The Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, has condemned the move by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to relocate some key departments from the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, to Lagos State.
ACF also kicked against the plan to move the headquarters of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, from the nation’s capital to Lagos State.
According to the ACF, the relocations of the two agencies are a deliberate ploy to further underdevelop the northern region of the country.
Recall that the CBN in an internal memo last week announced plans to transfer some of its departments to Lagos State, citing congestion at the headquarters in Abuja
“This is to notify all staff members at the CBN Head Office that we have initiated a decongestion action plan designed to optimize the operational environment of the bank.
“This initiative aims to ensure compliance with building safety standards and enhance the efficient utilization of our office space,” the CBN memo said.
Similarly, the Federal Government announced the relocation of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria’s headquarters from Abuja to Lagos.
The relocation was officially announced by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, in a memo dated January 15, 2024, and signed by the Managing Director of FAAN, Mrs Olubunmi Kuku.
However, the ACF, through its National Publicity Secretary, Prof. Tukur Mohammed-Baba, in a statement in Kaduna on Sunday, kicked against planned relocations of the two federal agencies from Abuja to Lagos.
The statement was titled: ‘Planned relocation of key CBN units and FAAN headquarters to Lagos deliberate ploy to further underdevelop northern Nigeria.’
The ACF contended that the planned relocation of the agencies was in bad faith.
Besides, the ACF spokesman said the northern elders also faulted the recent appointment in the Ministry of Aviation where “only eight of 40 directors recently appointed are from the North!”
“The ACF calls on the Federal Government of Nigeria, and the National Assembly, to call on those agencies to retrace their steps and apply other honest means of addressing the alleged overcrowding in offices.
“Against the situation in Lagos, there is plenty of land in the Federal Capital Territory for expansion of office and other infrastructural facilities and such factors should not be used to obfuscate sinister motives.
“The ACF wishes to remind all concerned that decades ago, the seat of the capital of the Federal Republic was moved from Lagos to Abuja for reasons that remain valid, it is constitutional even more so today, constitutionally so, although, of course, a section of the country never liked the decision,” the ACF said.
