The indigenes of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, who are referred to as original inhabitants, are not leaving any stone unturned ahead of the 2023 general elections.
They have tasked the Nigerian government, in their quest for political relevance, to end what they described as “the marginalisation of the people” before the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections. They also warned that failure to take their call with all the seriousness it deserves may not augur well.
Leader of the body and Senior Special Assistant to the Abuja Municipal Area Council popularly called AMAC, Yunusa Amadu Yusuf, in an exclusive interview with The Point in Abuja, said Nigeria remains the only country that takes over her citizen’s inherited land and chases them away, forgets them and turns them to destitute in their own country.
Yusuf, who catalogued the rejection and abandonment of his people in the country where the government is supposed to provide succour for them by fully integrating them, lamented that even drinking water is not provided in the areas they are living, while the cities where visitors are living have pipe borne water. He said electricity supply and roads to the villages are taboo even as the government continues to oppress his people.
“The February 25 presidential and national assembly elections are gradually building up and the tension is everywhere within the suburbs and communities in the Federal Capital Territory.
The expectations of our people are high, and different supporters from different groups and people are preempting the results of the elections. But there is one point, the indigenous people are looking for solidarity because they feel that the FCT people have been marginalized, deprived, and excluded from the good things of life for too long. So, why should somebody come from another state to contest the only available seat that the indigenes have with them? For example, we have the senatorial candidate of the Labour Party, who is trying to see if she can pull weight but our people are frowning at it.
“WE HAVE BEEN TELLING THE GOVERNMENT WHAT TO DO FOR A LONG TIME. WE WANT THEM TO SEPARATE THE FEDERAL CAPITAL CITY FROM THE FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY SO THAT WE CAN HAVE A SENSE OF BELONGING; AN ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM OF GOVERNANCE. THAT’S WHAT WE ARE ASKING FOR”
“And then, we also have the House of Representatives candidate of the APC and our people are also frowning at it because they feel that somebody cannot come from Adamawa or any state at all to come and contest the only participatory and governance position of the indigenous people with them. People will agree with me that it is not fair and might not be acceptable to the people because these people we are talking about have a dual advantage in the sense that they are residents in the FCT, they can contest in the FCT and they can as well go back to their home states to contest whatever position they want.
Knowing full well that the FCT natives have been crying against gross marginalization, non-representation at the federal level, at the federal executive council, non-participation, and a whole lot of things. Is it the refusal of the government to do adequate compensation on economic trees or our lands that have been taken absolutely without any stakeholders’ consultations or recognitions?”
Yusuf, the Chief Advocate of the Abuja original indigenes, further lamented that there are so many difficulties the people face that at some points they feel that they are not Nigerians.
He argued that “if the Constitution has stated that all Nigerians should be treated with equal rights and opportunities, what happens to the FCT indigenes, why is it that they cannot have representatives at the federal executive council, why is it that other people have three senators each and the FCT has just one? The FCT has only two House of Reps members to cover not less than five million people residing in Abuja. “It’s very unfair. We know states like Ebonyi, Kebbi, call it, all the small states in our country, even Niger is not as populous as Abuja but we just have two slots for the House of Representatives and one Senate seat.
We want Nigerians to understand our plight and then this time around we are saying that for those of them who are planning for their grand finale of the campaign in Abuja, we want to make it categorically clear that they must commit themselves and give us the assurances that they are going to give us a ministerial appointment, a representation, a sense of belonging if they win to become the president of Nigeria or else we will not take it lightly and we will not allow our people to cast their votes for them because it is very clear that it is deliberate wickedness against the people of the FCT and FCT natives in particular.”
He warned that the indigenes are not finding things funny in the territory saying, “Our people, after somebody has served as Area Council Chairman, he will be forced to be on the queue due to limited positions that are made available.
If we have all these board appointments, if we have a House of Assembly of our own, our people will progress from one position to another like other Nigerians but that is not so because the government does not recognize us as citizens.” He restated the people’s position, saying “We have told the government what to do since a long time ago. We want them to separate the federal capital city from the federal capital territory so that we can have a sense of belonging; an administrative system of governance. That’s what we are asking for.
If you can’t call it a governor, call it a Mayor so that we can have a political-administrative system of governing the Federal Capital City that should be differentiated from the federal capital territory.” He also noted that in addition, his people are asking the government to establish a Commission that will take care of too many sufferings and denials they have been subjected to.
“Alongside these demands, we are also asking for the Abuja Development Commission, which from the land rent that the government is collecting from our land we should have a commission that caters to our children’s education, healthcare, and the general well-being of our people. You need to go into our villages and communities to see and appreciate the fact that yes; we are living in dilapidated houses and in conditions in the territory where visitors live like kings.
