FCT@50: Original inhabitants decry neglect, table demands

The FCT Stakeholders’ Assembly said on Tuesday that for original inhabitants, the 50 years since the seat of power moved from Lagos to Abuja have been marked not by celebration, but by systematic dispossession, exclusion, and marginalization.

Aliyu Daniel Kwali, President of the Assembly, addressed a world press conference in Abuja, noting: “On February 3, 1976, the then Military Head of State, General Murtala Ramat Mohammed, announced the establishment of a new Federal Capital Territory for Nigeria. While the Federal Government may today reflect on achievements in urban planning, architecture, and infrastructure development, this anniversary carries a very different meaning for the Original Inhabitants of the FCT.”

To address these long-standing grievances, the Assembly called for the adoption of international best practices in land acquisition, compensation, and resettlement.

This, it said, includes ensuring fair and adequate compensation for communities displaced by development projects.

The Assembly further demanded constitutional reforms to eliminate provisions that deny FCT indigenous people’s equality with citizens of other states.

The specific political demands by the Assembly include administrative restructuring, the demarcation of the FCT into three senatorial districts and the creation of additional federal constituencies to address under-representation.

They also called for reclassifying Area Councils as Local Government Areas, consistent with other states of the federation and the restoration of the rights of FCT indigenous peoples to vote and be voted for in gubernatorial and State House of Assembly elections.

The Assembly also called for the establishment of governance structures that ensure indigenous participation in decisions affecting their livelihoods.

It also called for an immediate halt to the desecration of ancestral lands and cultural heritage and urged the government to provide legal protection for sacred sites, burial grounds, and traditional institutions that have been threatened by the territory’s rapid expansion.

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