The Helpline Social Support Initiative (HSSI), have renewed calls for strategic partnerships to ensure long-term success of its projects for Abuja’s original inhabitants.
The call was made at a press conference organised by Helpline in collaboration with Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED) and supported by the MacArthur Foundation, with the theme: Strengthing the Cultural Rights of FCT Original Inhabitants, held on Monday in Abuja.
Godwin Arome Onoja, Program Manager, Helpline Social Support Initiative (HSSI), who spoke at the event, said Helpline has successfully executed a comprehensive cultural preservation and economic empowerment initiative to protect the endangered heritage of Abuja’s Original Inhabitants (OIs).
He said the nine tribes, which are Amomoa, Bassa, Gade, Ganagana, Gbari, Gwandara, Egbura and Koro, have faced deep historical marginalisation, political exclusion, and the continues encroachment of sacred cultural sites.
Onoja said Helpline has launched a multi – faceted project to restore the dignity, voices and livelihoods of OIs “through targeted skills acquisition programmes, at least 100 vulnerable women and marginalised youth were trained to master the art of making traditional clothing, which are commercially available in the open market for the first time” .
The certified trainees, he said, would in the next phase, focus on being equipped with tools and raw materials required to mass produce their traditional attires.
To ensure long term success and transparency of the project, he said Helpline implemented several strategic campaigns which include visit to OIs royal fathers, advocacy visit to the FCT Department of Resettlement and Compensation, advocacy Road walk, and a 13-week radio programme.
While calling on the federal government to address what they describe as decades of injustice, displacement and systemic marginalisation suffered by the loss of their ancestral land, the original inhabitants were urged to remain resolute and utilise established legal channels when engaging with government.
Abubakar Yahuza Karshi, one of the original inhabitants who spoke at the event, while thanking the stakeholders, called on Helpline and CHRICED to help provide shops to facilitate the sale of new traditional attires and thus bring their cultural attires to limelight.
About the Author
