Caught in the complex web of a bourgeoning city, indigenous peoples of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja speak on their fears and aspirations in a land they had occupied for close to a thousand years but are now faced with threats of extinction. ADEWALE ADEOYE, who was on a week-long visit to Abuja indigenous communities, reports.
Caught in the complex web of a bourgeoning city, indigenous peoples of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja speak on their fears and aspirations in a land they had occupied for close to a thousand years but are now faced with threats of extinction. ADEWALE ADEOYE, who was on a week-long visit to Abuja indigenous communities, reports. breathe. Our lives matter.’
Idris Adamu, a cab driver from Jigawa State, who took the reporter to the event, whispered his fears in thick Hausa accent: ‘I hof (hope) this fefu (people) are not trying to chase us away.’ Musa Ndua, a Bassa of indigenous extraction who overheard him, shot back: ‘We are not asking you people in Abuja to go. We are the original owners of this land. We have fought for 40 years for recognition, no one listens. We want integration. Our civilisation, our values, our tradition, our humanity are being destroyed.’
Adamu returned a dry, conspiratorial grin, hopped into his cab and zoomed off even as another cab operator honked, shouting ‘Abuja is no man’s land’; the common cliché that is distasteful to Bassa, Dibo, Ganagana, Egbira, Gwandara, Gade, Koro, Anwanwa and Gwarri indigenous peoples whose forefathers had lived in the FCT since the 12th Century. Their population is more than 15 million. The Gbwari alone are about 5.8 million people in the FCT and beyond.
The ancestral owners of the FCT land under the aegis of Original People Inhabitants seized the August 9 window offered by the United Nations International Day of Indigenous Peoples to reassert themselves collectively as a people being squeezed by the spiralling Abuja industrial and commercial grandeur.
On that Monday, for the first time in a long history spanning centuries, the cries of marginalised indigenous peoples of the FCT echoed from the deep valley. It was the week the UN had proclaimed as the International Day of Indigenous Peoples, coined for the first time in 1994 following global outcries of several indigenous peoples across the globe who had called global attention to the threats they face.
The nine ethnic nationalities that own the FCT say that their land, their cultures, their traditional knowledge and even their spirituality have been trampled or even thrown into the trash bin in the face of onslaught of civilisation, economic upbeat and the invasion of their land by capital and the prowess of multinationals. The people list lack of statehood, denial of access to opportunities, occupation of ancestral shrines, threat of extinction of their languages and outright display of arrogance by land occupiers who, for decades, continue to magnify the ‘Abuja is No man’s land’ slogan.
Aba Ahmed from Koro, in a chat with our corresponden, said he was 15 in 1976 when the Nigerian military government announced the transfer of the seat of power from Lagos to Abuja. He recalled that his parents and thousands of the indigenous peoples were invited and asked one question almost at gun point: ‘Do you want to stay on this land or you want to be evacuated?’ He said frightened by blistering gun nozzles, the majority of the people said they would wish to leave the land their forebears had treasured for centuries. The landless people then moved to neighbouring states where they rented apartments with their families. Ahmed said the military branded those among them who said they would stay on the land as rebels.
“There is no land that is ungoverned. Abuja belongs to some people. We have been cultivating the land since 1300s. The land is ours. We need to be recognised as a people,” Lazarus Nyanolo who holds a PhD and official of FCT Original Inhabitants and Secretary, Garki Chiefdom told our correspondent, his eyes cloudy with suppressed tears.
As a matter of fact, many youths from the communities, who spoke to our correspondent, said the issue at hand is like a molten magma waiting to erupt.
“We have been patient enough. Our land sits on billions of money but our indigenous communities have no good roads, no water, no electricity and no access to opportunities. They should not wait until we start to block all entries into Abuja before they listen to us,’ Suleiman Usman, an Ebira with stern eyeballs, told our correspondent.
On Monday, our correspondent visited some of the ancestral homelands. In Kubwa, Paska, Dutse, Dankoru, Kute and several rural communities, poverty is etched on the face of the land. In some communities a mushroom of mud huts dot the landscape. Excited but ignorant children ran helter-skelter, some half naked, some in pampers; nearby, women tender domestic animals while some prepared food in ramshackle makeshifts.
In general, the visitor is confronted with extremely poor population that eke out a living in the most difficult ways: no access to electricity, bad roads, limited land for cultivation and lack of access to potable water. Most residents rely on the dwindling forest for their livelihood, including their source of wealth. But close by is a chain of sky rise buildings and the opulence associated with Abuja.
Living a hair’s breadth away from the wealth and power of Abuja, the original inhabitants are enveloped in penury. One aged woman said any time she visited Abuja city centre, she felt like someone who had been raped and robbed in daylight.
“They talk of compensation, but they gave nothing or at best peanuts. They forced thousands of people away from their lands,” she said in a ghostly voice that fits her old and fragile physique.
She said the Federal Government sometimes paid like N30,000 only for the crops on plots of land owned by indigenous people while the same land would be sold to someone else at about N30 million. She said when the FG paid stipends as compensation in 1976 there were few educated people among the indigenous peoples. But that today, those children of yesterday are now highly educated and are desperate to deconstruct the historical injustice.
In those rural communities, from distance, daily locals are enraged watching the beautiful, electrified Abuja skylines, dotted with reflections of energy, beauty and affluence.
It was partly the tempestuous condition that drew the conference organised by Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education, (CHRICED) with the support of MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with FCT Original Inhabitants, a coalition of groups from the nine ethnic groups that traditionally own the land Abuja now stretch her vast wings.
The event drew indigenous peoples and other stakeholders who gathered together for constructive engagement on the plight of indigenous peoples of the FCT. The conference extended to an African regional meeting held on Tuesday with participants from several African countries and representatives of the diplomatic communities.
Some of the resource persons were Dr Quinter Akinyi Onyango of the University of Free States, South Africa; Prof Emily Choge of Religious and Philosophy Department, Moi University, Kenya; Prof Ismail Adegboyega Ibraheem, Director of International Relations, Partnerships and Prospects, University of Lagos; Prof Oshita O. Oshita, Executive Director, Ubuntu Centre for Africa Peace Building and Development, (UCAP) in Abuja among many others.
Speaking at the conference, His Royal Highness Alhaji Ismaila Danladi Mohammed, said the government should engage the people for a peaceful resolution of the lingering problem. The Etsu Kwari said: “They took the land, took our sacred places and left us naked.”
Another youth told the audience which included top government officials: “If you think you are enjoying today without our recognition, you are murdering sleep.”
He said the culture and civilisations of the people have been lost to the fleeting time and to them, the illusion of splendour occasioned by the overwhelming infrastructure in the FCT mostly do not add value to the economic conditions of largely poor and vulnerable indigenous peoples in the FCT. A woman leader in the community said Aso Rock, the seat of power, was one of the sacred places taken away by government.
She said: “We told them Aso Rock is our spirituality. If they don’t return it to us, there will never be peace in Aso Rock.”
She said some of the sacred traditional groove taken from the people included a spiritual site where the spirits of the dead were invoked from the ancient times.
CHRICED’s Executive Director, Ibrahim Zikirullahi, said his group and international partners want to promote dialogue, peace and justice.
He said: “This is the first time in history that we have come together to speak about the tribulations of indigenous peoples of the FCT as a united front.”
He said part of the reasons for the conference was to initiate robust discussions for a peaceful resolution of the problems.
A traditional ruler said the indigenous peoples are neglected and treated as second class citizens right in their ancestral homelands. “It is excruciatingly painful that the original inhabitants who made enormous sacrifices to give Nigeria its centre of unity have been rendered stateless and left to wallow in despair and regret,” he lamented.
The representative of MacArthur Foundation, Dr Kole Shettima, said it is the first of its kind in the history of the community that a regional conversation around indigenous issues would be held.
“We are guests of this place. We have been thinking of how we can be good guests to our people,” he said.
Another representative of the traditional chiefs in the FCT said: “The indigenous people are very peaceful. We are saying give us our right.” He said in other countries like Germany, Brazil where the capital cities were moved, adequate compensation was paid while inclusion was a policy.
Indigenous peoples claim over ancestral land is a global phenomenon. This compelled the UN on July 28 to adopt the process of dealing with the problem. In 1993, following the recommendation of the World Conference on Human Rights, the UN General Assembly proclaimed the International Decade of Indigenous peoples (1995-2004).
The UN described the indigenous peoples as “holders of unique languages, knowledge systems and beliefs and possess invaluable knowledge for sustainable development.” In some countries, lack of government intervention has led to armed uprising against the state.
Abdulkareem Tijani, who leads a civil society promoting indigenous rights, said: “Though certain things are being done, much needed to be done.”
The traditional rulers of Gbwari said: “We cannot do anything that will destabilise Nigeria. We will not do it. We just want the government to listen to us.
