Group Tasks Tinubu, National Assembly On Abuja Original Inhabitants’ Rights Law

The Network of Journalists on Indigenous Issues (NEJII) has asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Assembly to work for a law that promotes the economic and cultural rights of Abuja’s original inhabitants.

At a media conference in Lagos, NEJII said the Abuja first nations, comprising eight ethnic nationalities, have faced historical injustice that can only be addressed through institutional reforms.

NEJII coordinator, Adewale Adeoye, who spoke at the conference in Lagos, said, “Welcome to the brief media engagement on Abuja Original Inhabitants (AOIs).”

The call is being made ahead of the United Nations (UN) International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, held on 8 August each year.

The event remains a remarkable global initiative established by the UN General Assembly in December 1994. 8 August also serves as a reminder of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations’ first meeting in 1982.

Nigeria is home to many indigenous peoples. The Abuja Original Inhabitants (AOIs), which are Ganagana, Koro, Ebira, Gade, Gbgwari, and Nupe, are part of this heritage.

He urged the President to initiate an Executive Bill on Abuja Indigenous Inhabitants that, among others, reserves a certain percentage of the National Budget of the FCT for the education and health of Abuja Original Inhabitants (AOIs).

‘The Bill will also legalise priority of corporate and public institutions’ jobs for Abuja Original Inhabitants and the preservation of AOIs’ languages, so that they could be taught in primary and secondary schools in the FCT, plus the preservation of ancestral worship places and groves of AOIs.’

He said the situation of indigenous people in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is a ticking time bomb.

“In a country characterised by growing violence, banditry and terrorism, we do not want to see another form of violent resistance coming from any part of the country, not to talk of Abuja, the Federal Capital, which presents one of the first images of Nigeria to every foreign visitor’, NEJII said.

At the event that was attended by scores of media practitioners drawn from the print and electronic media, NEJII said, ‘We are deeply concerned about the Abuja Original Inhabitants for so many reasons. Nigeria is currently the epicentre of various violent agitations. These protests that are now violent mostly began as harmless, fair and peaceful agitations.’

Other demands made by NEJII are

The setting up of a Judicial Enquiry into the Cases of historic injustice, including, but not limited to, Land Grab and Seizure of ancestral land at gunpoint, especially by the past Military and Civilian Administrators of Abuja.