Natives of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja have threatened to stage a mass protest that would shut down the Territory if the National Assembly fail to revisit the Mayoral Status and Ministerial Bill, which was rejected by the Senate.
The natives also called on members of the National Assembly and the federal government not to blame them for any civil unrest that may arise in the FCT if the Bill is not passed into law.

They vowed that they can no longer tolerate the alleged marginalisation meted on them by the government, that they have decided to take their destiny into their hands by ensuring that they stage a protest to push for the actualisation of their constitutional rights.

Comrade Yunusa Yusuf, Chief Advocate of Abuja Grassroots Advocacy Projects (AGAP) at a press briefing organised by some notable FCT stakeholders on behalf of the natives, said that the civil unrest will result in continuous blockage of all entries into the FCT, mostly the Airport Road and ever-busy Zuba-Kubwa expressway.

“We want to warn clearly that since we are not considered as Nigerians like other citizens, the lawmakers should be visiting this FCT as if they are also foreigners coming to a foreign country. Since we are not Nigerians and we lack identity, the country has nothing to offer us.

“From now, we have decided that we are not going to wait for another four years. We are going to take our destiny by force. By this, we are calling on members of the National Assembly to be very careful, especially the northerners amongst them, who have newly been voting against the FCT mayoral status bill.

“It is not news that we have brought this bill before the National Assembly before and it failed to scale through, now we brought it again, the National Assembly members still denied the bill from scaling through. This is bad and inhuman. This time around, we can not wait for another four years,” he stated.

Parachoko:
Do they think only Abuja Indigenes will be able to contest for the post of the Mayor?

Ushafaiza:
This is the way to go, we are Nigerians with equal rights but we have continually been deny representation at the Federal Executive council, and the second tier (state) as though we are not citizens of this country, despite sacrificing our land.

SmartPolician:


While everyone deserves to be heard, I strongly believe that Abuja natives are the biggest beneficiaries of one Nigeria.

If the resources that come from Abuja were used to develop the FCT without Niger Delta petrodollars, it would probably take Abuja people 500 years to achieve what Nigeria has done for her.

I have never seen a part of Nigeria so organized and with beautiful roads as Abuja. Meanwhile, Abuja contributed nothing from its resources towards that development.

It's okay to ask like Oliver Twist, but don't be violent about it.

funshint:
Why can't they just make it a law that the Minister of FCT must always be an indigine of FCT. Simple thing!

Phinex:
https://leadership.ng/fct-natives-threaten-mass-protest-over-failed-mayoral-status-bill/

AbujaCitiBlog:

From the responses I am getting here, I realize that a lot of Nigerians are dumb. FCT is a federal ministry. That's the designation. It wasn't intended to be a state. It was carved out from 4 states. Indigenes were relocated and paid compensation. Get your facts right. It is just like Washington DC. Let's be guided. It was created as a novel place where every Nigerian will see himself or herself as having equal status. Nothing like indigenes here.

But self serving politicians are pushing ignorant youths to go and confront government.

The lone FCT Senator is desperate, he wants to hand over the baton to somebody but he needs a position for himself. That's why he is behind the push for Mayoral status for FCT

Phinex:
https://leadership.ng/fct-natives-threaten-mass-protest-over-failed-mayoral-status-bill/

omoolokunEsin:
What FCT natives again after they received billions of Naira as Compensation for Government's takeover of their land? In the real sense of the word, Abuja is now a No Man's Land. Contrariwise, in the Colonial days Lagos was made federal Capital without as much as one farthing as Compensation for the landowners. And heaven didn't fall. As a matter of fact, the first Minister of Lagos Affairs was a Northerner. No Southerner has been made Minister of the Capital territory of Abuja since the federal Capital was moved to Abuja in 1991. What a federal republic Nigeria is!

omoolokunEsin:
What FCT natives again after they received billions of Naira as Compensation for Government's takeover of their land? In the real sense of the word, Abuja is now a No Man's Land. Contrariwise, in the Colonial days Lagos was made federal Capital without as much as one farthing as Compensation for the landowners. And heaven didn't fall. As a matter of fact, the first Minister of Lagos Affairs was a Northerner. No Southerner has been made Minister of the Capital territory of Abuja since the federal Capital was moved to Abuja in 1991. What a federal republic Nigeria is!

AbujaCitiBlog:

From the responses I am getting here, I realize that a lot of Nigerians are dumb. FCT is a federal ministry. That's the designation. It wasn't intended to be a state. It was carved out from 4 states. Indigenes were relocated and paid compensation. Get your facts right. It is just like Washington DC. Let's be guided. It was created as a novel place where every Nigerian will see himself or herself as having equal status. Nothing like indigenes here.

But self serving politicians are pushing ignorant youths to go and confront government.

The lone FCT Senator is desperate, he wants to hand over the baton to somebody but he needs a position for himself. That's why he is behind the push for Mayoral status for FCT

akigbemaru:

You wrong with No Southerner being made a minister of FCT.

The first FCT minister was a Yoruba man aka Mobolaji Ajose Adeogun. It was possible because Obasanjo moved Capital to Abuja. It is sad that the Southern Nigerians do not know their place in Nigeria, because they are so naive. They don't anything about how to play politics and such is the bane of African society!
At that time, it was wrong to have Yoruba man as head of state and also have Yoruba man as FCT minister in the same capacity. Just like how it is wrong to have Hausa man as president and also have Hausa man as FCT. It is a dangerous kind of politics. Since the southerners don't see anything that is wrong with that, the Hausas can ride on!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ministers_of_the_Federal_Capital_Territory_(Nigeria)