Travel Guide Abuja

It was General Murtala Mohammed who decided in 1976 to create Abuja, on a symbolic and unifying central site, free from the influence of a specific state such as Lagos: the Federal Capital Territory, or FCT, is an autonomous territory, thus adding to the country's 36 states. The economic centre of the Southwest was already beginning to be congested. The ex nihilo construction of this planned city took place in the 1980s on gender models, twenty years after the construction of Brasilia and with the same political impetus. And it was just as in Brazil that civil servants and administrations reluctantly moved reluctantly and with forced march in 1991, into what was then a desert of highways. The elders will tell you: "At first, there was only the Hilton"! The city was conceived as a showcase, whose centre is fiercely regulated (banning informal sales, wild constructions and okada travel, for example) and inaccessible to poor households. It has thus experienced an uncontrolled expansion in its peripheries, with one of the highest growth rates in the world, within huge satellite cities that would inflate its current population to a few million inhabitants As you fly over the capital, however, you can see the fields - bright green or light green depending on the season - as well as a multitude of small, surprisingly curved rocky mountains. The city is refreshingly refreshing from the hustle and bustle of Lagos, with its large green avenues lined with laterite and countless Masquerade Trees, pretty hills serving as a horizon. During the flamboyant season, the streets bloom with vermeille, all under the benevolent gaze of Aso Rock, the city's emblem and a serene pillar of the decor. If the city has taken a long time to have a soul, devoid of heritage and ancient culture, today it clearly has a spirit, that of the political centre, often opposed and denigrated to the economic and financial centre that is Lagos, and we see the emergence of the first generations of residents claiming to be "from Abuja". If the capital is often mocked by Lagossians for its boredom and gloom, it comes to life discreetly and you will discover with the help of the locals the unique atmosphere of its gardens, the dynamism of its sports clubs and even the eclecticism of its electro nights!