Chiefs in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have decried the rate at which they said government was grabbing their lands, saying they no longer have enough land to farm.
Some of the chiefs who spoke during a town hall meeting for small holder women farmers organised by Actionaid Nigeria, in conjunction with Society for Community Development (SCD) last Thursday at Ibeto Hotels, Abuja, said they are being short changed over land by government that should uphold their rights.
Chief of Kilankwa, Kwali Area Council, Ibrahim Demwa Sheshimbwa, accused council chairmen of grabbing their farmlands.
“Whenever they want land, they don’t consult us, they just survey and make papers. They always boast that they are government and they can do whatever they want,” he said.
Chief of Tunga Ashere, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Garba Giwa, said expanses of land have been taken from his community for the past eight years by both the federal government and area council, adding that the lands have not been developed, they were yet denied the right to farm on them.
He said government officials enumerated houses and gave N50,000 to each household that had land in the area.
The chiefs, who were responding to the demand of Actionaid and SCD that land should be made available to small holder women farmers in the FCT, said it was challenging for even men to get land for farming now.
“Government has collected all our farmlands. Everywhere you go, they ask you to leave that you don’t have farmland there. So where will women get land when even men have their lands seized. They grab 200, 300 and 500 hectares in a community,” Chief Yusuf Sarki Iya, village head of Leleyi Gwari, said.
Earlier in his opening remarks, Mr. Azubuike Okoye of Actionaid said the Nigerian Constitution guarantees both men and women equal rights to land but lamented that the major challenge small holder women farmers face in Nigeria, especially in the FCT, is access to land.
He said in other states, communities are beginning to give women cooperatives land to farm. “If women do not have access to land what they will cultivate will be limited and their income will be low,” he said.
He appealed to the chiefs to expunge traditions and customs that are against women’s success.
Okoye urged women to be proactive and always follow up on issues that affect them, assuring that the Federation of Women Lawyers in the FCT was always ready to help them out whenever they had legal issues concerning land.
Also, the Executive Director of SCD, Mr. Apoede Atsegbua, said the meeting was part of efforts to support women farmers in the FCT so that there will be food sufficiency in the territory.
He urged the chiefs to be upright and stop double dealings to ensure that they mobilised their people to protect their farmlands from land grabbers.
