Indigenes of the Federal Capital Territory have condemned the call by the Senator representing Ebonyi North in the Senate, Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, for the demolition of houses near the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
Nwaebonyi, during a Senate session on May 21, described the settlements around the airport as an “eyesore” and claimed they portrayed the nation in a negative light to international visitors.
The Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate’s comments drew sharp criticism from residents and leaders of the FCT, who said his remarks were disconnected from the realities of original Abuja inhabitants.
Speaking on behalf of affected communities, a former commissioner with the Public Complaints Commission, Dalhatu Ezekiel, condemned the senator’s stance, accusing him of neglecting the constitutional responsibility of lawmakers to uplift citizens.
He criticised the senator’s perceived detachment from the struggles of ordinary Nigerians, adding sarcastically that Nwaebonyi flew in airplanes and might have forgotten the hardship of road travel.
“I’m not sure, before he came to the Senate, he had the opportunity of having what he has. Now, he has been elected and has the opportunity of enjoying some allowances to a point that he now flies in the air, no longer on the road.
“It is really unfortunate, and it goes further to show how some persons who are privileged to be in government will always think that poor people are usually no longer their business,” he said.
Ezekiel demanded an apology from the senator for discriminating against the poor contrary to the provisions of the Constitution.
“It is better he goes back to that house and starts to apologise to the people of FCT and withdraw that anti-democratic and anti-people motion. He also needs to be schooled on the rudiments and the workings of the parliament.”
Also reacting, the Chairman of the Federal Capital Territory Indigenous People Association, Yunusa Yusuf, said the senator should have advocated infrastructure upgrades rather than demolition.
He said, “We are very angry with him, that is the truth. He should have appealed that the houses be upgraded. If you want to help him, tell him to apologise to all FCT natives; otherwise, we will boo him at any public function he goes to and we see him there.
“How can you just go to the Senate and tell the Senate President that you want all the houses on the airport road to be demolished because whenever your flight is descending, they are an eyesore? This is from someone whose village is worse than the one we have in FCT, someone whose village doesn’t even have water to drink. They don’t have electricity.”
Similarly, the President of the Abuja Original Inhabitants Youths and Empowerment Organisation, David Isaac, accused the senator of ulterior motives.
Isaac said, “We understand that there is a developer they want to sell the land to. We will resist the demolition in that area. They should come out and tell us which FCT natives have been duly compensated in line with best global practices. We will be glad if they can come out and provide evidence to that effect. Yet, the houses they are managing to live in, you are calling them names, what does he mean?
I won’t ask for an apology. Let him make those people, whose houses he said are eyesores, have homes that meet the international standard he’s referring to. There are inhabitants everywhere in the world. We should be upgraded and given better treatment so that we will stop being an eyesore to them.”
The General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Pastor William Kumuyi, has recounted the circumstances surrounding the death of his first wife, while blaming his absence from home for her passing.
The late Abiodun Kumuyi died on April 11, 2009, at the age of 57, after a brief illness.
The couple got married on September 13, 1980, making their marriage span approximately 28 years.
The union was blessed with two children: Jeremiah and John.
Kumuyi later remarried in London on October 13, 2010.
The revered holiness preacher, while speaking during the Global Workers’ Conference at the Deeper Life International Conference Centre, decried his first wife’s death, saying the devil took advantage of his absence while he was ministering at the church’s retreat that day.
“I was preaching here on Saturday, 11th April 2009, and the devil worked on my absence. My wife was at home because she had a challenge. I was driving out, the devil came, but I did not remember to close the spiritual door that nobody will sneak into that place (his house) and when I finished the Faith Clinic that morning, I received a message that my beloveth wife was gone.
“I ran to IBTC (home); I saw it had happened and I met some people there; they were praying and the Lord assured me that I should let it go, let that go, don’t bother about it,” the cleric said.
Despite the tragedy, Kumuyi said he chose not to dwell in sorrow but to turn the pain into spiritual passion to intensify his global evangelical mission.
He described the next move of his ministry as a “revenge” against the devil.
The cleric noted that the death of his wife marked the end of a painful chapter in his life, adding that the devil stood no chance of repeating such a tragedy in his household or ministry again.
“I let it (his wife’s death) go, but from that day, I said ‘that one happened, this other one will no more happen.’
“Since that time, for me to revenge on the devil, I have gone to many places since she left, I have covered most of the local governments in Nigeria, I have gone to almost all the nations of Africa, I have gone to all the continents of the world, blind eyes have opened, deaf ears have opened, the lame had risen up and walk and now I am getting to another level, the dead has now been raised and so I have come to tell you, those that have gone have gone, water under the bridge that has gone is gone, all that has gone has gone, now in your family you will be in charge.