The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum has condemned the relocation of key departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria to Lagos.
The FAAN and the CBN had begun relocating some of their key departments to Lagos, citing high cost as part of the reason for the relocations.
The Central Bank of Nigeria had in an internal memo last week announced the transfer of some of its departments to Lagos State.
Similarly, the Federal Governement announced the relocation of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria’s headquarters from Abuja to Lagos.
However, AYCF believes that these relocations to Lagos pose a significant threat to Abuja’s status as the capital city and could have negative implications for the nation as a whole.
The President General of the AYCF, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, at a press conference in Kaduna on Friday, expressed concern over the potential consequences that could arise from the relocations of the agencies.
He emphasised that the move risked undermining national unity, disrupting operations, causing economic setbacks as well as perpetuating regional imbalances.
He argued that Abuja was deliberately chosen as the capital to promote national unity and decentralise power, noting that any agenda that seek to tamper with the arrangement would be fiercely resisted by the north.
Shettima expressed his disappointment over what he termed the complicit silence of the Northern elite “regarding these provocations.”
According to him, the Northern elite must not be silent when the political and economic viability of the region is at stake.
He also urged well-meaning Nigerians to speak out against this emerging arbitrariness while calling on the relevant authorities to halt the relocations in light of the potential harm it might cause to Abuja’s status as the capital city.
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