Mamdani: Resolving the Indigeneship Issue

Nigeria is a market society; markets move people, not just goods. A worker becomes unemployed, he moves to get a job somewhere; a peasant is landless, he moves, if a university graduate can't get a job in his locality, he moves; a businessman moves, too. You have an industrialist who also moves, but the political system penalizes those who move. Even though they move inside Nigeria, and that they are all indigenous to Nigeria, the system treats those who move as not indigenous because they move across these hard and fast boundaries established in the colonial period. I am not talking of cultural boundaries; I am talking of administrative and political boundaries.

Those who move are penalized because the political system and the economic system are in contradiction.

So there are two solutions, either you abolish the market system, which is not an option, or you reform the political system. That every state in the federation should have fair representation in every federal institution is good. In my view, anybody who lives in that state should be able to compete for that representation, not just the indigenes. Historically, there are two ways to define rights; either by blood, that is the racist idea, or you define rights by residence, where you live. Which is a better indication of a person's loyalty, where they are coming from or where they are? Where they are gives an idea of where they want to build their future; where they are coming from is important, but it is past.

Absolutely correct; but that is the credible part of federal character. Federal character was implemented as an affirmative action programme for those who had been left out, left behind or treated unequally in the colonial dispensation. That was the attraction. What I am saying is that there is an intended consequence and an unintended consequence. The intended consequence is that because affirmative action has become the sole preoccupation of Federal Character, it is preventing the development of a Nigerian citizenship. So, we have to take into account the unintended consequence, the cost, and weigh it against the intentions.