Thread by @toluogunlesi

I’m going to do a #history thread about the making of the FCT and how the plan for the Presidential Villa changed over time. Been doing one of my favorite things — Googling heavily — and I’ve discovered a few interesting things. #StayTuned

A few days late but never too late.

I consider myself a Lagos guy, moved here 16 years ago. In the last 4 years I've divided my time between Lagos and Abuja, so I've kind-of started seeing myself as an Abuja guy as well. And I've become curious about the city.

Just before I 'moved' to Abuja, I started a monthly column for the New York Times. The (new) government job put an end to my new column. But the final piece I wrote was a comparative analysis (of sorts) of Lagos and Abuja: nytimes.com/2016/04/28/opi…

One difference between the two cities is that Lagos has been written about A LOT: poetry, fiction, non-academic history. Abuja, the much younger city, not so much, & most of what has been written is government-y stuff & academic theses about the founding of the city.

So I guess this is where some of my curiosity stems from. It's so hard to find coherent information online about interesting aspects of the story of the FCT.

So I took it upon myself to do a bit (a lot, actually) of Googling, to see if I could piece something together.

I want to focus on the area known as the Three Arms Zone, (part of Central Area, itself part of Phase 1 of the City) where the National Assembly, Supreme Court are to be found - Aso Rock Presidential Villa is somewhat on the edge of this zone, but that was not always the case.

A bit of context: Abuja was envisaged as a series of Phases. Phase 1 is made up of the Central Area (a strip stretching from Aso Rock to around City Gate / National Stadium), flanked on the East by Asokoro and Garki and on the West by Maitama and Wuse.

The Central Area, in the Abuja Masterplan, resembles a human body. Where National Assembly is, that's the head the National Stadium is the feet. The neck was planned as a large Mall (Park) (like the Washington Mall), lined by Ministry buildings, and the stomach is the CBD.

Between the 3 Arms Zone and Aso Rock (the actual Rock) in the original Abuja Plan, lay a National Arboretum (Botanical Park full of trees) It's actually still there, only now inaccessible. I'm guessing (just a guess) it would have been like NYC's Central Park.

See Google Images

A quick break to share sthg I picked up:

That groove in the map of Abuja, the V at the top, guess how it came about?

The planners were trying to cut Suleja out when carving the FCT. Including Suleja would have greatly upped relocation/compensation costs, hence the cut - & V!

Back to the story. Central Area. Designed to resemble a human body.

Head - 3 Arms Zone
Neck: A 'Mall' patterned after DC's
Stomach: CBD
Feet: Stadium

Flanked by 4 Districts: Maitama and Wuse on left, Asokoro and Garki on right.

The FCT was birthed by Murtala Mohammed. After his death OBJ carried on with it. There was a 10-year plan for the construction of Phase 1, if I'm correct. When Shagari took office in 1979, he rolled back the 1986 deadline to 1982. He was in a hurry to develop the FCT.

It was Shagari who started constructing the FCT. One of the very first projects that was started in the FCT, apart from housing projects, was the the complex that's today known as Akinola Aguda House, where the VP currently lives. It's somewhere on the edge of the 3 Arms Zone.

Shagari envisioned Aguda House as a Presidential Guest House where he could stay whenever he visited FCT on inspection tours. Construction started, from what I have found, in 1981, it was completed by 1982. Plan was to use Aguda House until the main State House Complex was built

So, according to original Abuja Masterplan, the 3 Arms Zone (the "Head" of the Central Area), was to have National Assembly as centerpiece, with Supreme Court on the right & Presidential Complex to the left, within the Circle. Hence "3 Arms" Zone - the 3 Arms of Govt all together

You can see that Aguda House is not within the 3 Arms Zone circle, which suggests to me that Shagari intended it as a standalone complex that would go on become a Presidential Lodge/Guest House, perhaps for hosting visiting dignitaries. But at the time, it was his Abuja home.

Someone once asked me why "State House, Abuja" is used, why include Abuja when everyone knows the State House is in Abuja. The term was born when Aguda House was built. It became known as State House Abuja to differentiate it from State House Marina and Dodan Barracks/Ribadu Road

Another interesting tidbit: The very first trip the then newly elected President Shagari made out of Lagos (the capital) was to the FCT, October 25, 1979, to inspect it. At the time there was nothing in the FCT, just forest (and a small airstrip), Shagari had to stay in Suleja.

So, work started on Aguda House in 1981-ish. I think that around the same time the foundation for the Presidential Complex in the 3 Arms Zone may have been laid. I'm not certain about this.

By 1982 Aguda House was built. It wasn't named after Akinola Aguda until October 1, 1982

Shehu Shagari decided that the FCT would host Nigeria's 22nd Independence Day celebrations, on Oct 1, 1982. It was the first time the celebrations would ever hold outside Lagos, and it was intended as a statement to the world that the FCT is the future.

It was on that day that President Shagari renamed the Presidential Guest House Complex Akinola Aguda House.

Akinola Aguda was a former Chief Justice of the Western Region, fmr Chief Justice of Botswana, & Chairman of the Committee that decided on the FCT as Nigeria's new capital

A few days after the Oct 1, 1982 Independence celebrations, on Oct 5, 1982, President Shagari presided over a Federal Executive Council Meeting at the Akinola Aguda House. Again the first FEC Meeting held outside Lagos. Again a statement to the world.

Other projects were ongoing at this time. In 1981 Jabi Dam was built (yes, Jabi Lake apparently came into being from the damming of Jabi River!), & shortly after, the Lower Usuma Dam. Airport Runway was also built around 1982. The Hilton construction must have started around then

Shagari really hoped to move the Government and Capital from Lagos to the FCT before leaving office. Apparently a big part of his eagerness lay in the fact that he felt increasingly uncomfortable in Lagos - which was hotbed and hub of his main opposition, the UPN.

At the time of the 1983 coup that ended the Shagari Administration and brought GMB to office, Shagari was actually staying at the State House in Abuja - Akinola Aguda House. He was spending the Christmas holiday there, a sign of his increasing comfort in the FCT.

[Shagari fled Aguda House and went into hiding first in Keffi, and then in Tunga, a village 80km away. From there he returned to Keffi, then to Makurdi, where an Air Force Plan was waiting to take him to detention in Lagos].

GMB was not super enthused about the idea of spending money on the FCT relocation. For one the outgone civilian government had lavished humongous sums of money on the Abuja project; secondly, Nigeria's economy had tanked as of 1982, and an FCT was in no way a priority in 1984.

Enter IBB in August 1985, after deposing GMB.

As y'all know, IBB was a man of lavish tastes and expensive ambitions. IBB it finally was who scrapped the idea of the Presidential Complex within the 3 Arms Zone, and conceived of a new Complex in a much more secure location.

The original Presidential Complex was, as I said earlier, intended to be inside 3 Arms Zone (marked by the Circular Road that currently circumscribes NASS). From what I have put together, the location of the Old Presidential Complex is the site where SGF's Office currently is.