Abuja Original Inhabitants: Stakeholders fault resettlement process

Favour Ishember, Abuja

Stakeholders in the FCT have expressed dissatisfaction with the current Abuja resettlement process which only takes into consideration the physical resettlement of the indigenes without looking into their social, economic and psychological wellbeing.

decrying the inadequacies in the Abuja master plan, the Indigenes described it as a fraudulent document which failed to capture the interest of the original inhabitants in the territory.

Drawn from Civil Society Organisations, Student Unions, women groups, Politicians, Area Councils and representatives of Traditional institutions in the FCT, they argued that original inhabitants have not been fully compensated as claimed by the government over the years.

The Project Manager, Abuja Original Inhabitants Organisation, Mr Beatrus Lawrence , said the meeting was targeted at working towards entrenching political participation by the indigenes of Abuja.

In his words:”The project you’re experienceing today is the project of promoting the rights of the Original Inhabitants of FCT, and we are also trying to strengthen their political participation and also get them involved in governance processes .

” We can network on and seek the sympathy of Nigerians to help us move forward , the idea is that we don’t get lost, leaving the polices that the government has in place , some of them good thinking. But if you take a critical look at the whole situation, you will agree with me that the original Inhabitants are vertualy out of it , in the sense that , in a development like the one that we have, we supposed to have some bit of understanding for the original Inhabitants who are not as educated, and do not have the resources

Also speaking, the Commandant, Abuja Original Inhabitants Youths Empowerment Organization ( AOIYEO), Comrade Isaac David said the event is all about the promotion of Abuja Original Inhabitants and to address the issue of political marginalization of the people.

In the words of the Commandant:” we seek to address our agitation on our marginalization , how we can have relationship with the international NGOs and how we can approach issues with out violence and we can also come together as people in the FCT to identify our problems and find easy presentation to the government, where government will look at the issues and sympathize with the original Inhabitants and dully give them their rights and at the right time too”

“The marginalization did not start with the present administration , but right from the inception of FCT in 1976 , is just that the miss information was give to the government who were in charge to relocate The Federal Capital from Lagos to Abuja, and the different interest from the political blogathers and also the lacuna in the constitution has given difficulty in the democracy to be corrected, some times I wished this a military regime when they have dictatorship where decisions can be taken easily to solve our pro problems but with this democracy where we have individual interest, things are difficult for our politicians to understand the plight of the common stand of the Abuja Original Inhabitants” he lamented.

“we have given our lands , 8000 square meters for other Nigerians to live peacefully and to have a place called the Federal Capital City, but the little things we are asking for is appreciation , association from the government where we too can have a sense of belonging and our children too should not come after us and cut our head off because we did not perform very well”

But right now if government refuse to understand the body language in trying to solve the problems by putting issues to be addressed as soon as possible, there is an adage that says ” he who refused to hear, will not refuse to see. But we pray things should not go that far” he continued.

There are issues that has to be addressed, once and for all, We are short change in term of leadership in the house of representatives and senate. All we need is a political will and persion and such leaders have not come to power , pray they come into power some day.But we can’t stop pushing.

Advocacy and campaign on our right has been ongoing since 2013, gradually the awareness is been created where issues will be addressed but if our issues are not addressed with in Nigeria, the world will force Nigerians to address our issues” he said.