Special adviser on information & strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has refuted claims that President Bola Tinubu, is working assidiously to relocate Federal Capital Territory to Lagos.
PERISCOPE NIGERIA reports that Central Bank of Nigeria has moved no fewer than eight departments to Lagos, while Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria has also confirmed its move of headquarters to Lagos State.
Onanuga was reacting to allegations that the Tinubu’s administration is more beneficial to Yoruba ethnic group, as it seeks to return certain organisations including the seat of government which the military President Ibrahim Babangida, snatched from it from it move from Lagos Dodon Barracks to Aso Rock.
Onanuga said, “President Tinubu has no plan whatsoever to move the Federal Capital to Lagos. The rumour first surfaced during the campaign last year by opponents looking for all manners of weapons to stop him. We trashed it.
“Those peddling it anew are dishonest, ethnic and regional chauvinists, trying to draw attention to themselves. Abuja has come to stay. It is backed by law.
“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.
“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.”
While urging the purveyors of such misinformation to discontinue Onanuga said administrative decisions should not be politicised.
“All those pushing this campaign of falsehood know they are playing politics, albeit a dangerous politics to pit the North against the South.
“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?
“Administrative decisions should not be politicised. Let it not look like whenever we are temporarily not at the helm of affairs, we create all manners of dangerous rumours to distract from the bigger picture and emasculate an administration led by a southerner.
Let’s stop the dirty politics. We can’t be playing politics with everything,” he added.
