The Nigerian government been urged to urgently create the environment to address the challenges of indigenous peoples, particularly original inhabitants of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), who desire living peacefully in a just and equitable country.
At a two-day roundtable last week in Abuja on “Access to Justice and Human Rights Protection in Nigeria”, organised by the Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), participants also demanded that the ban on customary rights of occupancy by the FCT Minister be vacated to allow FCT Area Council Chairmen grant customary rights of occupancy.
The roundtable urged to the FCT authority to stop further seizure of original inhabitants’ farmland and demolition of their settlements.
Jointly hosted by CHRICED, the MacArthur Foundation, and the FCT Original Inhabitants, the workshop also resolved that statutory provisions should be reviewed to ensure that any future constitutional review include indigenous peoples’ rights.
The contemporary plight of the FCT original inhabitants dates back to 1976 when their lands were taken over by a military fiat with little or no compensation, robbing them of inestimable ancestry, history, and cultures.
Other resolutions include: “To protect their rights, original inhabitants should obtain and preserve all historical documents pertaining to the FCT, litigations and advocacy.
“The original inhabitants should take advantage of international legal avenues through which they can put pressure on the Nigerian government to meet its regional and international obligations.
“Traditional rulers should advocate for and support the needs of indigenous peoples and communities in Nigeria.
“Educational empowerment is critical for traditional leaders to ensure quality and effective representation”.
Others are: “That FCT original inhabitants should take popular, democratic, nonviolent actions within the existing democratic space to draw attention to their plight, and that such actions must be peaceful, legal, prompt, and pre-emptive of programmes or projects that may jeopardise their livelihood.
“The FCT original inhabitants should strengthen their advocacy, and litigation in defence of their rights.
“More research should be conducted by Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), and media on indigenous peoples’ social, economic, and cultural repression and isolation in Nigeria.
“The original inhabitants should explore the use of modern information technology to effectively publicize their plight.
“Professional organisations such as the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), and other pro-liberty organizations should be more involved in making indigenous issues a priority in Nigeria.
“The FCT original inhabitants should collaborate by bringing together all affected community leaders”.
Over 60 people attended the roundtable, including FCT traditional rulers, legal luminaries from academia, the Bar, and the Bench (including legal professors and Senior Advocates of Nigeria), media representatives, leaders of indigenous peoples, physically challenged people, CSOs, labor unions, women groups, religious bodies, and youth associations.
About 300 million indigenous peoples are scattered around the world, including the original inhabitants of the FCT. Issues around their livelihood, rights and access to justice have become a critical focal point in national and international dialogue.
The consequences of serial denial of indigenous peoples’ rights are manifested in a lack of equitable access to life’s necessities such as housing, land and its bio and genetic resources, education, health, and equitable economic and political representation.
In Nigeria, the FCT original inhabitants suffer institutional repression, forceful eviction, statelessness, loss of voices; and are met with conflict arising from lack of access to ancestral land, loss of sacred forests, groves, burial sites amidst ownership of land defined by laws of the state which outrightly exclude their input.
