FCT Original Inhabitants Seek Funds To Mass-produce Traditional Attire

Abuja’s original inhabitants have renewed calls for continued funding and strategic partnerships to ensure its certified trainees are equipped with tools and raw materials to mass-produce their traditional attires.

The call was made yesterday at a press conference in Abuja organised by Helpline in collaboration with the Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED) and supported by the MacArthur Foundation.
Its theme was “Strengthing the Cultural Rights of FCT Original Inhabitants.”

The programme manager, Helpline Social Support Initiative (HSSI), Godwin Arome Onoja, said the group has executed a comprehensive cultural preservation and economic empowerment initiative to protect the endangered heritage of Abuja’s original inhabitants (OIs).

He said the nine tribes of Amomoa, Bassa, Gade, Ganagana, Gbari, Gwandara, Egbura and Koro, have faced historical marginalisation, political exclusion and the continued encroachment of sacred cultural sites.

Onoja said Helpline has launched a multi-faceted project to restore the dignity, voices and livelihoods of OIs “through targeted skills acquisition programmes, at least 100 vulnerable women and marginalised youth were trained to master the art of making traditional clothing, which are commercially available in the market for the first time” .

To ensure long term success and transparency of the project, he said Helpline implemented several strategic campaigns which include visit to OIs royal fathers, advocacy visit to the FCT Department of Resettlement and Compensation, advocacy Road Walk, and a 13-week radio programme.

While calling on the federal government to address what they described as decades of injustice, displacement and systemic marginalisation suffered by the loss of their ancestral land, the original inhabitants were urged to remain resolute and utilise established legal channels when engaging with government.

Abubakar Yahuza Karshi, one of the original inhabitants who spoke at the event, called on Helpline and CHRICED to help provide shops to facilitate the sale of new traditional attires and thus bring their cultural attires to limelight.