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For first time visitors travelling by road from the southern parts of the country to Abuja , Gwagwalada is like a gateway and a major stop- over spot.
What was once a sleepy agrarian community about 40 years ago has grown into a boisterous urban settlement hosting people of diverse ethnic backgrounds, cultures, languages and creed.
Gwagwalada is the headquarters of the Gwagwalada Area Council, one of the six local government areas of the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria .
It has an area of 1,043 km² and a population of 157,770 according to the 2006 national census. It is the home of the University of Abuja as well as the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital .
One of the National Stations of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) is located in Gwagwalada.
History
The town has for centuries been inhabited by the Bassa ethnic stock, a group of people indigenous to Kagoma, an area south of Zauzau ( Zaria ) in present Kaduna State .
In the pre-jihad days, the Bassa people had their headquarters in Gurmana which was then under Zaria . They intermarried with the Habe Kings of Zauzau.
They later migrated from this location down south around the 16th century and spread all over what is today known as the Middle Belt of Nigeria .
About 1683, Gbage Daruwana, a Bassa man left Kagoma and founded Gwagwalada after he was denied his right to succession to the throne.
Oral history has it that he was selected to succeed the chief (king) of Kagoma but his immediate younger brother Wumani Daruwana who also nursed an ambition to ascend the throne put up a fierce challenge that almost degenerated into a fratricidal war.
Although Gbage had the support of three Bassa clans namely, Arisamishi, Akalba and Akagiye, he was advised to leave Kagoma to avoid bloodshed. He left with a band of supporters and moved southwards.
They made brief stops first at Lafiya Paribari and then at Kurape but did not find these locations suitable for habitation. The journey southwards continued until they got to a river bank thickly forested by raffia palm trees known as gbagala in Bassa language.
They settled around the raffia palm grove and named the place, Gba- gbagala, meaning the field of the raffia palm”.
Over time and with the infiltration of people of other tribes, Gba-gbagala became Gbagalada which was further corrupted to become Gwagwalada.
Culture
The Bassa people are essentially farmers, hunters and fishermen. This was the reason they settled around the river and the forests. They observe various cultural festivities namely Agunu Dance festival, Araga festival and Danga Hutuo.
These annual festivities are usually accompanied by merriments and traditional dance troupes depicting the culture and tradition of the Bassa people.
Kingship
The rulership of Gwagwalada is the exclusive preserve of the Bassa natives. From its earliest times as a community till now, ten kings have sat on the throne of the Aguma (paramount ruler) of Gwagwalada.
The chronology of the kings obtained from the Waziri (Traditional Prime Minister) of Gwagwalada, Alhaji Garba Bamaiyi shows that Aguma Gbage Daruwana reigned from 1683 to 1740; Aguma Alu Gbage 1740-1778; Aguma Waje Wambayi 1778- 1803; Aguma Bawa Waisaje 1803-1861; Aguma Dogara Bawa 1861-1876; Aguma Nufe Alafi 1876-1896 and Aguma Bala Karakpa 1896- 1915.
Others include Aguma Sheneni Bala 1915-1939; Aguma Alabera Karakpa 1939-1984 and Aguma Mohammed Waziri1985-1991. The reigning king of Gwagwalada is His Royal Highness (Aguma) Alhaji Mohammed Magaji .
Issues
The natives of Gwagwalada will remain grateful to General Murtala Muhammed, the late Nigerian Head of State who initiated the move to site the capital of the country in Abuja.
According to Alhaji Garba Bamaiyi, the traditional Prime Minister of Gwagwalada, the town was formerly part of Niger State but was carved out along with several other communities to form the Federal Capital Territory in 1976.
Before this time, Gwagwalada was administered from the old Abuja or what is today known as Suleja. In those days, Bamaiyi recalled, Gwagwalada was highly marginalised and underdeveloped and could boast of neither a primary school nor a health centre.
Today it is not only a university town, but hosts other major government institutions and fast becoming a commercial centre.
However, these rapid developments have come with a number of hazards including uncontrolled population growth, mass unemployment, rising cost of living and increased crime rate.
Bamaiyi, a veteran of the Nigerian Civil War, wants the Federal Government to set machineries in motion to create jobs for the youths and beef up security in and around the town.
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