The Creation of the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja) and Its Impact on the Gbagyi Ethnic Identity, 1976 to the Present

The life of man on the surface of the earth is characterised by experience, both pleasant and unpleasant, involving his relationships with his environment and fellow humans. These experiences, to a great extent impinge negatively or positively upon his socio-cultural and linguistic elements of his ethnic identity. This paper argues strongly that the creation of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and the attendant influx of populations cutting across all socio-cultural horizon of Nigeria created a new sociocultural and linguistic environment around the Gbagyi ethnic group, with almost all different ethnic and linguistic groups in Nigeria represented. Thus, effective communication and cultural harmony among the settlers and between them and their host (Gbagyi) community dictated that language and cultural practice common to all the members of the "new community" be more frequently used. The effects as the study shows, was the coming into contact of these ethnic groups (Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani Igbo, etc) with the Gbagyi indigenous population. Through intermarriages, friendships, cultural borrowing, the Gbagyi original identity has been reduced to a multi-ethnic, society, with hardly any definable socio-cultural and linguistic boundaries.