False narratives about Abuja’s status

THE appointment of former Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, has brought out certain unwholesome utterances from misguided individuals about the status of Abuja. For instance, controversial Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, recently threatened President Bola Tinubu’s political career for appointing Wike, a Southerner and Christian, as FCT Minister.

He claimed that Abuja belonged to Muslims, and that Wike’s move to award contract for the security of the FCT to Israeli companies was an affront to Muslims. Since this outpouring of baseless expletives, some other fellows of like mind have surfaced on the social media with the same spurious claims. Gumi, in particular, reduced himself by making claims that are not supported by any law, logic or common sense. Nigeria spent a lot of resources to train Gumi as a soldier.

He left the army as a Major. So, he is in a good position to enlighten the youth who might be ignorant of what Abuja is. In truth, the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was the first to advocate for a federal capital territory to be sited in the centre of Nigeria, symbolising it as the “centre of national unity”. It was his panacea for the growing population of Lagos, our former capital. In 1976, the General Murtala Mohammed/General Olusegun Obasanjo regime published a decree creating the FCT and appointed Chief Mobolaji Ajose Adeogun as its first Minister.

Where the likes of Gumi got their confusion from is probably the fact that between 1979 that Adeogun left office and 2023, all the 14 ministers appointed by successive regimes were all Northerners. Out of these 14 Northerners, only two – John Jatau Kadiya and Gen. Jerry Useni – were Christians. The rest were Muslims. This seeming monopolisation of Abuja by Northern Muslims through these appointments sent the wrong signals. Indeed, Buhari’s Minister of the FCT, Mohammed Bello, who was in office for eight years, ruled Abuja with a quasi-Sharia mindset, demolishing nightclubs indiscriminately and killing night life.

Those calling Abuja a “Muslim” city need to get themselves properly educated. They should read the Constitution and reconcile themselves to the fact that the FCT is home for all Nigerians, irrespective of any primordial or religious affiliation. We commend President Bola Tinubu for appointing an accomplished performer, Nyesom Wike, to drive his reform to bring back Abuja from the abyss where narrow-minded bigots had dragged it to over the years.

Wike should not allow noise makers to distract him. The sinister tradition of making only people of one regional, religious and ethnic background FCT ministers must end. Restoration of Abuja master-plan is not only about physical structures, it is also about its philosophy and constitutional standing.