By Philip Yatai

Helpline Social Support Initiative (HSSI), an NGO, has unveiled a two-year project to strengthen the cultural rights of the Original Inhabitants (OIs) of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Unveiling the project at a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday, the HSSI Project Manager, Mr Onoja Arome, said that the move was to preserve the cultural heritage of the OIs.

Arome said that the project would be supported by the MacArthur Foundation, through the Resource Centre for Human Right and Civic Education (CHRICED).

He explained that the project was designed to train 100 vulnerable women and youths in cultural attire production.

This, according to him, is to increase the cultural identity awareness of the OIs and create job opportunities through skill acquisition in arts and craft.

He added that the project was to advocate the resettlement and adequate compensation of OIs whose land had been encroached upon or taken over by developers without adequate compensation.

He said “it will also create awareness of their presence as OIs whose voices are gradually going into
extinction.

“These, among others, are what the Helpline Social Support Initiative shall be engaged with in the next 18 months of the project.”

Arome said that the 1973 decree that created the FCT came with a lot of consequences for the OIs.

He noted that the OIs were forced to relinquish their ancestral land for the development of the nation’s capital.

He added that “the development scattered the indigenous people, with many of them losing most of their economic trees and farmlands, thereby causing high unemployment rate among the OIs.

“This was why the MacArthur Foundation stepped in, through CHRICED, and in 2021 supported HSSI to implement the first phase of the project.”

The manager said that the project recorded huge success with a total of 200 vulnerable women and youths trained and empowered to preserve their cultural identity.

He said the beneficiaries were now making a living by producing cultural attire as entrepreneurs.

On awareness creation, Arome added that 39 jingles were produced and aired in OIs local languages, while advocacy visits to the department of resettlement and compensation were carried out.

He said “today, we make bold to reiterate that CHRICED has deemed it fit to continue on the project, thereby supporting us again to continue with the second phase of the project.

“We hereby call on stakeholders in this venture to empathise and sympathise with the OIs and join us in this venture to create an incredible impact that will out-leave us and usher new generations to a life of ease in the FCT.” (NAN)

Edited by Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu