MOTiON On Rescue Mission To Guabe Community.

By Ferdinand Olise

The Movement for the Transformation of Nigeria, (MOTiON), with the mandate to work with change agents across all sectors to restore dignity, progress, and functionality to Nigeria’s institutions and governance systems, has bemoaned the challenges, and neglects experienced by members of Gaube Community, Kuje FCT, Abuja.

Speaking at a Pre-launch community visit and engagements by the MOTION, a member of the MOTION, Mr Abdullahi Bilal, said the visit presents an opportunity for communities to understand and link how government actions, inactions, and weak accountability structures and electoral processes directly impact their rights, livelihoods, and wellbeing.

“In one month, we have experienced that virtually all of the communities in the FCT have a kind of similitude in their issues. We’ve come here to Guabe, we have experienced the terrible condition of the road first-hand, because we were here ourselves.

“If we had invited the community members to the town, we might not have been able to relate to the issues, but we are here, and we saw the issues ourselves. The roads are very terrible, and then hearing from the community members themselves, I think what struck me mostly was the fact that the Healthcare Center here in Guabe has been metamorphosed into mere consulting clinics, that there is nothing that is going on here.

“And then they have to drive kilometers. If somebody is sick, they have to travel kilometers until they get to Kuje before they will be able to have access to a good hospital, and mostly, community members have lost their lives in that process.
And then the community was also affected because of the recent FCT strike”, he said.

He further said that according to member of the community that spoke during the engagement, the school has been shut down for more than a year.

“And then you ask yourself, this is the condition of education in the FCT?, This is the Federal Capital Territory, This is the center, This is the seat of power, and if the conditions of the entirety of the mass of the working people in the FCT will be this horrible, what will then now be the fate of those people who are not within the city center?

He assured the community on behalf of the MOTION that on October 17th, 2025, they will launch the platform which will enable citizens, or people in community to continuously speak truth to power no matter what.

“We know fully well that the primary responsibility of governance is the provision of security and improvement of the welfare of the people.This is what is contained in the Social Contract, and if you can see, even in this Primary School here that we are, there are security personnel, and it’s because of the consistent harassment attacks in the community.

“The Gwabe community, according to them, is the food basket of FCT. It’s the food basket of Kuja, and Kuja is the food basket of FCT. It means that all of the foods that people in the FCT are eating are coming from this community, and if their farms are not protected, and their lives are not protected, which solely is the primary responsibility of government, it means that hunger, famine, and the cost of living crisis is inevitable, and will continue to skyrocket.

Meanwhile, a member of the Guabe Community, Mr Tekula Matthew, appreciated the engagement as being impactful, emphasized the lack of access road to their market which he said makes it very difficult for their goods to be transported to their markets and other communities.

“The bad road is a very difficult challenge the communities across have been facing. The market cannot exist here because of bad road, and the bad state of the road that links to other communities that desire to bring their produce down, even taking them to the market is very difficult.
For instance, we have some communities across that once it rains, there’s a big river that you cannot cross.
So they need bridges so that these communities will be able to cross over.
In Gwabe Ward, we have over 46 villages, and I will tell you that it is only two villages that has road”, he said.

He said; “The gathering is made up of the indigenous and the settlers to express their view concerning both the development, and the under-development to enable them to assess how the government is reaching out to the people, because we understand that democracy is a government for the people, by the people,
and so, every individual is entitled for his social rights”.

“Almost about 40 villages are underdeveloped because of bad road. Then health facilities, if you go to a health center, it’s a laughing stock.There you cannot get good facilities there, there are no oxygen, there are no employment of medical attendees that can attend to people. Then education, most of them cannot go to school because they don’t have sponsors.So, the government need to come and sponsor them. For most of our graduates, there are no jobs, and that is why you see that some of them are indulging in several activities that they don’t need to.

“Our farmers also need security. Our farmers are suffering because of the battle between the farmers and the herders. The government need to see how they can settle the herders and give them their boundaries where their cattle can graze”.

The engagement include the sensitization of members of the community on the state of the nation, with particular emphasis on electoral reforms, and accountability, creation of a platform for dialogue between community members, MOT!ON, and the media on democratic participation and good governance, Strengthening community mobilization, and collective action towards promoting credible elections and accountable leadership.

The MOTION therefore assured the community of working together with them, and change agents, the situation will turn around for their good, noting that, through this process, communities will not only reflect on governance failures, but also embrace their role in holding duty bearers accountable, and mobilise citizens to act for the good of the nation.

The MOTiON is a collective force of over 30 million Nigerians from mass democratic organizations, Labour Unions, pro-democracy movements, NGOs, academia, Student Unions, and climate action groups. who aim to channel the shared anger and frustration of Nigerians into purposeful action.