The recent presentation by the Resource Centre for Human Rights & Civic Education (CHRICED) at the 18th Session of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has brought renewed attention to the longstanding plight of Abuja’s Original Inhabitants (OIs).
Development Diaries reports that with an estimated population of over two million, these indigenous communities face the threat of extinction due to systemic exclusion, cultural marginalisation, and political disenfranchisement.
CHRICED’s intervention is not just a call for international solidarity, but a pressing reminder of the human cost of state-led urban development when it fails to account for the rights of the indigenous.
The Executive Director of CHRICED, Ibrahim Zikirullahi, strongly criticised the Nigerian government’s failure to rectify historical injustices stemming from the 1976 military decree that stripped the OIs of their ancestral lands to establish the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Despite court judgments affirming their rights, the government has failed to provide meaningful resettlement, compensation, or legal recognition.
The consequences, as CHRICED argued, go beyond land dispossession, amounting to a complete erasure of identity, autonomy, and survival prospects for the indigenous tribes and chiefdoms of the FCT.
The organisation also highlighted how Abuja’s rapid urban development has left its indigenous communities behind, depriving them of access to fundamental services such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure.
CHRICED noted that the absence of inclusive planning has resulted in economic marginalisation, with traditional livelihoods like farming and fishing increasingly threatened by unchecked urban sprawl and environmental degradation.
These communities have become invisible in their own homeland, denied development benefits and cut off from the socio-economic progress surrounding them.
According to the organisation, politically, the denial of Abuja’s OIs to elect a governor or legislature reveals the structural disenfranchisement they face within Nigeria’s federal arrangement.
CHRICED drew attention to the fact that these citizens are essentially stateless in their own country, lacking political representation and autonomy. This absence of constitutional and democratic inclusion deepens their vulnerability and further silences their demands for justice and development.
Finally, CHRICED’s call for data sovereignty is especially significant, as it highlights how the invisibility of Abuja’s indigenous communities is compounded by their exclusion from national statistics.
Without accurate data, policymaking continues to ignore their needs and rights. CHRICED insists that data must serve as a tool for empowerment, not erasure, reinforcing the need for legal recognition, political inclusion, equitable development, and cultural preservation.
In light of the grave concerns raised by CHRICED, Development Diaries calls on the National Assembly and the Federal Capital Territory Administration to take immediate and concrete steps to address the marginalisation of Abuja’s OIs.
We also urge the National Human Rights Commission and the Ministry of Justice to work collaboratively to ensure the constitutional and human rights of these communities are upheld, particularly with regard to land rights, access to justice, and representation in governance structures.
Photo source: e.r.w.i.n
