By Awaal Gata
For the people of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the much talked about 2015 general polls ended on March 28, with the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
So as other Nigerians were electing their state governors and State Assembly members last Saturday, no election took place in the nation’s capital.
Why? Because the Territory is not a state hence cannot have a governor and State Assembly members.
Governors and State Assembly members are the constituents of the second tier of government.
However, natives of the Territory believe that lack of the second tier of government is behind the relative under-development in the rural areas and satellite towns, where hundreds of thousands of them live.
“We don’t have a governor and we don’t have a State Assembly. The president and the National Assembly are said to be our governor and state Assembly respectively; looking at it analytically, that is where our myriad of problems begin,” says the President of Original Inhabitants Development Association of Abuja (OIDA), Pastor Danladi Jeji.
“The FCTA is working at the centre quite alright, but what about the rural areas where our people are? The Area Council’s Chairmen are saddled with the responsibility, but what meaningful impact have they made after all these years? If the second tier of government is available, things would have been different,” he adds.
Corroborating Jeji, a foremost native, Mr. Daniel Kwali posits that, “The FCT is in a geo-political unit; therefore, I dare say FCT is a state for the constitution recognises it as a state. Section 297 of the constitution says FCT shall be treated as if it were one of the states in the federation, that section also calls the President the Governor of the FCT and the Vice President as the Deputy Governor of the FCT.”
He adds that, “In the practical application; there have been a lot of challenges. Challenges in the sense that the National Assembly is very busy with national and international issues to the extent that it cannot find time to deal with local issues that concern the FCT. There is a publication where the FCT Minister for State stated that since 1999 to date, the National Assembly has not been able to pass any bill on the FCT because they are too busy. Everybody recognises the fact that the National Assembly is having challenges in dealing with the issues of the FCT, so there should be a House of Assembly for the territory like other states have.
“If you go round the FCT you will see that there are so many local communities.
Of course it is not possible for the National Assembly to legislate for such communities. We have worked with the constitution from 1999 to date and we have seen that it is not possible. So, what we are saying is that there is need for us to create a legislative arm of government for the FCT.”
Like other natives who spoke to Blueprint, Kwali believes creation of the second tier of government would enhance “legislation and democracy in the FCT. For now, it doesn’t exist. The legislative arm is like a think-tank because it is responsible for lawmaking.”
On the President working as the Governor of FCT, he notes that “because the President is too busy with the affairs of the whole country, he assigns the duties to the FCT Minister. We are in democracy. You cannot have an appointed official overseeing over democratic activities in a geopolitical unit. It is not done. I will not say it is unconstitutional, but I will say it is undemocratic.”
However, the end of the natives’ agitation is, for now, not in sight as their calls for the amendment of the constitution always suffer setbacks.
For now, they are strongly hoping that the incoming government of General Muhammadu Buhari will implement the report of last year’s National Conference, in which some of their demands were recommended. The demand for second tier of government was struck out.
However, the ones recommended, according to one of their representatives at the conference, Barrister Musa Salihu, include; separation of the FCT into FCC, which will be headed by an elected Mayor, and FCT, which will be headed by an elected Administrator; creation of two additional Area Councils, and two House of Representatives Seats.
Also in the report, there is a recommendation that the FCTA should clear all the outstanding land compensation and no land should be further collected without settling the compensation first.