Kill the indigeneships

 Kill the indigeneships


To solve many of Nigeria ills that are rooted in ‘rivalrism,’ethnicity, disunity, disharmony, tribalism, nepotism, and cronyism with their associative corruption and backwardness, every Nigerian must be granted, and assured complete 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, complete and equal citizenship for every Nigerian irrespective of genealogical and religious backgrounds.
In the regions, and in the states, in civil service and political appointments, and in admissions into the universities, Nigeria lays more 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.
Until such a time a Yoruba resident in Kano or Enugu would without fear or faint of heart, an Igbo resident in Kano or Lagos would without fear or faint of heart, a Hausa/Fulani resident in Enugu, Porthacourt or Lagos 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 zone’ 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, corruption and 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 kill the indigeneship, must do away with indigene-ships policies in the regions, in the states and replace the same with full, complete, absolute Nigeria Citizenship Anywhere and Every-where within the Nigeria territory.