An Alien in my Country: Every Nigerian’s Reality

Orondaam Otto

This is our collective story. A story that every Nigerian is an alien in Nigeria.

I was born in Zaria, Kaduna State, to parents from southern Nigeria. I spent my early years in Kaduna before my parents moved to my “state of origin,” Rivers State. Nevertheless, I would never be classified as an “indigene” or “citizen” of Kaduna State. But if I had been born in the UK or the U.S.A., I would have.

Twenty-two years later, I was posted to Lagos State for my National Youth Service by the Federal Government. Since 2011, I have lived in Lagos and served my country for 12 years; however, I would also never be classified as an indigene of Lagos. But if I had moved to Canada or Australia, I would have.

If I get married to a woman from Anambra state and we decide to live in Enugu, myself, my wife, and our children would never be indigenes of either states because, in my country, every “non-indigene” is a stranger, irrespective of their place of birth, duration of residence, marital ties, or social or economic investment. And this is the root of our division.

In 1956, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the first and only premier of northern Nigeria, whose picture is on the 200 naira notes, in a bid to improve the representation of northerners, introduced the “northernization” policy that promoted northerners living in the north above other ethnicities. While the policy was born out of good intentions, today, similar policies are practiced across the country, which are eroding the peaceful coexistence of Nigerians across the country.

In 1965, Sir Ahmadu Bello took it too far when he said, “We do not want to go to Lake Chad and meet strangers catching our fish in the water and taking them away to leave us with nothing.” We do not want to go to Sokoto and find a carpenter who is a stranger nailing our houses. “I do not want to go to the Sabon-Gari in Kano and find strangers making the body of a lorry, or to go to the market and see butchers who are not Northerners.”

Sir. Ahmadu Bello was an influential leader who loved his people and wanted them to be well-educated and compete with other ethnicities, so he prioritized them through the North First ideology. He promoted education in the north, creating the first university in the region, which was where I was born (Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital). However, all other regions also adopted the “we first” mentality, strengthening ethnic prejudice.

A friend of mine, Dr. Abayomi, was born in Kano State to parents who have lived in Kano for 62 years. Yomi has never been to Ekiti State, where his parents are from; neither can he speak Ekiti, a dialect of Yoruba, but he speaks Hausa fluently. He went to school at Bayero University, but although he is married to a woman from Kano, he and his children are discriminated against and ethnically profiled as non-Indigenes in a land where he was born, lives, works, is married, and has been called home his whole life.

Why does this still happen after 60+ years of independence and 100+ years of amalgamation?

Nigeria is a remarkably diverse country with more than 250 different ethnic groups, many of which had no real ties or relationships to one another before the British government forced (amalgamated) all of us into the same colony in 1914.

Before 1914, many of these tribes got along better with each other. However, since then, there has been a lot of competition and conflict between ethnic groups as people move from one region to another, marry people of different ethnic backgrounds, and do business across regions.

To create a sense of belonging for the “ancestral natives,” every state and local government in Nigeria divided its residents into two groups: those who are considered “indigenes” and those who are not.

Indigenes were said to be those who could trace their ancestry to that place, while everyone else, regardless of if they were born there, married there, or how long they or their relatives have called that place home, will forever be non-indigenes. To put it more frankly, they are considered second-class citizens and are usually treated like foreigners.

This discriminatory policy claims to protect the culture, traditions, language, and values of ethnic groups so that non-indigenes do not erase them. But all over the world, cultural values are kept alive by adopting policies that include everyone and don’t rely on tribal discrimination and ethnic profiling, which exclude and marginalize people whose ancestors are not from that area.

It is ironic that the federal government, on the one hand, spends billions of dollars with the goal of promoting national unity, yet sustains discriminatory policies that directly counter these efforts.

What is the essence of the NYSC program that aims to promote national integration when citizens will be forced to live as second-class citizens when they work, get married, or reside in those states?

Why do we claim to be a federation, yet we place more value on ethnicity, which makes being a Nigerian meaningless?

Why do we allocate funds monthly from revenue-producing states to states that don’t produce substantial revenue, yet discriminate against those natives when they move to those states?

Why do we feel comfortable hiring expatriates for contracts but uncomfortable hiring Nigerians who come from a different ethnicity?

In a BBC interview in 1965, Sir Ahmadu Bello speaks about the northernization policy where northerners and then foreign expatriates will be considered for opportunities in the north, before Nigerians from other tribes.

