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.

You are not logged in


Vol. 24 No. 14 · 25 July 2002 » Michael Peel » In Abuja (print version)
pages 24-25 | 1956 words