In this video, I discuss how West Africa’s most beautiful city was created and why Nigeria moved its administrative capital from Lagos to Abuja.

Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria is arguably the most beautiful and the most developed in terms of infrastructure in the West Africa region.

Abuja is known for being one of the few purpose-built capital cities in Africa as well as being one of the wealthiest and most expensive but there’s more to the city of Abuja than meets the eye. Abuja lies in the central part of Nigeria, in the Federal Capital Territory.

It is one of the few capital cities in the world that is built from scratch, from an architectural plan such as Brasilia in Brazil and Canberra in Australia. It was built mainly in the 1980s based on a master plan by Japanese Architect Kenzo Tange.

Abuja replaced the country’s most populous city of Lagos as the capital on 12 December 1991 under the leadership of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, the president at the time.

The initial work for Abuja’s planning and implementation were carried out by the Military Government of General’s Murtala Mohammed and Olusegun Obasanjo and carried over into the Civilian Government Administration of Alhaji Shehu Shagari.

Construction started in the late 1970s but, due to economic and political instability, the initial stages of the city were not complete until the late 1980s.