By Stanley Onyekwere
A Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), Helpline Foundation For The Needy, Abuja has organised oɓfficial advocacy on an initiative tailored to promote the political, socio-economic, and cultural rights of the Original Inhabitants of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
In particular, the NGO last week assembled traditional rulers, women, youth, politicians and other major stakeholders across the six FCT Area Councils, at a Town Hall Meeting inside Cyprian Ekwesi Art AND Culture Center, Abuja, to thoroughly brief them on the Project, which is fully funded by MacArthur Foundation through the instrumentality of the Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED).
Explaining the project, President of Helpline Foundation, Dr. Jumai Ahmadu, said the advocacy marks the beginning of the project of promoting the rights of the original inhabitants of the FCT.
She said the project became necessary as the original inhabitants have been undergoing several forms of marginalization in the FCT.
Ahmadu noted that the project would not succeed without the moral support of Royal Fathers of the Six Area Councils were in person and ably represented at the town hall meeting.
She added that as major stakeholders to the project, it is are clear that the outcome of the project if successful must have an undertone of their inputs.
“ In line with the overall objective of the CHRICED Project, we have titled our sub-granted project Revamping The Cultural Heritage Of The Original Inhabitants (OIS) Through The Empowerment Of Vulnerable Women And Marginalized Youths Of The OIs And Cultural Preservation.
‘This, we believe will help alleviate poverty and improve livelihood on the line of preserving the cultural repositories of the OIs in FCT among other project activities embedded in the project as you can see in the handy Project Profile,” Ahmadu reaffirmed.
She thanked funding organisation; the CHRICED and Macarthur Foundation for taking this initiative to enjoin all the original inhabitants to collaborate in other to make the their voices heard again in their own land.
