Include Abuja natives on ministerial list – CSOs

The Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED) and some other Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to include the FCT’s original inhabitants as he prepares to release his ministerial list.

In a joint statement on Sunday, the CSOs noted that considering the decades-long marginalisation and political relegation endured by the original inhabitants of the FCT, who gave up ancestral lands for which they had not been adequately compensated by the Nigerian state, the call became imperative.

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In the statement jointly signed by Dr Ibrahim M. Zikirullahi, Executive Director of CHRICED; Ambassador Hannatu Aze Usman-Nga, Executive Director of the Association of FCT Traditional Rulers Wives; among others, the CSOs noted that while cabinet appointment of the FCT’s original inhabitants would not address all the issues of marginalisation and political exclusion affecting them, it would serve as an important step in demonstrating their contributions to Nigeria’s growth and development, especially considering Section 42(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which guaranteed their inclusion like other Nigerians.