“Is it healthcare, security, environment or is it social amenities, honestly a lot of things are happening that are very awful. Just check a few kilometers from the city, and you will see what I am talking about. The government concentrated on the city, and the development you see in Abuja does not go down to the grassroots, and I mean the communities where our people live as though our lives do not matter. In the hinterlands, there is no government presence yet our lands are taken from us.
This moment of campaigning, I have again gone round the communities, I have seen so much that we have to tell the story.” Continuing, Yusuf said “Sincerely things are not the way that they are being reported out there and that is why we need the sympathy of the journalists, the media and all fellow Nigerians who want to sympathize with us because this cannot happen anywhere else except here. The patience and accommodation of our people should not be taken for granted. Our people deserve more than whatever the government thinks they have done for us. Ask them if they have given any of us a foreign scholarship, the land allocation they are giving to other Nigerians and even foreigners have they given to our people. “They are allocating them only to their friends and cronies.
I dare them to publish the list of lands allocation because, by the establishing Act of the lands department in Abuja Geographic Information Service, they are supposed to publish the names of the people they have allocated lands in accordance with the regional sharing formula.
The Abuja land should be shared according to a regional formula but I can tell today, go through the files of AGIS, you will know that some people have taken Nigeria into their own pockets and we the owners of the lands are chased away.”
The Chief Advocate of the Abuja original indigenes also warned those nonindigenes struggling with the indigenes over the few slots for governance and representation who believe their money can buy whatever they desire even votes, to think twice.
He said, “Voting is a question of conscience. I can tell you categorically, no man who has agreed to do something will be bought over. Nigerians have seen what has happened in the last seven and half years. We have suffered in diverse areas. Is it insecurity, is it health facilities, is it food commodities in the market, or price control?
“There are so many things that Nigerians are banking on and they can foresee the dangers of careless voting based on stomach infrastructure.
We cannot afford to say we are blaming each other if we make mistakes this time around. I can tell you I have also reminded our people of their sufferings and their gains in the last seven years and how it has frustrated all of us as citizens of this country and I am sure any politician who thinks he is a money bag and has so much money to share to the people should go to the polls and try it because this time around it’s like a revolution that is visiting Nigeria.
Everybody wants to vote for something that is sustainable, something that people can hold on to. “Beyond just the voting, how much can a politician pay? No politician can pay N10, 000 per vote. The highest they can pay is N3, 000 or N5, 000 and with the rate of inflation, what will such money buy for anyone who sells his or her vote in this country today?
So, the campaign is doing itself, you don’t even need to talk to anybody at this point because we have gotten to a point where it’s like a revolution. You don’t need to talk to people. The people are so aggrieved, they are very unhappy with the way things are going.
So I think my people are with me and they have seen it. “The question I ask them now is before now how much do you buy Maggi and how much is it today? How much do you buy a mudu of rice and how much is it today? There have been questions and questions and they keep answering in a loud voice that things are not going right and we have been placing our people first.
Nobody should think he can come from Adamawa or from any state for that matter at all and think he wants to muzzle the few positions we have. We have been deprived, marginalized and then excluded as if we are not Nigerians. So, for our people, beyond the fact that they are very unhappy with the way and manner the government of Nigeria has been treating us, because we have no sense of belonging, we are not recognized, we are treated as aliens.”
Yusuf refuted claims in some quarters that his people are not getting appointments from the government because they do not have the academic qualifications to occupy such positions they desire. He said, “Anybody who is saying that is making caricatures of himself. We have more than qualified people as they can ask to occupy such positions we are talking about. From Professors, Doctors, Master’s degree holders, and anybody you can talk about.
Is it because we are not asking for a percentage of the income of any corporate organisation we have hosted in this FCT that is why people are looking down on us? If they want us to bring CVs for them in less than an hour I can get you thousands of CVs from people who are qualified in different fields. We have so many of us who are graduates.
You can filter them from Area Council to Area Council. We have so many indigenous people who are eminently qualified. “In fact, the government has never asked us to give them the people that studied medicine and we failed them, engineering, environmental or any field and we failed them. In fact, call us in any field, we have them in surplus.
So nobody should imply that we are not educated, no, that’s not true. Gone are those days when our people were not embracing education but now as I speak to you in the last 20 years, the indigenous people have invested more in educating their children and making sure that we are schooled because it is very sympathetic to note that our farmlands have been taken out rightly without any adequate compensation neither do we have any sense of belonging to the government programmes or plans.
“So, the only alternative we have is to go to school which we have done and many are still in school studying courses that will amaze you.
