National conference, Citizenship the panacea to 80% of Nigeria ills.

National conference, Citizenship the panacea to 80% of Nigeria ills.

To solve 80% of Nigeria ills that are rooted in ‘rivalrism,’ ethnic disunity and disharmony, tribalism, nepotism, and cronyism with their associative corruption and backwardness, Nigerians, every Nigerian must be granted, assured near absolute citizenship regardless of place of birth, ethnicity, religion or residency. Nigeria must abrogate indigene-ship laws or policies promulgated in the regions and in the states and replace them with one and equal citizenship for every Nigeria irrespective of genealogical background.

In the regions, and in the states, in civil service and political appointments, and in admissions into the universities, Nigeria lays emphasis on mediocrities of indigene-ship, ethnicity, religion, states of origin and catchment areas instead of on citizenship and competence. Yet our politicians cry wolf about the ethnic division and tension among the citizenry. Fact is that it is practically impossible to have something and the same time have-it-not. It is absurd that our society in all its policies rewards and emphasis overwhelmingly on ethnic division and differences and yet expects unity among the people. It is impossible to have it both ways; our system cannot emphasis much on our differences like indigene-ship and state of origin and still expects cohesion and oneness among the ethnic nationalities. Nigeria will neither see a detribalized leadership nor politics, nor serenity devoid of ethnic tension, nor any meaningful development or progress until it does away with the divisive indigene-ship laws, policies and politics in the states and regions.

Until such a time a Yoruba resident in Kano would without fear or faint of heart, an Igbo Kano resident would without fear or faint of heart, a Hausa/Fulani resident in Enugu, Porthacourt or Ibadan would without fear or faint of heart be able to viably and confidently stand for a statewide election in their state of residence, the call for national unity and development will continue to be a wash. Until every Nigerian sees self as being at home regardless of the city, state he or she lives in, Nigeria will continue to remain a pipe dream, an illusion. Until Nigeria sees it proper to abolish the divisive indigene-ship policies in the regions and in the states, the calls for national unity would continue to be a ruse and at best a waste of time. It is impossible to achieve cohesion among the people in a country with fluid and incoherent citizenship. Today in Nigeria depending on current place of residence every Nigerian is either first or second class citizen. If you’re Igbo in Lagos or Kano, or Hausa in Onitsha or Lagos or Yoruba in Onitsha or Kano you’re a 2nd class citizen. But if this Nigerian goes back to a city, a state in his ethno-geo-political area he or she then reclaims 1st class citizen. Our politicians know that it’s impossible to achieve unity, cohesion, love, patriotism from and among the citizenry with this kind of incoherent citizenship classification. Yet they pretend to not know that the political turmoil, ethnic rivalry, ethnic mistrust, hate and tension, unhealthy competition, the cutthroat politics, cronyism, nepotism, professional mediocrity in Nigeria; stem from this incoherent citizenship classification

So, if the national conference did not achieve any other thing, for the Nigeria future, the conference must do away with indigene-ships policies in the regions and replace the same with full, complete, absolute Nigeria Citizenship Anywhere and Every-where within the Nigeria territory.