The huge land size of the FCT
The Akinola Aguda Committee Report recommending for the establishment of the New Capital of Nigeria at Abuja clearly demarcated the area to constitute the Federal Capital Territory. It stated, “To meet the Capital City’s requirement and provide a guarantee against future land shortage, we are of the opinion that as much as 3,000 square miles […]
The Akinola Aguda Committee Report recommending for the establishment of the New Capital of Nigeria at Abuja clearly demarcated the area to constitute the Federal Capital Territory. It stated, “To meet the Capital City’s requirement and provide a guarantee against future land shortage, we are of the opinion that as much as 3,000 square miles should be designated as Federal Capital Territory” (Aguda Report 1975).
The report went further to state that: “In our view what is required is not only a city, town or small district, but a whole territory large enough to accommodate all our needs in the foreseeable future”. This will allow sufficient room for the city proper and the outer zone of the Federal Capital Territory, containing zoned areas for the water features, forestry, defence needs, air transport development, planning control, land bank, resettlement/compensation and miscellaneous needs of the capital. It finally arrived at 8,000 square kilometers for the new FCT.
While undertaking the assignment, the committee members visited some capital cities of the world to make comparative analysis. Thus its decision was guided by observations made at the time of the visits. One of which was stated, “We wish to point out that Australia which has a capital territory of only 2,300 square kilometer was (at the time of our visit) was on the way to increasing that territory by about 50 per cent, towards which end the government had to set up a committee under a judge of the High Court”.
At that time, the capital territory of Pakistan was 2,191sq miles, Brazil was 3,613sq miles, whilst that of India was 30,000sq km. Nigeria is not the country with the largest capital territory in the world, but it has the largest in Africa. Perhaps, it could be justified, being the one with the biggest population.
Other studies conducted on Abuja and two other capital cities, considering the Master-Planned City Core Size and the Encompassing Federal Territory Size showed that, Abuja, has a city size of 250sq km, with Federal Territory Size of 7,315sq km. Brasilia, Brazil has a city size of 472sq km and a territory size of 5,76sq km. Canberra, Australia has 814sq km city size and 2,358sq km and Federal Territory size of 2,358sq km. But as the study observed, Abuja has built out only less than five per cent of its total FCT territory into dense urban infrastructure.
Meanwhile, at the beginning of the implementation of the Abuja plan, there were complaints that the FCT land size is too big for the needs of the federal capital. One of the instances was the observation made by the Niger State government in 1980, when the A D Rufa’i Committee on Resettlement of the FCT Inhabitants paid a courtesy visit. It is worthy of note that more than 75 per cent of the 8,000 square kilometer FCT size was excised from the former Niger State specifically, the Suleja Emirate.
The Rufa’i committee found it necessary to appoint a special team, which was made up of the representatives of the state governments, the Federal Capital Development Authority and the Surveyor-General of the Federation. A particular episode worthy of note today which perhaps would have arrested so many complains of marginalisation of FCT local indigenes was mentioned while submitting their report to President Shehu Shagari.
It stated “We wish to seize this opportunity to bring to your notice, Mr. President, that when we paid a courtesy call on the Deputy and Acting Governor of Niger State and later held a meeting with a delegation from Niger State House of Assembly, in each case it was requested that the size of the territory be reduced in order to minimise the magnitude of the problem of resettlement. It is their view that since the location of the city is now established, the size of the territory can safely be reduced with less inconvenience to the inhabitants of the capital territory. This matter, obviously, does not form part of the Terms of Reference of our Committee. We, therefore, have not dealt with it in the main body of the report”.
Out of the 8,000 Sq. km. only 250 Sq. km, or a little above three per cent was earmarked for the actual city development in four phases, prior to the conception of the fifth phase. Even so, one of the studies conducted 13 years ago stated: “Of the 69 residential districts (planned and already allocated for development), less than 25 per cent have been fully developed; yet phase five of the city planning programme is already underway” (Ahmed, 2013).
Thus, there is an emerging argument among the Abuja based professionals that FCC does not require all its 8,000km2. Many of them are of the opinion that between 3,000 and 4,000km2 is adequate.
Despite the availability of 8,000km2 of land at the disposal of government for the development of FCC, the allocation of land has remained the most expensive component of housing provision. Over time, its allocation process has been stripped of transparency and efficiency. Corruption appears to have been institutionalised. “Cartels within and out of the land establishments account for massive speculation in the market that is responsible for increasing the proportion of land cost by upward by up to 65 per cent” (Bello, 2011).
The above observation was made 14 years ago, when the maximum size allocation for mass housing in the city was only 10Ha and 20Ha for the regional area.
In the real sense, they are not made for actual development, but speculations. At this rate for how long can the huge 8,000sq km. FCT size last?