Shehu Sani, a human rights activist has stated that democracy allows people to express their opinions and fears about government policies and actions which they are suspicious of.
Speaking on the rumors of a possible relocation of the Federal Capital to Lagos State, the former Senator who represented Kaduna Central made it clear that neither the President nor the people can change the location of the capital as it is backed by the Constitution.
He urged elected lawmakers to debate issues like this and calm the nerves of their constituents.
“Abuja’s status as the Federal Capital of Nigeria is a strong constitutional provision that no individual or group including the President can change. The status of Abuja can only change if there is a constitutional amendment to that effect and the cumbersome and controversial process of changing or altering the constitution is well known.
“President Tinubu cannot change the capital of Nigeria to Lagos and I believe he will not. But we should remind ourselves that many federal establishments are not headquartered in the FCT, for example, is that NECO HQ is in Minna, NBTE is in Kaduna, and NDDC is in PH. Nigerian Railway HQ is still in Ebute meta, Lagos.
“Some of the HQs of Federal agencies were deliberately cited outside Abuja because of the interest of those who were in power in the past and some of the Agencies are still outside Abuja because their Abuja Headquarters building is yet to be built.
“However, people have the right to express their opinion including raising issues when they feel suspicious of any move. That is democracy.
I want to see Senators and Reps you elected stand up on the floor of their chambers and speak intelligently on matters like this to set the record straight and calm the nerves.”
Recall that there has been an uproar over the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN to relocate its Department of Banking Supervision to Lagos and the directive of the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development that the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to relocate to Lagos State.
The presidency, however, assured that the federal government had no plans of relocating the federal capital to Lagos and accused rumour mongers of attacking the administration led by President Bola Tinubu.
