Exploiting Public Art, Architecture and Urban Design for Political Power in Abuja: Modernism and the Use of Christian, Islamic and Ancestral Visual Icons

Nnamdi Elleh, David J. Edelman^*

University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/cus.2013.11001                

Abstract

Can public art, architecture and urban design be indices of the social, economic and political struggles for hierarchies and dominance among contesting interest groups within a postcolonial society like Nigeria? In 1975, the Nigerian military proposed that building a new Federal Capital Territory at Abuja would facilitate the country’s “federal character” resolve the problem of nepotism, and ease ethnic tensions among the two hundred and fifty cultural groups which constitute the nation (Afigbo, 1986; Ajayi, 1984)1. However, a study of the architecture and the sculptures at the newly constructed National Assembly Complex suggest otherwise. In this paper, it is argued that while the ideology of a nationalist architecture and the concept of a “federal character” might have merit for a multi-ethnic society like Nigeria, at Abuja, “federal character” instead became the means with which the emergent postcolonial elite consolidated its economic and political power through the exploitation of public art, as well as Modernist architectural and urban design elements using Islamic, Christian, and Ancestral visual icons.

Keywords

Abuja; African Art; Architecture and Urban Design; African Religious Symbolism; Nigerian Politics

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Aadekson, B. (1981). Nigeria in search of a stable military system. Boulder Colorado: Westview Press.
[2]	Abu-Lughod, J. (1980). Origins of urban apartheid. In Rabat, urban apartheid in Morocco. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
[3]	Afigbo, A. E. (1986). Federal character: Its meaning and history. Owerri: Rada Publishing Company.
[4]	Afilakalaka, (1975). Federal Capital-Kaduna or Lagos? Nigerian Tribune, 11 September 1975, 4.
[5]	Aguda Committee. (1975). Location of the federal capital report. Lagos: Department of Information.
[6]	Ajayi, J. F. (1984). Problems of National Integration for Nigeria: A Historical Perspective, Distinguished Lecture Series, No. 11. Ibadan: Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research.
[7]	Alli, M. C. (2001). Federal Republic of Nigerian Army. Lagos: Malthouse Press.
[8]	Aluko, F. (1998). Nigeria in search of a leader. Akure: Flocel Publishers.
[9]	Audu, I. S. (1974). Foreword. Dialogue on a New Capital for Nigeria: A Political Analysis by Rt. Hon. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, with Translation in Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba, Zaria: Ahamadu Bello University Press.
[10]	Awa, E. O. (1964). Federal government in Nigeria. Berkeley: University of California Press.
[11]	Ben-Amos, P. (1995). The art of Benin. London: Thames & Hudson.
[12]	Benson, T. O. S. (1975). A central place is imperative. Nigerian Daily Times, 25 August 1975, 17.
[13]	Blake, P. (1976). The master builders, le corbusier, mies van der rohe, and frank lloyd wright. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
[14]	Celik, Z. (1997). Urban forms and colonial confrontations, Algiers under French rule. Berkeley: University of California Press.
[15]	Croquet, M. (1998). African royal court art. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
[16]	Crow, T. (1985). Modernism and mass culture in the visual arts. In F. Francis, (Ed.), Pollock and after: The critical debate. London: Harper and Row Publishers.
[17]	Dark, P. (1969). Benin art. London: Paul Hamlyn.
[18]	Dark, P. J. C. (1973). An introduction to Benin art and technology. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[19]	Dike, P. C., & Oyelola, P. (1998). The Zaria art society. Lagos: National Gallery of Art.
[20]	Dovey, K. (1999). Framing places: Mediating power in built form. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203267639
[21]	DRI (1992). Abuja, Federal Capital City, Parkway System Phase 2 Final Report: Detailed Site Development Planning and Preliminary Engineering Design. Nigeria: Dynasys Resource Company.
[22]	Eke, P. Y. (1975). Is Lagos a city where nothing works? Nigerian Tribune, 30 December 1975, 5.
[23]	Elleh, N. (2001). Abuja: The single most ambitious urban design project of the 20th century. Weimar: VDG
[24]	Epstein, D. G. (1973). Brasília, plan and reality: A study of planned and spontaneous urban development. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
[25]	Evenson, N. (1973). Two Brazilian capitals: Architecture and urbanism in Rio de Janeiro and Brasília. New Haven: Yale University Press.
[26]	Evenson, N. (1969). Planning and cities: Le corbusier, the machine and the grand design. New York: George Braziller, Inc.
