Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, was conceived in 1976 by the General Murtala Muhammed regime. That was through Decree No 6 of the same year.The idea was to decongest Lagos, a megalopolis of pure bedlam, made so by its dual capacity of being both the political and commercial capital of Nigeria. It was also the seat of both the Federal and Lagos State governments. Thus, on 9 August 1975, the Federal Government set up the Justice Akinola Aguda panel to “examine the dual role of Lagos as both federal and state capital and advise on the desirability or otherwise of Lagos retaining that role.”

Aguda’s panel came up with a bomb of an idea: divorce Lagos State from its federal capital burden and create a new, world-class capital city. To fulfil the dream, the city’s master plan was developed by International Planning and Associates, a consortium of some United States firms. Actual construction started in the 1980s and the Federal Government moved there on 12 December 1991.

Between then and the appointment of Nasir el-Rufai as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory in July 2003, there had been a lot of distortions to the original masterplan. This required a drastic action to revert to the original idea.

The only trouble was that, as revealed at the Abubakar Sodangi panel, there were allegations of double standards, favouritism, callousness and arrogant display of power by el-Rufai while he served as FCT Minister.

While some of plots of land were revoked, based on genuine excuses, critics have been querying the former Minister why such lands ended up being allocated to President Olusegun Obasanjo, his family members, el-Rufai himself and his own people.

At the Senate hearing, it has, so far, been tales of anguish. What went wrong? And from both el-Rufai’s camp and his accusers’, it has been allegations and counter-allegations. How the dirty war is being fought is narrated in this week’s cover story, written by General Editor, ADEMOLA ADEGBAMIGBE

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There is another war going on among Nigerian banks. After the consolidation, they have a lot of money to play with. They have gone places in the areas of Communication and Information Technology.

Now, they are expanding like button mushrooms in major cities, so much so that there could be over three branches of a bank on a single street! Churches, graveyards, shrines are no longer safe from this encroachment, which is sending the price of real estate skywards. We serve you the story this week.