Project Title: Promoting Cultural Values and Rights of Original Inhabitants (OIs) in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) through Drama and Art Forms
Funder: MacArthur Foundation through the Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED).
Throughout decades, the Original Inhabitants of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have endured numerous violations of their fundamental rights, resulting in institutionalized discrimination, disenfranchisement, and severe marginalization within the Nigerian polity, as highlighted by CHRICED in 2021. This protracted injustice has catalyzed an urgent imperative to champion the rights of these individuals, amplifying their voices and granting them equitable access to the benefits enjoyed by residents of other states. Consequently, this necessity has given rise to a transformative project involving ten sub-grantees, each tasked with the noble responsibility of advocating for the rights of the Original Inhabitants across diverse realms, encompassing their cultural, environmental, political, economic, and social rights.
The Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA) a non-governmental Organization located in Abuja, FCT, Nigeria received a grant of fifty-five million (55,000,000.00) naira from the MacArthur Foundation through the Centre for Human Rights & Civic Education (CHRICED) to implement a 2-year project titled: Promoting Cultural Values and Rights of Original Inhabitants (OIs) in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) through Drama and Art Forms of which the overall goal of the project is Promoting the Rights of the Original Inhabitants of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The project was launched on December 14, 2021, and since then CTA has implemented the project through well-thought-out activities tailored to “enable existing Original Inhabitants efforts to revamp dying cultural values, treasures and repositories.” For these reasons, promoting the culture of the Original Inhabitants through exploring cultural sites, creating awareness in our “catch them young initiative”, and displaying the richness of the culture, tradition and ways of life of the indigenous people of FCT through our annual cultural summit was part of our key targets. This will not only help to create awareness but also to showcase and revamp the culture of the OIs as well as enhance the capacity of community cultural ambassadors established by the project.
Equally, there are selected community representatives trained to negotiate good Community Development Agreements (CDA) with mining companies to address the negative environmental impacts and destruction of cultural sites due to mining activities.
The project from inception targeted vulnerable groups including people with disabilities (PWDs), children, women, youth and the elderly. This was done in compliance with the GESI component of the project.