Has anybody given us the opportunity to bring forth and we have failed? It’s only when that is done that anybody can now say in many cases we are not educated but if anyone has said that, it is mere lies from the pit of hell and trying to hide their shame,” he said.
And speaking on how united they are in their determination to be united in pursuing their rights, Yusuf said the elite of Abuja’s original indigenes are united in this cause. However, the government has cowed them to the extent that some of them now tread cautiously and carefully. “The truth remains that from my findings, the government has put so much fear in our elite and educated personalities. Most of the time, whenever they are appointed to government offices they forget the plights of the FCT indigenes because they are looking for how to survive their people first.
When they took all our farmlands and gave them to developers, you don’t expect all the courage required to be man enough from them to still be with them because at that time survival is the motto. “So in that case, when they hold onto one small office, for example, what the government does to us is that they choose from among us one person and make him a member of one board and then that person will keep quiet and forget our plight because he is eating and winning with them.
Or sometimes they will use religion. Some of us who are Muslims will now be using religion to divide us. It’s either they are using religion to divide us or they are using tribes.
“They will tell the man who is coming from Abaji, who is an Ebira man, that the Gbagyi people do not like them, that we are only interested in the welfare or affairs of our people, and turn around to tell Gbagi people that the Mandara do not like them. That’s how they have been dealing with us. They use the law of divide and rule to fight us. Government is deliberately wicked to us and they deliberately do not want to let us go. The liberation of FCT original indigenes is in the hands of the government.” He revealed that the original indigenes went to court three years ago to challenge the numerous bad acts of successive governments against his people and secured landmark judgment which till date the government has refused to obey. “And let me put it straight, it is worthy to note that we went to court to challenge our status as a people.
Who are we, are we citizens of this country or foreigners? What is our identity and we got a landmark judgment in the Federal High Court which was never appealed by anybody or authority. We got a landmark judgment instructing Mr. President to give us a ministerial appointment immediately and pay us all the accruing allowances and salaries that have been paid for the last 30 years or more. I’m telling you we got that judgment over three years ago and to date the President has done nothing about it.
It’s a whole lot of issues.” Still speaking on their unity of purpose, he said their only senator, Philip Aduda, is strong with them and doing very well but as a lone voice in the Senate, he has little or nothing to do to benefit his people in terms of pushing for Bills that will take care of the original indigenes of the territory. “I want to boldly tell you that our only Senator, Philip Aduda, is doing very well, trying his best but what can he do? He is a lone ranger in the Senate.
In a Senate of 109, only he cannot lobby 108 senators to get what he wants for us whereas others are three from the states and always put their acts together to push for the cause of their people. How much can he give them because we know that in all these there is definitely going to be an exchange before you get any laws passed in your favour.
In so many instances, such efforts fail in the House of Reps or Senate.
“These other senators have assistance from their governors to push their matters but here is the FCT that even the Minister is not an indigene. The other time I heard he returned the money to the Federal Government at the end of the fiscal year, money meant for the development of our communities that he has done the work and such a huge amount remained meanwhile no single work was done anywhere in our communities.”
He warned that this act being meted to them is only leaving Abuja sitting on a time bomb which will definitely explode if not now in their time, then sometime in the future.
“The Mayoral status we have tried, the ministerial status we have tried it’s either they failed in the House of Representatives or at the Senate. But let me warn, one thing I want to assure Nigerians is that Abuja is sitting on a time bomb and it might explode even if it is not in my generation, maybe the younger generation might ask questions in a situation and manner that the government will spend more. “So the earlier they listen to the advice we are giving to them, the better.
We have been trying to see how we can manage the people, manage the crowd but it will get to the point that the people will no longer listen to us even as their leaders. It’s going to be a revolutionary kind of movement. So in order for us all to avoid the unforeseen and impending chaos, it is better for us to listen to the plights of the original indigenes of the FCT.”
He reiterated that the FCT is larger than some states both in land mass and population yet the government is finding it difficult to give it the status of state. “We said clearly, Abuja is eight square kilometers of land. If the government is taking four square kilometers of land and gives us four square kilometers of land, we can have a life. We can vote and be voted for so that we can also have a House of Assembly that can make laws for our own people.
The National Assembly cannot be making laws for us because we didn’t elect them. “They don’t know our pain.
You see the entire National Assembly is the one to make laws for us and that is why we are suffering because they are busy with their various constituencies. They also have constituents and that is why we are saying whatever name you want to call it, just give us something that gives us an administrative name politically for us to be able to vote and be voted for. You can call it Mayor of the city, governor, or whatever but let us have a way of an administrative system that’s all.”
