By Stanley Onyekwere
A coalition of elders in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has appealled to the FCT Administration and the Federal Government, demanding an end to what they described as decades of institutional and financial marginalisation against the territory’s indigenous traditional institution and residents.
The FCT Senior Citizens Forum, at a press briefing in Abuja on Sunday, presented a two-pronged demand: the immediate implementation of the statutory 5% monthly allocation to the FCT Traditional Council from Area Council funds, and a radical call for the declaration of the FCT as a full-fledged state to ensure equal benefits for its natives and residents.
Speaking, Coordinator of the Forum, Elder Danjuma Tanko Dara, who detailed a 45-year history of exclusion, noted that the 17 recognized chiefs of the FCT have been deprived of the financial sustenance mandated for traditional rulers across Nigeria.
“FCT traditional rulers do not get that 5% allocation like other traditional councils in the 36 states collect monthly.
“Since the establishment of various chiefdoms for Abuja in 1979, the 17 Chiefs have not been benefiting from the 5% that other traditional rulers in Nigeria benefit from,” he said.
He also explained the critical role the funds would play in grassroots development, directly supplementing government efforts.
“This 5% is supposed to come from the allocation of Area Councils monthly. If given to them, it will go a long way in solving so many problems in the communities.
“They could drill boreholes for water, maintain community roads and schools, support indigent school children, and also help in maintaining our traditional palaces,” Dara said.
Beyond finances, Elder Dara highlighted a systemic stagnation in the hierarchy of the FCT chiefs.
“In other States of Nigeria, traditional rulers are upgraded few years after turbaning, but in the FCT, when they are turbaned, they are left to remain in one position for as long as they exist.
“This is another saddest moment since the creation of the FCT,” he lamented.
He accused successive FCT Ministers of neglect, noting a pattern of unfulfilled promises. “Our Chiefs have written to several FCT ministers, but after a while, nothing will be done.
“Those that have been ministers in FCT came from other states of Nigeria, and when they go to their state, they see how they upgrade their own traditional institutions. But when they are in Abuja, they don’t want to reciprocate that gesture. This is a sort of marginalization and it has to stop.”
Elder Dara painted a picture of the humiliation faced by FCT rulers at national gatherings arguing: “If you go to our neighboring states, those that were upgraded far behind our Chiefs today, they are First Class Chiefs. So by the time they go to meeting outside, their seat is far, far in the front. They will be far behind.”
The forum now places its hopes on the current FCT Minister, Barr. Nyesom Wike, urging immediate action.
“This anomaly should be corrected by the present FCT administration. If he does this, his name will be written in Gold in the heart of all Abuja indigenous people,” Elder Dara asserted.
In a significant escalation of their demands, the Forum called for a fundamental restructuring of the FCT’s status.
“We are also calling on the federal government to declare the FCT as a State, so that all the benefits of a state would be replicated in the FCT for its residents and natives,” he said.
This, the FCT senior citizens argue, is the ultimate solution to ending the perennial “administrative orphanage” where FCT natives are denied benefits enjoyed by citizens of the 36 states.
He said that the twin demands, operational funding for traditional rulers and statehood, present a major test for the Wike-led FCT Administration and the Federal Government, touching on issues of equity, constitutional review, and the rights of the FCT’s original inhabitants.
According to him: “The demands are clear: the immediate commencement of the mandatory 5% monthly allocation from Area Council funds to the FCT Traditional Council, and the institution of a transparent process for the periodic review and elevation of the chiefs’ ranks to bring them at par with their counterparts across Nigeria.”
