Federal Capital Territory

Abuja is not a state; it is the Federal Capital Territory, administered by the federal government rather than by a state government. It was built from the 1980s to replace Lagos as the capital, chosen for being central and for belonging to no single ethnic or religious group.

The city is planned, which makes it unusual in Nigeria: wide roads, numbered districts, and far less traffic than Lagos. Most federal ministries, agencies and embassies are here, which is why a great many corps members hope to be posted here and why competition for the better PPAs is intense.

The surrounding area councils — Bwari, Kuje, Gwagwalada, Abaji, Kwali — are rural and very different from the city centre. A posting to the FCT is not automatically a posting to central Abuja.

The Middle Belt eats from both halves of the country. Pounded yam and amala sit on the same menu as tuwo, and the soups follow whichever you chose.

• Pounded yam with egusi (melon seed) or ogbono.
• Tuwo shinkafa with miyan kuka or miyan taushe.
• Nsala and pepper soups, especially with river fish.
• Kilishi and suya in the evenings.
• Kunu — a light millet drink, sold cold.

Yam here is very good and very cheap by southern standards. Benue in particular is where a lot of the country's yam comes from.

The FCT was deliberately sited to belong to no one community, and its population reflects the whole country. Christian and Muslim populations are both large, the National Mosque and the National Christian Centre face each other across the same avenue, and religious plurality is the city's founding premise.

Camp runs both a mosque and a church, with service times on the timetable.

No single indigenous language covers this zone. Tiv, Idoma, Igala, Nupe, Gbagyi, Berom, Ebira, Jukun and many more are first languages depending on where you are, and Hausa is widely used as a common language in the north of the zone.

English and Nigerian Pidgin will carry you everywhere. Learning the greeting of the community you are actually posted to is worth more here than any zone-wide phrase list — ask your platoon mates from the state, who will be pleased to be asked.

Keke napep and shared taxis run town routes at a fixed drop; motorcycle taxis are common outside the larger cities and restricted inside some of them.

Distances between towns are longer than they look and roads vary. Travel with a registered operator, start early, and arrive in daylight.

Accommodation in the central districts of Abuja is among the most expensive in the country. Most corps members live in the satellite towns — Kubwa, Lugbe, Nyanya, Karu, Gwagwalada, Dutse — and commute in, which is a considerably cheaper way to live in the same city.

As in Lagos, a year or two years of rent in advance is normal practice, so the first month costs far more than the rest. Sharing is the usual answer, and camp is where you meet the people to share with.