In Abuja 

Michael Peel

Early in May I fly from Lagos to Abuja as part of a group of foreign journalists travelling to interview President Obasanjo, who has just announced that he intends to stand for re-election. Abuja, home to Nigeria’s political elite, was conceived just over a quarter of a century ago. A settlement of big hotels and uncompleted construction projects, it has little of Lagos’s eventfulness. Located in the geographical centre of a country characterised by inter-regional tensions, Abuja is supposed to epitomise togetherness, and is the face that Nigeria wants to show to the world.

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