Discrimination Against 'Non-Nigerians

[Richard Akindele]

The Nigerian government must take the lead in ending discrimination against millions of "non-indigenes" -- citizens who cannot show that their family roots are native to the community in which they live -- in part to better secure the country's increasingly fragile unity, according to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) released here Tuesday.

The 64-page report, "'They Do Not Own This Place': Government Discrimination Against 'Non-Indigenes' in Nigeria", charges that the legal division between "host" and "settler" communities -- originally designed to preserve the traditions and cultural identity of most of Nigeria's more than 250 ethnic groups -- has fed a growing sense of tension and conflict in many parts of the country.

Such policies have contributed to communal and religious conflict that has taken more than 10,000 lives and uprooted tens of thousands more since the end of military rule in 1999, including scores killed in February in violence precipitated by protests against cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper.

"These politics marginalise millions of Nigerians and fuel the fires of ethnic and religious violence," said Peter Takirambudde, director of ...
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