• It’s a ‘waste of resources’ to operate from Abuja – FG
Popular social media influencer, author and a former Special Assistant to Ex President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri has lauded the federal government’s order that the headquarters of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) be moved from Abuja to Lagos.
Omokri gave his support to the directive via X, saying that there is nothing wrong in moving agencies that are vital to ‘Nigeria’s commercial economy to the commercial capital’.
He said: “Lagos is Nigeria’s commercial capital. Abuja is Nigeria’s administrative capital. That being the case, there is NOTHING wrong in moving agencies that are vital to Nigeria’s commercial economy to the commercial capital. I emphatically support President Tinubu on this. Even the Securities and Exchange Commission should be headquartered in Lagos to be closer to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, which is based in Lagos.
“In the U.S., multiple Federal Government agencies are headquartered outside D.C., including the U.S. Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, amongst many others.
“Please fact-check me. Like Nigeria, South Africa also has three arms of government. However, unlike Nigeria, each of these branches of government is headquartered in different capital cities. The administrative capital of South Africa is Pretoria, where the President of South Africa must reside and do business. The legislative capital is Cape Town, and their Houses of Parliament are there. At the same time, the judicial capital is Bloemfontein, where the South African Supreme Court of Appeal is based.
“Nobody should politicise this patriotic move. Please let us keep sentiments out of this. When the military unilaterally moved the Federal Capital out of Lagos, Nigerians accepted it for the sake of the unity of this great nation. Are we saying that we cannot make the same concession for the movement of a few agencies to Lagos?”