CITIZENSHIP AND CITIZENS RIGHTS IN NIGERIA

Plateau State is the home to various or different ethnic and religious communities in Nigeria, who have lived peacefully together. Between 2001 and 2004 it witnessed violent ethnic and religious conflict that resulted in the mass killing of people and destruction of property by certain ethnic and religious groups against one another. The crisis was between one group that called itself the indigene of Plateau State against those they called settlers who came and settled in Plateau State from other states of the Nigerian federation. According to the group who claim to be indigenes of Plateau State, the other group they called the settlers have no any right to hold political office or engage in economic activities they consider inimical to their vested interest. The indigene group took arms to kill and destroy the lives and properties of the settler group so that the state of Plateau should be left to them alone. The danger posed by this horrific incidence and its attendant consequences made the Federal Government to declare State of Emergency in Plateau State. With the return of Nigeria to democratic rule in 1999, the country has been engulfed with ethno-religious conflicts in some states of the federation like Kaduna, Lagos, Taraba, Benue, Plateau, Kano etc. The 1999 constitution is the Grundnorm of the Nigerian federation. Curiously, nowhere has it used the term settler or indigene of any particular state of the federation. It accords equal opportunities to all Nigerians based on citizenship. Therefore the issue of settler or indigene of a particular state in this context is a matter not known to the Nigerian constitution and by the doctrine of constitutional supremacy even if such law exist in the federal, state or local government legislation, it shall be null and void to the extent of its inconsistency to the 1999 constitution.