Relocation of key FG’s institutions to Lagos plot to keep north underdeveloped – ACF

• The ACF said this decisions are aimed at stunting the growth of the north

The planned relocation of critical government institutions from the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, to Lagos by the president Bola Tinubu-led government is part of the ong-standing plot to keep the north underdeveloped, the Arewa Consultative Forum has asserted.

The group’s assertion was contained in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Professor Tukur Muhammad-Baba.

The group is reacting to the the planned relocation of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) headquarters and some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (FAAN) to Lagos state.

The statement reads in part:“It is easy to ignore such planned actions by the CBN and FAAN but it is impossible to fail to see in them a clear pattern of thinly disguised marginalisation of the North”

The ACF said this decisions are aimed at stunting the growth of the north and further keeping it underdeveloped.

He recalled that, “President Obasanjo’s first action in office in 1999, was to order the relocation of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), from Abuja, the federal capital, to Lagos. Today almost all agencies and institutions responsible for the marine economy and especially the sea ports, are concentrated at Lagos, which retains undisturbed monopoly over port operations and sea traffic in and out of Nigeria, even as Calabar, Uyo and Port Harcourt offer as much if not better facilities.

“Northern Nigeria in particular has long lived under the shadow of these threats and has endured a series of calamities as a result. It was only the successful discovery and exploration of oil along the Kolmani River, in Gombe State, that discredited the propaganda that oil does not exist in the North.

“The vile propaganda was to discourage the investment of resources looking for oil up North. Sadly, such has also been the case with a number of other federal projects meant to be located anywhere in the North, such as dredging of rivers Niger and Benue (so that the North remains landlocked), Mambila Hydroelectric Dam (Kainji and Shiroro are dams too many to be up North!), grazing reserves for the development of the livestock sub-sector, to list but a few. For decades, certain powerful interests within the Federal Government, who seem scared of the North, have refused to allow the projects to be undertaken.”