iiG Briefing Paper 22. Attitudes towards citizenship in Nigeria

Abstract

Nigerians who live in states other than their states of ancestral origin are referred to as non-indigenes, no matter how long they and their parents have lived in the state. This is important, because non-indigenes are often prevented from exercising the full citizenship rights enjoyed by indigenes. One of the most significant implications of this ‘two-tier’ system of citizenship is the exclusion of non-indigenes from access to services provided by state and local governments, in spite of a constitutional provision prohibiting discrimination on grounds of belonging to ‘a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion or political opinion’. A recent study investigates the attitudes of Nigerians resident in eleven cities towards non-indigenes being granted equal access to government services and elective public offices