President Bola Tinubu made history by being the first Nigerian president to nominate an Abuja indigene as a minister of the Federal Republic representing the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. For a long time now – possibly because of the fact that past governments never looked in their direction – Abuja indigenes were hoping for a mayor. But since there is no extant law enabling a Mayoral Council, the ministerial nomination is the nearest they could get. They needed a grassroots politician who knows where the shoe pinches. Tinubu’s pick, Hon. Zephaniah Jisalo, would have deployed his experience as a former chairman of FCT’s biggest local government, Abuja Municipal Area Council. But the expectations of the indigenes were dashed when he was posted to the Ministry of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs.
From a personal viewpoint, though Jisalo would have been a perfect fit for the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory, he still has what it takes for effective national service with his new portfolio. The ministry is charged with several responsibilities among which are monitoring and authorising all payments on constituency projects; evaluating the implementation of Federal Executive Council policies and projects by other ministries, departments and agencies and reporting back to the president in council; and conducting, coordinating, and promoting good and harmonious relationships among the three tiers/arms of government and relevant international bodies.
As its core mission, the ministry serves as a strategic tool for grassroots development, effective implementation and monitoring of government policies and programmes for national development.
In view of Jisalo’s experience in working at the grassroots level, I believe that Nigeria has gained. For instance, the new minister should tap into his reservoir of resources and review constituency projects with a view to enabling a greener impact. I can testify that under his tenure as the Chairman of AMAC, environment-focused civil society activities received a fillip which eventually set the template for nationwide climate action. It was around that time that yours truly began grassroots-driven climate change initiatives. I partnered with the primary education board which was directly under AMAC. It was because of the amenable environment and bureaucratic atmosphere stimulated by the Jisalo administration, that the green campaigns enjoyed seamless reticulation.
It was not only in the environment sector that change was witnessed. Prior to 2003, the commercial milieu of the FCT was visibly unorganised with the daily influx of settlers, artisans and politicians. Interestingly, AMAC, being the centre of the FCT, became a mirror image of inchoate chaos. There were anarchic commercial motorcyclists, as well as random billboards, business signs and ramshackle roadside markets. Jisalo began a structural and policy-based revival of the commercial heartbeat, which dovetailed into the statewide reorganisation that ensued when Mallam Nasir El-Rufai became the FCT minister.
Again, it is instructive to note the contagious influence of Jisalo’s efforts at the sub-national levels, which eventually won him the Nigerian Local Government Chairmen Merit Award for best local government chairman back to back, for three times – 2004, 2005 and 2006.
Therefore, for some of us in the development sector, it was great news to hear of his appointment as a minister-designate a couple of months ago. One had hoped that under him the FCT would undergo a green revolution. A man who knew the nooks and crannies of the nation’s capital would have known where those villages that have no water to drink and raise their crops were hidden. He would know where to erect off-grid solar power, like the one that was established in Waru as a pilot green initiative by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, but was never upscaled by the succeeding administration.
Unlike the picture painted by popular narratives, with supporting sights and sounds, Abuja is far bigger than Aso Rock and the psychedelic City Centre that cradles it. We must disabuse our minds from the illusion that the FCT is a highly developed city with no problems, just by merely viewing the architectural masterpieces in the city centre. This is very far from reality. The truth is that as you read this piece, there are villages right here in the FCT where the only time the indigenes see a motor vehicle is on market days. There are also communities where you need a canoe to access, and that have no means of water supply but a river which the residents share with their livestock. This is why the original indigenes have been shouting for those who care to listen that the FCT needs more senatorial seats, and more seats at the House of Representatives.
Indeed, it would have been refreshing to see how an Abuja indigene would deploy to serve his own people – since the FCT does not have an elected executive officer to manage their affairs.
To be sure, the heterogeneous nature of the Nigerian state and the problem it poses to nation-building is well recognised by our founding fathers, and therefore policy measures to accommodate the diversities were incorporated in the laws and practices of the republic to assuage feelings of marginalisation and contain deviant behaviour from aggrieved groups. Attempts to check the shortcomings in the federalism system culminated in the birth of many principles, like the quota system or rather ‘proportional representation’, and finally the Federal Character principle in 1979.
On a microcosmic level, the diverse nature of the Federal Capital Territory is a mirror reflection of the Nigerian state, and the FCT Act of 1976 is designed to ensure the representation in spirit and structure of the various constituent cultures, groups and characteristics of the federation in a new melting pot of all Nigerians: Abuja.
Abuja comprises three different sets of inhabitants: the original indigenes, the settlers, and what could be called “the new comers” (made up of civil servants, business people and tourists). The original indigenes are the owners of the land from time immemorial and they are made up of Gbagyi (Gwari), Ganagana, Gwandara, Basa, Ebira-Koto, Gade and Koro. The settlers or immigrants are the people that settled in Abuja a long time ago to warrant them the title of indigenes, because they have ‘naturalised’, and have no other place to call home but Abuja. These are mostly Hausa, Fulani and some other minority tribes. For example, in the ongoing resettlement project in the FCT, anybody who has lived in Abuja from 1979 is entitled to resettlement benefits. The last set of inhabitants is made up of the incoming civil servants, businessmen and businesswomen, and tourists.
The present FCT administration should put all this into consideration in its work, so as to take development to all the nooks and crannies of the FCT. The government must stop the current trend whereby development is only concentrated at the city centre; a situation that is weighing heavily on the amenities and infrastructure of the capital and can culminate in a crash of the centre. We are already seeing this in the present escalating crime wave in the FCT; and also in the perennial collapse of some sewage and water containment systems.
In my view, the FCTA should make deliberate efforts to ensure that indigenes and settlers, who are the grassroots, are given the opportunities to oversee the distribution of deliverables to the hinterlands. For instance, education, health and agriculture are priorities in human development, and should be conceded to the initial inhabitants as far as Abuja is concerned. It is only when development is felt in Abuja rural settlements like Gwugwugwu, Gbagalape, Shere, Galwi, Egu, Chourugbisa and Kawu, that new comers and tourists shall find themselves settling there, thereby decongesting the burdened city centre.
