Nigerian Media Lobbies For Enactment Of Abuja Original Inhabitants Protection Bill

Journalists from over 30 media houses have called on the National Assembly to enact a bill that protects the rights of Abuja Original Inhabitants (AOIs) who represent the first ancestral nations that lived in what is now the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), thousands of years before it became Nigeria’s capital city.

At the end of a one-day summit on Environmental Justice and the Rights of Abuja Indigenous people, the media practitioners said the bill will establish an institutional framework that would address historical injustice against Abuja Original Inhabitants since 1976 when their land was taken over through Decree 6 of February 4, 1976 that legalised the transfer of the Federal Capital from Lagos to Abuja.

The media practitioners said the proposed Bill for the protection of the AOIs represents a paradigm shift from perks to institutional provisions that addresses fundamental problems.

“Indigenous issues are global. While many countries are providing legal frameworks and listening to the grievances of indigenous peoples, Nigeria has failed to do the right thing. The over two million AOIs are crying silently for justice. Nigeria needs to listen to them before it is too late.” the journalists said in a communique signed by Adewale Adeoye, Kasali Akinwale, Usman Kadir and Mrs Mariam Usman.

The participants called on Nigeria to domesticate the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by the UN in 2007and the ILO Convention adding that the two international instruments should be applied to AOIs.

NEJII said while Abuja remains one of the most beautiful cities in Africa, the original owners of the land live in agony, pain and misery without access to the essentials of life.

Guest speakers at the event were the editor of Vanguard on Sunday, Mr Wale Akinola, the news editor of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Mr Fabian Anawo and the former news editor of The Punch, Mr Felix Oboagwina.

The participants asked Nigeria to learn from Brazil and Chile that have come to the reality that the challenges of indigenous people needed to be addressed as a way of strengthening democracy and the rule of law.