The city of Abuja is not imaginary, but it has been imagined. It is a city that is a fulfillment of a bold urban prophecy, and one that endeavors to rescue Nigeria from its own virulent identity. The members of the panel that gathered in the late 70’s to re-imagine a new national condition wanted a solution to the landscape of fragility, chaos, and decay that was Lagos.

This idea is central to my reading of the city; Abuja is a contemporary representation of staged power, artificially presented in a seemingly coherent urban sequence of architecturally neutral but politically immutable buildings. The architectural components of the Abuja is overflowing with gratuitous symbolism, suggesting a willingness to reconstitute the Nigerian identity through a comprehensive administrative utopianism. This project is an attempt to destabilize this system.