People associate their membership and indigene of a place in Nigeria through nativity of parents and grandparents in a place, speaking common language, and living in same geographical location. Thus you hear people say, I’m Hausa, Igbo, Tiv, Itshekiri or Yoruba. These factors have united people for over a period of time. People have also benefitted from such lineage by claiming the land and other natural resources found within the place of their nativity. They freely enjoy the rights and privileges accrued from being members and indigene of such place. Those who do not possess these qualities and through one way or the other find themselves in other places and nations are referred to as non-indigenes.
The world has become more dynamic and is evolving into turning itself into a global village. What this means is that people are moving from one place to another and as they are doing so, they lose some of the criteria of indigenous membership. The nativity and geographical location of the parents and grandparents change. The language group also changes. When this is done, many of these people still wish to retain some of the qualities that characterized their former membership of a place and still retain the rights and privilege of membership of such place, tribe or nation. Hence, an Urhobo person who was not born in Urhoboland and neither speaks Urhobo language nor have parents born in the land still want to claim an indigene of the place. Let’s examine instances of these in relation to the rights and privileges derived from being a citizen of a place.
Mr. Okoro, who was born in Umuahia in the current Abia State lived in Hotoro area of Kano before independence. He married a Fulani woman and gave birth to three boys. These boys grew up in Kano, married and lived all their lives in the place. Their children neither speak Igbo language nor had visited their grandfather’s place of nativity even though most of them bear Igbo names. Since Okoro’s 3rd generations are natives of Kano and had their grandparents born in Kano, would they enjoy the rights and privileges of an indigene of Kano?
Can people still claim indigene of their place of birth and places where their parents and grandparents were born? Can they enjoy same rights and privileges over land and other natural resources?
Mr. Adegoke while running away from his war ravaged place in Ijegun, Ondo state relocated to a remote area of Ishan in Edo state. As at that time, his new location was not inhabited by the indigenes but was given to him by the king. His children and grandchildren grew up in the place, retained their Yoruba names and language but have neither visited Ondo ever in their lives. The area of Ishan they live later developed and the indigenes moved to the location. Would Adegoke’s grandchildren be referred to as Ishan or Yoruba? Do they have the rights and privileges to the lands and other natural resources they inherited in Ishan land having no other place they could refer to as their own?
Can the law be further reviewed to accommodate the neo-indigenes or the citizenship laws expanded to accommodate these kind of people? As the society evolves, so do the concept of indigeneship change with it. A time will come when the whole world will live without core identification of the difference made from language, dressing, food, geographical location etc.
