The Original Inhabitants Development Association of Abuja, OIDA, was officially registered and recognized by the government on the 15th of June 2010, as a development association whose objectives are to mobilize its inhabitants that are spread across 858 communities (FCT Millennium Development Goals (MDGs survey, July 2008) in the Federal Capital Territory to fully engage in development issues that are beneficial to the population which according to the 2006 census stands at 1, 405, 202.
Motto
The Motto of the Original Inhabitants Development Association of Abuja, OIDA is “Unity, Peace, Equity, and Justice.”
Membership
Membership of the association is opened through formal registration to all original inhabitants from the present six area councils of the FCT which are: Abaji, AMAC, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje and Kwali.
Objectives
The sole aim of the Original Inhabitants Development Association of Abuja, OIDA is to help the Federal Government of Nigeria to proffer solutions to the various problems agitating the minds of the original inhabitants who willingly offered their lands to it to establish the nation’s capital in 1976.
The fact must be admitted that although the present Federal Capital Territory (FCT), created by Decree 6, 1976 with about 8,000 square kilometres was in the overall national interest, nevertheless the government has not fulfilled its obligations to the original inhabitants of the territory who today have been deprived of their lands without compensation.
Although we cannot deny the fact that the territory has witnessed developmental transformation at the Federal Capital City (city centre), however, the gains are not widespread to our suburban centres, communities and interior villages. Similarly, no honest person can dispute the hardship, dispossession of land, cultural/ethnic extinction and government neglect of the original inhabitants since the movement of the Nigerian capital to FCT, Abuja.
Although experience has shown that no community all over the world has ever been effectively resettled and enjoyed smooth living after such exercise, nevertheless the original inhabitants of Abuja deserve better treatment through the provision of quality education, provision of adequate infrastructure as obtainable at the city centre and preservation of the historical relics, values and culture of the people.