“We are like fatherless children. You have become our parents. Please hold us. We need to be considered as the real indigenous people.
“We must have our full rights.”
He said when the rest of the country elects state governors, Abuja indigenous people go to sleep. They are also denied statehood by virtue of the legal requirements that one must have a state of origin to be gainfully employed or to gain admission into higher schools.
“Our people are compelled to claim Nassarawa, Kogi, Kwara and other states to be included where states of origin is required for opportunities since Abuja is not a state,” he lamented.
Section 263 of the 1979 Constitution says that the FCT will be treated like a state, but that only exists on paper. He said the whole country is keeping quiet in the face of bottled up stinging bees that can force their way out at any time. He said the various governments have broken promises.
A representative of the Environmental Rights Action (ERA), Chimma Williams, said “the situation of indigenous people in Abuja is induced and forced displacement. It is not acceptable.”
Nyanolo said he was born and brought up in Garki Village. “I entered secondary school in 1976 when the FCT was created.
“Let me correct the impression that there were no towns created here. Aguda Panel said it was a virgin land, but we had lived here, cultivated the land, which means the land was not virgin.
“We are not Nigerians. The constitution says to be a Nigerian, you must come from a state, but the FCT is not a state.
“When land is taken away from you, it means everything on earth has been taken away.”
One participant said the law in FCT says “we do not have the right to allocate our land to our children. When you refuse us, whether you like it or not, we will take it by force unless we are all killed so that the land can become virgin.”
Nyanolo said the FCT by land mass is more than Bayelsa and Lagos. “So why should we have only one senator?
“Some states have 20 people in the House of Reps but we have only two. How can they lobby over 360 lawmakers?
“We as a people are being administered as a ministry. Are we indigenes of a ministry?
“When others are electing their governors, we are busy sleeping, disenfranchised.”
He said his people went to court that they should be represented at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) up to the Supreme Court, adding that his people won but the FG failed to comply.
“The land we own is being reallocated to us. They valued what we planted 1000 metres at N30,000. Someone from somewhere who got the land will sell it for N30 million.”
The challenge came in 1976 when the then Gen. Murtala Mohammed administration wanted to move the federal capital away from Lagos. A panel was set up, led by Justice Akinola Aguda. Other members of the panel were social critic Dr Tai Solarin, Col. Monsignor Pedro Martins, Prof O.K Ogan, Prof. Ajato Gandonu, Alhaji Mohammed Musa Isma and Chief Owen Fiebai.
The committee suggested some 30 cities including Ile-Ife, Makurdi, Okene, Osara, Kafanchan, Agege, Agena, Auchi and Abuja. Some of the considerations for choosing Abuja were security, excess land, low population, soil, ethnic accord, health, climate and centrality. It was thought that Lagos was identified with only one group, the Yoruba; a situation considered as a “threat to national unity.”
At the FCT, an official who did not wish to be named told our correspondent that the authority was looking into the grievances of the indigenous people.
“We are aware of some of the challenges. They cannot say compensation has not been paid. They can only say it may not be enough,” he said.
After the conference, the indigenous people expressed support for peaceful means of expressing their grievances to local and international authorities while urging the Nigerian government to meet her international obligations like the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) where member states affirm that before developments take place in indigenous communities, the people must have ‘free, prior and informed consent’ among other things.
Some challenges: The indigenous people are yet to develop their alphabets while many of their cultures have been eroded through contact with bigger ethnic groups in the FCT. Nyanolo said it was not a problem, adding that his people are already developing their alphabets. In February next year, the indigenous people also hope to mark, for the first time, their Heritage Day.
Nyanola was right when he said while some of the older generation are appealing for calm the youths are boiling with anger. Saliu Idris, 25, a Nupe who came from Warri where he grew up, said his father told him the family lost over 1,000 acres to the FCT. He is a graduate but has no job and watches cars in Warri. He appears to sum up indigenous youths’ lack of trust in government’s various promises.
He said: “Bros, we are tired.’
Informed about Federal Government’s plans to address the problem, he took off his fez cap in a dramatic response: “Bros, wicked people no dey change. Winch (Witch) no dey get mercy.”
But Zikirillahi said his group will work with the Nigerian government and international partners to ensure justice is done in the shortest time possible to avoid breeding a rebellious movement in the FCT at a time the authorities are almost dazed with terrorists threats in Abuja, once Nigeria’s safest city.
