The emergence of Abuja as an urban centre today is traceable to the quest for a new capital city for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This quest became pronounced and received government attention in the mid-70s when, the then nation's capital city, Lagos, was increasingly becoming choked up and thus inconvenient to continue serving the nation in that capacity. Inter alia, traffic congestion, housing and environmental pollution, poor topography, etc continued to afflict both the smooth administration of Lagos as the capital city and the conduct of governmental operations.
