Gate - the The development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC)

LACAs, the action committees in local communities, have been established in five of the six area
councils (local governments), that make up the FCT. They are the Abuja Municipal Area Council
(AMAC), and Bwari, Kwali , Abaji and Kuje Area Councils. The one remaining area council in
Gwagwalada has yet to establish a LACA. Each LACA is made up of community members living
within the boundaries of the area council. There is no set number of members; however, in general,
the more populous areas have more committee members. For example Abaji, a mostly rural district
of 450,000 residents, has six LACA members including the Chief Imam and the chairman of the
Okada Riders (motorcycle taxi drivers) Association. In comparison, AMAC, which encompasses the
Abuja metropolitan area with a population of 1.5 million, has 15 members including two PLWHAs,
AMAC‟s Public Health coordinator and the head of social welfare. Local organizations carrying out
AIDS related activities are required to register with LACA before they can be represented on, or
receive assistance from, the action committee. In principle, LACAs are supposed to receive support
from FACA, and are encouraged to seek additional funding from private sources such as religious
groups, and individual donors , their respective local governments, and NGOs. Currently, however,
none of the LACAs in the FCT has received monetary support from FACA.
The LACA entities in the rural part of the FCT have only been activated fairly recently, and they
generally have little or no funding or other resources. For example, the LACA coordinator in Bwari
was appointed about a month before our community assessment, and he has now begun a few
activities of awareness raising, and plans to initiate awareness workshops in schools and with
NGOs. The LACA coordinator in another area complained of lack of financial or other support
from the FCT (FACA):
Q: What about FACA, does it support your activities?
A: We wrote them about the World’s AIDS Day to ask for financial support to
mark it here in [Local Community], but we have had no response up until now, one week
after the day. We get tired as our efforts are not encouraged. National
Youth Service Peer Educators on AIDS come to help and the Red Cross,
but no encouragement on the part of the government.
The general situation in the peripheral localities appears to be a lack of funds, as well as lack of
clear operational guidelines from the central government.
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