Federal Capital Territory

Abuja exists because Lagos failed. In 1976, when Nigeria's military government decreed the creation of a new capital on "virgin lands," they were attempting something rare: building a city from scratch to solve a political problem. The logic was biological—ethnic competition was strangling Lagos, so the solution was to found a new organism on neutral ground where no major group had prior claim.

The site chosen was savanna grassland 480 kilometers northeast of Lagos, selected for its central location and low population density. General Murtala Mohammed's decree number 6 of 1976 established the Federal Capital Territory with an explicit mandate: create a symbol of unity for Nigeria's 250+ ethnic groups. The planning was ambitious—International Planning Associates designed a master plan for a city that would house 3 million people by 2000, with carefully zoned districts radiating from Aso Rock, a 400-meter granite monolith that became the physical and symbolic center. Construction began in 1980. The military government relocated on December 12, 1991, moving ministries, embassies, and civil servants from Lagos to incomplete buildings.

What happened next reveals the gap between planned and evolved systems. The formal city—Maitama, Asokoro, Garki—developed according to the master plan: wide boulevards, low density, government offices, diplomatic quarters. But a second city grew simultaneously. Workers who built Abuja couldn't afford to live in it. Informal settlements sprouted at the periphery: Nyanya, Lugbe, Mpape, Kubwa. These weren't slums in the traditional sense—they were functional cities with their own economies, providing labor and services to the formal center. By 2025, settlement area expanded from 18.5 square kilometers in 1991 to 333.6 square kilometers, with population reaching 4.21 million. The master plan's housing delivery mechanisms were never implemented, so the informal settlements became permanent.

Today, Abuja's economy still depends heavily on government—civil service salaries circulate through real estate, retail, and hospitality. But shifts are visible. Nigeria leads Africa's ICT sector (82% of the continent's ICT value), and Abuja hosts growing fintech, healthtech, and e-commerce startups. The Economic Community of West African States headquarters sits here, making it West Africa's de facto administrative hub. Yet the dual city persists: formal Abuja requires informal Abuja to function. Security concerns grow as inequality hardens spatial boundaries.

By 2026, Abuja faces a familiar test for planned capitals: can central planning adapt fast enough to accommodate organic growth, or will the informal settlements continue to define the city more than the master plan ever did?