[27]	Eyo, E., & Willett, F. (1980). Treasures of ancient Nigeria. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
[28]	FCDA (1986). Kubwa resettlement area master plan. Lagos: Federal Capital Development Authority.
[29]	FCDA (1979). The master plan for Abuja, the new federal capital of Nigeria. Lagos: The Federal Capital Development Authority.
[30]	FCDA (1980). The master plan for Gwagwalada. Lagos: Federal Capital Development Authority.
[31]	Fishman, R. (1999). Urban utopias in the twentieth century, Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
[32]	Goldwater, R. (1938). Intellectual primitivism : The direct influence of primitive sculpture. In Primitivism in modern art. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
[33]	Goldwater, R. (1938). Romantic primitivism-Gauguin and the school of Pont-Aven. In Primitivism in modern art. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
[34]	Government of Nigeria (1979). Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1979, Chapter One, Part I, Chapter VIII, Part I, and First Schedule, Part II. and Appendix 3. Lagos: Department of Information.
[35]	Government of Nigeria (1970). Nigeria, Second National Development Plan, 1970-1974, Second Progress Report. Lagos: Department of Information.
[36]	Government of Nigeria (1975). Nigeria, Third National Development Plan, 1975-1980. Lagos: Department of Information.
[37]	Government of Nigeria (1981). Nigeria, Fourth National Development Plan, 1981-1985. Lagos: Department of Information.
[38]	Holston, J. (1989). The modernist city: An anthropological critique of Brasília. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
[39]	Idris, M. (1975). Kaduna as our new capital. New Nigerian, 4 September 1975, 5.
[40]	Kalia, R. (1987). Chandigarh in search of an identity. Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press.
[41]	Kaduna Polytechnic (1985). Greater Usuma Town (Tourist Resort), Abuja, Site Appraisal Report (Phase 1). Kaduna: Kaduna Polytechnic.
[42]	Kelue-Okoye, I. (1991). Soldiers and politics in Nigeria. Enugu: New Age.
[43]	Kirk-Greene, A. H. M. (1968). Lugard and the amalgamation of Nigeria. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd.
[44]	Mabogunje, A. L. (1999). Abuja: The promise, the performance and the prospect. The Workshop on the Review of Abuja Master Plan. Abuja, 29 November-1 December 1999, 6.
[45]	Mohammed, A. S., & Edoh, T. (1986). Nigeria, a republic in ruins. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University Press.
[46]	Ndoh, C. A., & Emezi, C. E. (1997). Nigerian politics. Owerri: CRC Publications.
[47]	New Nigerian, Tuesday, 6 August 1975, 20.
[48]	Niger Consultants (1986). Sheda research town master plan. Lagos: Niger Consultants.
[49]	Nigeria Tribune, 31 October 1975, cover page.
[50]	Okoye, I. K. (1991). Soldier and politics in Nigeria. Awka: Political Science Unit, Anambara State University of Science and Technology/ New Age Publishers.
[51]	Oluleye, J. J. (1985). Military leadership in Nigeria, 1966-1979. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press.
[52]	O’Malley, T. et al. (1989). The mall in Washington. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
[53]	Omum, B., & Boji-Boji (1975). Removal of federal capital can’t solve congestion problem. Nigerian Tribune, 5 August, 1975, 5.
[54]	Onun, A. (1975). If Lagos must remain as federal capital. Nigerian Tribune, 22 August 1975, 9.
[55]	Ottenberg, S. (1997). New traditions from Nigeria: Seven artists of the Nsukka group.
[56]	Ozenfant (1952). Foundations of Modern Art.
[57]	Robinow, P. (1989). Techno-Cosmopolitanism. In French modern. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
[58]	Rosenblum, R. (1960). The foundations of cubism. In Cubism and twentieth-century art. London: Thames and Hudson.
[59]	Rotberg, R. I. (1965). The rise of nationalism in central Africa: The making of Malawi and Zambia, 1873-1964. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
[60]	TADCO (1986). Final Land Report: Survey & Site Analysis, Conceptual Master Plan & Site Development Plan, Zuba. Sokoto: TADCO Consultants.
[61]	The New York Times Magazine, January 2002, 28-30.
[62]	This Day, 28 August 2005.
[63]	Togovnick, M. (1990). Gone primitive: Savage intellects, modern lives. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
[64]	Umeh, L. C. (1993). The building of a new federal capital City: The Abuja experience. In R. W. Taylor (Ed.), Urban development in Nigeria. Brookfield and Singapore: Ashgate Publishing.
[65]	Vale, L. (1992). Architecture, power and national identity. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
[66]	Vogt, A. M. (1996). Le Corbusier, the noble savage: Toward an archeology of modernism. West Africa, no. 3736, 27 March-2 April 1989, 470.
[67]	Wright, G. (1991). Introduction in the politics of design in French colonial urbanism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.