CHRICED raises alarm at UN over worsening plight of Abuja’s indigenous peoples

Michael Olumide Alabi

Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED) has raised fresh concerns before the United Nations over what it described as the worsening human rights situation of the Indigenous Peoples of Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, urging immediate international intervention to halt forced evictions, political exclusion and cultural erosion.

Speaking at the 19th Session of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, CHRICED Executive Director, Dr. Ibrahim M. Zikirullahi, said the plight of Abuja’s Original Inhabitants (OIs) had deteriorated significantly over the past year despite previous appeals to the international community.

Addressing delegates, UN experts and representatives of member states, Zikirullahi recalled that at the 18th Session of EMRIP in 2025, CHRICED had reported that more than two million Indigenous people in the FCT were facing systematic land dispossession, political disenfranchisement, social exclusion and cultural erasure.

According to him, the situation has since worsened, with repeated demolitions of Indigenous communities leading to homelessness, destruction of ancestral homes, loss of livelihoods and severe psychological trauma.

He argued that although Abuja is generally perceived as a peaceful administrative capital, its Indigenous communities continue to experience what he described as a “silent structural conflict” driven by forced displacement, land appropriation and political exclusion rather than armed violence.

The rights advocate said recent demolitions carried out by government authorities have destroyed homes, farms and cultural sites, leaving affected communities vulnerable and further undermining their identity and existence.

He noted that despite the absence of conventional armed conflict, such actions amount to structural violence against Indigenous Peoples and mirror patterns witnessed globally where administrative policies and urban development projects become instruments of displacement.

Dr. Zikirullahi further lamented that Abuja’s Original Inhabitants have never experienced genuine post-conflict justice because successive governments have allegedly failed to compensate them for lands acquired under Military Decree No. 6 of 1976 or implement resettlement programmes despite Supreme Court judgments recognising their rights.

He also criticised the continued denial of political representation, noting that residents of the Federal Capital Territory, particularly the Original Inhabitants, remain unable to elect a governor or state legislature.

The CHRICED Executive Director devoted a significant portion of his presentation to the growing influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), warning that emerging technologies could worsen the marginalisation of Indigenous communities if not developed within human rights and ethical standards.

He cautioned that AI systems relying on data collection could deepen exclusion if governments or private organisations gather Indigenous community data without obtaining their free, prior and informed consent.

According to him, biased AI systems could reinforce narratives that erase Indigenous identities, while automated decision-making processes may exclude Indigenous communities from access to resources and public services.

However, he said AI also presents opportunities for advancing Indigenous rights if guided by the principles of Indigenous Data Sovereignty.

He called for community ownership and control of Indigenous data, ethical AI systems that respect cultural traditions, digital preservation of Indigenous languages and history, and AI-powered tools that support advocacy, documentation of human rights violations and environmental mapping.

CHRICED urged the United Nations to develop global frameworks that would prevent AI technologies from reproducing colonial patterns of dispossession and exclusion.

The organisation also expressed concern over the declining state of Indigenous languages in Abuja, including Gbagyi, Bassa, Gwandara, Koro and Ganagana, warning that they face possible extinction due to forced displacement, urbanisation, shrinking cultural spaces and inadequate government support.

According to Dr. Zikirullahi, the destruction of Indigenous settlements has not only displaced families but has also destroyed the cultural environments where native languages are traditionally spoken, taught and preserved across generations.

To support the objectives of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, he called on the Nigerian Government to recognise Abuja’s Indigenous languages as part of the nation’s cultural heritage, integrate them into local education, support community-led language revitalisation projects, invest in digital and AI-based language preservation programmes and protect cultural sites essential for sustaining Indigenous identity.

CHRICED further urged the Expert Mechanism, UN member states and the international community to press the Nigerian Government to halt forced evictions, legally recognise Abuja’s Original Inhabitants as Indigenous Peoples, adopt conflict-sensitive development policies, guarantee political participation, protect Indigenous languages and culture, promote ethical AI and Indigenous data sovereignty and establish comprehensive national data systems reflecting the socio-economic realities of Indigenous communities.

Concluding his address, Dr. Zikirullahi described the situation facing Abuja’s Original Inhabitants as a “silent conflict” characterised by displacement, demolitions, loss of identity and denial of fundamental rights.

He warned that development should never become a weapon against Indigenous Peoples, Artificial Intelligence should never become another tool of dispossession, and Indigenous languages should never disappear because communities have been driven from their ancestral lands.

The CHRICED Executive Director called on the United Nations Expert Mechanism to act with urgency, insisting that justice delayed for Abuja’s Indigenous Peoples amounts to dignity denied.