable Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development has directed that the headquarters of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria should be relocated from Abuja to Lagos’.
Kuku went further in the memo, “Consequent upon the above, you are requested to provide the implication of the relocation to management.
Last week the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) decided to move some of its operations including the Banking Examination Department to Lagos, arguing that the head offices of banks which they supervise are all in Lagos.
Although the federal government had set in motion the construction of Abuja, the capital of the FCT which is in the centre of the country as the capital city of Nigeria, the operations of the federal government moved en masse to Abuja in the wake of the Gideon Orkar coup that sought to topple the administration of former military president Ibrahim Babangida in 1990.
Major Gideon Gwaza Orkar a Nigerian military officer, staged a violent coup against the government of former President Babangida on April 22, 1990. Orkar and his conspirators seized the FRCN radio station, various military posts around Lagos and the Dodan Barracks, Lagos, the military headquarters and the presidential Villa before the coup was crushed by those loyal to Babangida who also was present when the barracks were attacked but managed to escape by a back route.
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