FELLOW Nigerians,

A joint meeting of the Supreme Military Council and the National council of
States has just concluded sitting.

The meeting has declared on reports submitted by the following panels
(a)assets investigation of some former public officers; (b) abandoned
properties in the three Eastern States which comprised the former Eastern
Region: (c) location of the Federal Capital and (d) creation of more states.

Those panels, as you will no doubt recall, were set-up by this
administration at its inception. They were all given adequate terms of
reference and sufficient time in which to deliberate and submit their
reports and recommendation to the FMG.

I will like to seize this opportunity to thank each and everyone of them for
the excellent work they have done. They deserve the nations gratitude.

In deliberation on these reports, I will like to emphasise that the joint
meeting was guided solely by national interest and consideration for
justice, peace and stability.

THE PANEL ON THE LOCATION OF FEDERAL CAPITAL

The panel on the location of the Federal Capital has recommended that the
nations capital should move out of Lagos to a federal territory of about
8,000 square kilometres to the central part of the country. The Supreme
Military Council has accepted this recommendation. The site recommended the
satisfied the panels criteria of centrality good and tolerable climate, land
availability, and use, inadequate water supply, low population density,
physical planning convenience, security and multi-access possibility. The
area is not within the control of any of the major ethnic groups in the
country. We believe that the new capital created on such virgin lands as
suggested will be for all Nigerians a symbol of their onesness and unity.
The Federal Territory will belong to all Nigerians.

The few local inhabitants in the area who need to be moved out of the
territory for planning purposes will be resettled outside the area in places
of their choice at government expense.

In order to avoid land speculation in the area, a decree is being
promulgated immediately to vest all land in the Federal Territory in the
Federal Government. A Federal Capital Development Authority is to be
established to plan and administer the territory. An administrator for the
Federal territory will soon be appointed to provide municipal services in
the area.

The chairman of the Federal Government Authority of nine members will be of
cabinet rank. The authority is expected to start work at once but the
movement of the seat of the Federal Government out of Lagos is expected take
some ten to fifteen years. The present administration is firmly committed to
ensuring that the necessary ground work is completed and construction work
started within the next four years.

Lagos will, in the foreseeable future, remain the nations commercial capital
and one of its nerve centres. But in terms of servicing the present
infrastructure alone the committed amount of money and effort required will
be such that Lagos State will not be ready to cope. It will even be unfair
to expect the state to bear this heavy burden on it sown. It is therefore
necessary for the Federal Government to continue to sustain the substantial
investment in the area. The port facilities and other economic activities in
the Lagos area have to be expanded. There is need in the circumstances for
the Federal Government to maintain a special defence and security
arrangement in Lagos which will henceforth be designated a special area.
These arrangements will be carefully worked out and written into the new
constitution. Kaduna and Port Harcourt are to be accorded similar status and
designated..........................................