He justifies the northernization policies by saying that northerners aren’t employed in the civil service or appointed into political offices in the eastern and western regions so why would more easterners or westerners be employed in the north. And while that was true in 1965, unfortunately, because of our emphasis on “state of origin”, this is still our reality today, both in the north, south, east, and west.

Five years ago, the Lagos State House of Assembly became the first state to pass a law that only students who pass Yoruba language in WAEC or NECO will be offered admission into the Lagos State Universities. While this policy is not different from 1965, Lagos is also not the first state to have such discriminatory policies. In almost all states across the country, there is a similar practice called “catchment area” or “quota system,” where preferential treatment is given to indigenes over non-indigenes.

Why would an indigene who scores 60% in the Post-UTME be offered admission to the university before a non-indigene who scores 70%? Why would a non-indigene be forbidden from applying for state academic scholarships even if they lived there all their lives?

Why would non-indigenous people be admitted to state-owned universities on the condition that they pay double the tuition fees as indigenous people?

Why would a child born to a Yoruba mother in Lagos State be denied his state rights because his father is from Imo State?

In Nigerian politics, the practice of zoning the positions of the president, vice president, senate president e.t.c between ethnic tribes could have been born out of good intentions for equity, however, it is similar to treating the symptoms of a disease as opposed to curing the disease. And all around the world, we have seen how the struggle for power, legitimacy, and superiority led to ethnic cleansing and genocides. Wherever this happened, it always follows a pattern as shown below.

There are several horrifying examples, such as the massacre of Armenians by the Turks during World War I, the extermination of six million European Jews by the Nazis during the Holocaust, the forced migration and mass killings in the former Yugoslavia, and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where almost a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed with machetes by the Hutus in less than 100 days and even the genocide that happened during the Nigerian Civil war.

So how do we diffuse this ticking atomic bomb before it detonates right in our homes? How do we build a more united Nigeria where citizens of Nigeria are not discriminated against in the local communities where they call home?

For Nigeria to be more united, we need to abolish the divisive concept of “state of origin,” which is hidden under the Federal Character provision in the 1999 constitution. We need to realize that restricting the rights and privileges of citizens to the villages of their ancestors is outdated, tribalistic, and a major root cause of the division in Nigeria.

We need to replace “state of origin” with “state of residence” while preserving the diverse cultures of each ethnicity.

We can achieve this using generally agreeable guidelines where indigeneship is given based on duration of stay, place of birth, marital tie and several other justifiable provisions etc.

When this is done, we will have lesser conflicts, improved national unity, peace, and the faster gross development of our nation. What this will mean in practice is that, when myself or my friend Dr. Abayomi knows that by law we are given equal rights in Kaduna, Kano, Enugu, Ekiti, Anambra, Rivers, or Lagos States to run for elected positions without having a godfather, be granted scholarships legitimately, and our children will not be discriminated against in state-owned institutions, we will take these states as our home if we decide to reside there, accepting their cultures and ensuring that they become successful.

All across Nigeria, Nigerians will do the same, including the “Hausas” in Anambra, the “Igbos” in Ibadan, the “Ibibios” in Sokoto, and the “Ijaws” in Jos. Everyone will love the community they live in, be integrated into its culture, and feel respected.

Nigeria does not need an Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, or Niger Delta president. Nigeria needs a Nigerian president. Nigeria does not need a Christian president and a Muslim vice president. Nigeria needs a Nigerian president and a Nigerian vice president.

We need to stop tribalising, ethnicising, regionalising, and zoning leadership positions. We must build a Nigeria that is detribalised and de-ethnicised. A Nigeria where a Nigerian born or living anywhere in Nigeria is considered a Nigerian first, with equal rights and privileges irrespective of the color of their skin, tone of their accent, sound of their names, or language of their ancestors.

The sooner we set aside our differences and prioritise our strengths, only then will we begin to actualise the true potential of our country, Nigeria. The uniqueness of our diversity, the abundance of our natural wealth, the gift of our mineral resources, and immeasurable talents in our human capital should make us one of the greatest economies in the world and the true giants that we are. The time to act is now!

*Otto is an African social entrepreneur, development consultant, educator, writer and community organiser. He is a public policy graduate from Harvard Kennedy School and the founder of the award winning education social enterprise, Slum2School Africa.

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