Tinubu: I’ve no plans to move FCT from Abuja to Lagos

President Bola Tinubu says he doesn’t have plans to move the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from Abuja to Lagos.

Tinubu said there is no iota of truth in insinuations that his administration has concluded plans to move the FCT to Lagos State, following the relocation of some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) from Abuja to Lagos.

He said this in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, on Wednesday, January 24, 2024.

Onanuga noted that the insinuations were sponsored by political opponents who were bent on preventing Tinubu from being elected as president by a section of the country.

He said: “We have noticed how mischief-makers, bent on fueling needless ethnic mistrust, have deliberately misinterpreted the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria to relocate its Department of Banking Supervision to Lagos and the directive of the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development that the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) should relocate its head office back to Lagos.

“We consider it necessary to inform Nigerians that there is no iota of truth in the interpretations given to the directives in some quarters and the unfounded claims and rumours that President Bola Tinubu is planning to relocate the Federal Capital back to Lagos.

“These rumours, which first surfaced during the electioneering last year, was sponsored by political opponents looking for all manners of weapons to prevent Asiwaju Tinubu from being elected as president by a section of the country.

“Those behind this renewed sordid narrative, using the recent decision of the CBN and FAAN as pretext to start another round of toxic opposition are dishonest ethnic and regional champions, trying to draw attention to themselves.

“The status of Abuja as the Federal Capital 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.

“All those pushing this campaign of falsehood and misinformation know they are merely playing politics, albeit a dangerous politics, to pit the North against the South.

“President Tinubu-led administration is working tirelessly to be just and equitable to every section of the country. We urge restraint on the part of those whose stock in trade is to create all manner of dangerous rumours to distract every government from the noble objective of meeting the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians.”

The Star