Afenifere: Indigene Status Bill May Aggravate Ethnic Tension, Violence
Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has warned that a bill seeking to confer indigeneship on a person who has stayed in a particular place for upward of 10 years might aggravate ethnic tension and violence.
Recall that the House of Representatives recently passed for second reading, the Indigene Status Bill, which seeks to grant indigene status and rights on anyone who has lived in a particular area for a decade or on a woman who is married to an indigene of the area.
The organisation in a statement issued yesterday by its factional National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi said modern times, there are basically four categories of residents in any particular state or country.
They are: indigenes otherwise called natives, citizens, residents and visitors.
Ajayi explained that ordinarily, anyone staying in a country is a resident of that country while other criteria would then determine whether he or she is a visitor, resident, citizen or indigene.
He noted that a person who came in originally as a visitor can gain permanent residence status after meeting certain conditions, adding that the permanent resident might become a citizen after meeting specific criteria.
Ajayi said: “However, indigeneship is restricted to people with ancestral, cultural, autochthonous and historical roots to the soil on which they dwell.
“In various parts of the world, indigeneity is tied to ancestry, historical connection to the land, language, customs and cultural heritage,”
Ajayi explained that maintaining that the kind of alteration being sought by the lawmakers would aggravate mutual mistrust in the country and might further engender communal clashes.
Afenifere is of the opinion that the motive behind the push for indigeneship could flow from hegemonic desire, territorial expansion, changing status of the land, ecology and the desire for power and influence.
It added: “Whatever was the motive for the bill, it must not be pursued at the expense of natives of a given area and certainly not at the risk of igniting ethnic clashes that will claim lives and properties”.
Afenifere called on the National Assembly not to pass the said bill but concentrate efforts at restructuring the country in such a way that every part would have a sense of belonging and be in a position to determine its own affairs as much as possible within a truly federal Nigeria nation.
