The furore being created, especially in some quarters in Northern Nigeria, over the recent relocation of the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from Abuja back to Lagos, is quite unnecessary.
Reading some funny meanings to decisions that are simply meant to achieve administrative convenience, some elements in the North are taking their ethnic bigotry too far by misinterpreting the moves as a subtle move to relocate the capital of Nigeria back to Lagos.
Instead of dissipating their energy on proffering practical solutions to insecurity and other challenges facing the Federal Capital Territory Abuja and the entire North as a whole, they are busy poisoning the minds of the largely uninformed populace by reading political meanings to purely administrative and economic decisions.
Sadly, these self-styled advocates of the North have easily forgotten, and so soon, how other parts of the country suffered unjustly in the lopsided appointments and ethno-centric decisions made during the inglorious tenure of the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari , who practically pursued a northern agenda throughout his eight-year tenure.
Now that the table is turning, it is just natural that those who benefitted from the rot and mistakes of the past should be afraid, no matter how unfounded, as in the case with the FAAN and CBN relocation.
Instead of misleading their people with their jaundiced thoughts and sentiments, they should realise that Nigeria remains a federal state and not a unitary state, hence the need for decentralisation of authorities and resources.
These bigots also need to be lectured on the role and importance of Lagos to the economy of the country as the commercial capital of Nigeria. The question we should ask them is: Who strips a commercial capital of a country of the presence of the apex bank and an aviation hub of the regulatory authority? The anomalies and jaundiced decisions of the past could only happen in Nigeria!
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu puts the importance of Lagos succinctly recently while making a case for Lagos to be given a special status by the federal government.
“Lagos is too strategic for us not to see that its wholesomeness is the wholesomeness of this country, that the benefits of Lagos transcend one region, one part or one scope of this country. As a microcosm of the entire country, Lagos deserves all the support that it can get at the national level,” Sanwo-Olu said.
We are however consoled by the fact that despite the confusion being created and misinterpretation of government’s intentions, some notable leaders, even in the same North, really know the truth and are speaking out against the false narrative of the few elements who are simply taking the ongoing power struggle in the country too far.
Former CBN Governor, Muhammadu Lamido Sanusi 11, has thrown his weight behind the relocation as he condemned the attempts to ‘politicise’ the move, as, according to him, those opposed to it were playing “dirty politics.”
Sanusi, who supervised the construction of the massive, aluminium façade of the 23-storey office of the CBN on Custom Street in the Lagos Central Business District in 2013, during his tenure as governor of the bank, said it was built for the sole purpose of accommodation .
The FAAN and CBN move is an “eminently sensible move,” he noted, saying “moving staff to Lagos office to streamline operations to make them more efficient and reduce cost is a normal prerogative of management.”
