Abuja indigenes, under the aegis of Original Inhabitants Development Association of Abuja (OIDA), have insisted that only the recognition of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as a state will address longstanding injustice against the indigenous people of Nigeria’s capital city.
Pastor Danladi Jeji, President of OIDA, who spoke in an interview with NewsNGR, stressed that recent appointments given to some FCT indigenes cannot stop the agitation for state status for the territory.
Jeji was reacting to jubilation among some indigenous associations over appointments given to FCT indigenes by the President Bola Tinubu administration.
NewsNGR reports that Tinubu recently approved the appointment of an FCT indigene, Mr Abdullahi Suleiman Ango, as Mandate Secretary for the newly established Youth Development Secretariat in the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA.
Another FTC native, Bitrus Lawrence Garki, was also appointed Mandate Secretary of Area Council Services of the FCTA.
In the same vein, an Abuja indigene, Mr Musa Dikko, was appointed as the Public Complaints Commissioner of the FCT.
A former Deputy Governor of Kogi State, Edward Onoja, was initially appointed as the FCT Public Complaints Commissioner but following an outcry by FCT indigenes, Tinubu overturned the appointment, replacing him with Dikko.
These appointments are being celebrated by some FCT indigenous associations and public analysts, leading to suggestions that the current administration is addressing the marginalization of the indigenes.
But, reacting to the development, OIDA President, Jeji wondered why appointments given to FCT indigenes are ‘over-celebrated’ in the media “when other Nigerians are being given appointments in their states”.
He said, “Are the original inhabitants supposed to be satisfied that the FCT Administration gave some of their members appointments whereas what they have been agitating for is a state of their own? We want to be like other Nigerians, we need our own state.”
Noting that the injustice against FCT indigenes has its roots in the Constitution, Jeji observed that Lagos was accorded the status of a state, even when it served as Nigeria’s capital city, before the Federal Government relocated the seat of power to Abuja.
“The Nigerian Constitution says the FCT people should be treated as a state. How on earth will the country treat the people of the FCT like that? Abuja is not the first capital territory of Nigeria. Lagos was harbouring the FCT yet it was a state. Abuja is three times the size of Lagos. Is it position we are after? No. What did we do to Nigeria?,” an aggrieved Jeji said.
He added that the local government autonomy suit filed by the Federal Government against the states raised the need to accord the FCT the status of a state.
“President Tinubu is saying that it’s 774 local governments in the country that should have LG autonomy but if you check Nigeria’s Constitution you are not going to see 774 LGAs. You are going to see 768 LGAs and six area councils but Tinubu is saying 774 local government areas, that is to say, he is correcting this situation of our statelessness.
“What is now left is for the National Assembly to put it in the Constitution that we have 774 local governments and let us have our state government in agreement with the democracy we started during Shagari’s time when he built our state secretariat in Gwagwalada.
“What we are saying is let state status be given to us and every other thing will be alright.”
Faulting the ‘undue’ celebration of appointments given to FCT indigenes, Jeji noted that the Federal Government is not being sincere with the original inhabitants of the capital city.
He said, “Position is not what we are looking for. But the youths who do not understand the situation, think appointment into one or two offices is what they should be shouting about. They think that is what is needed.
“Which state is not getting an appointment in the country? People from all the states are getting appointments. It is normal thing. Do you hear any noise about that in the media? In various states people are being appointed as commissioners and others, does that call for celebration? Why should that of FCT indigenes be different? Why is it that because you gave the FCT indigene Mandate Secretary for the Youth, it is celebrated in the media, you gave another indigene Public Complaints Commissioner, it is celebrated in the media? As if it is only FCT that has public complaints commissioner? As if it is only FCT that has youth leader? Other states don’t have these positions? What type of deception is that?
“They are exploiting the ignorance of the people. The Original Inhabitants Development Association is saying that the Nigerian government cannot play us hanky panky. The Constitution must be corrected to give the original inhabitants of the FCT a state status.”