As Nigeria considers constitutional amendments, the idea of confederation resurfaces. This op-ed challenges a proposed bill on indigene status and explores how decentralisation may protect cultures, manage identity politics, and reduce rising tensions over land and belonging across regions.
The ongoing consultations by the National Assembly to amend Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution provide an opportunity to explore the idea of a confederation for the multi-ethnic and multi-religious country, which the military erroneously believes must be run as a monolithic realm.
A confederation is “a union of sovereign states where member states retain significant autonomy, and the central governing body has limited powers” or “a group of… countries… joined together for a common purpose or by a common interest.”
In American history, an attempt to have a confederation of 11 southern states—Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia—was crushed after the Civil War, which terminated their secession bid from the United States between 1860 and 1865.
Switzerland’s confederation began in 1291, when three rural communities united to protect their common interests against distant imperialist powers. Though Switzerland became a federation in 1848, when it adopted a modern constitution, five more states joined by adhesion or conquest.
Switzerland has four recognised national ethnicities—Germans, who form 65% of the population; the French; Italian; and Romansh. But there are other less significant ethnic groups, like the Portuguese.
Each group speaks its own language and lives according to its culture. When you travel from Zurich, the capital city of German-speaking Switzerland, to Geneva, in the French-speaking region, you can see the difference not only in the languages but also in their cultures.
The Fault Lines Beneath Nigeria’s Unity
If Nigerians are honest with themselves, they will admit that one of the reasons for the ongoing constitutional review roadshow is the attack by land grabbers in the guise of herdsmen, who invade farming communities whose lands they have forcefully acquired.
The recent attacks in the Ruuri community in Plateau State and the Yelwata community in Benue State are a case in point. Many will recall that it took the (albeit unlawful) intervention of Sunday “Igboho” Adeyemo to run certain marauders out of Oyo North in South-West Nigeria.
“Confederation may be the best way to avert violent crises between indigenes and aliens in Nigerian communities.”
Maybe Nigerians will be further assured that aliens have no designs over their lands by stealth if the House of Representatives discards the bill presented by Okezie Kalu & others, praying for indigene status for people born, or who have acquired landed properties, in parts of Nigeria other than their native communities.
The bill, in its Second Reading, reads: “A Bill to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, (as amended) to guarantee indigene status to persons by reason of birth, or continued residence for a period of not less than ten years, or by reason of marriage and for related matters.”
A friend, who sent this seeming SOS, thinks it is probably inauspicious to use legal fiat to surreptitiously confer indigene status on aliens. Kalu and his cohorts appear to be insensitive to Nigerians who thought the end was near when former President Muhammadu Buhari watched indulgently as his kinsmen violated the lives and land of other Nigerians.
Kalu’s law can fly in America, whose citizens, apart from Amerindians, are immigrants without “roots” on American soil. They variously came from Europe, while fleeing from religious persecution, as slaves from Africa, or as economic adventurers from Asia, the Pacific, and Arab regions.
If Kalu is aware that the Certificate of Occupancy only grants the right of occupancy as a leasehold, why does he find it necessary to confer indigene status on people because they bought landed properties?
Kalu should allow the process to evolve organically through non-threatening miscegenation from inter-tribal marriages.
Culture, Identity and Land: Questions of Ownership
In any case, while the C-of-O recognises the holder’s right to occupy the land, it does not confer freehold ownership. It is a temporary leasehold that reverts ownership to the state government, which may not renew the leasehold to the “legislated indigene” or his successors after the statutory 99 years.
“Kalu should allow the process to evolve organically through non-threatening miscegenation from inter-tribal marriages.”
If the leasehold will eventually revert to the state, why turn non-natives into “legislated indigenes” because they bought land? It sounds like another way to achieve the RUGA that many thought President Buhari wanted to use as a decoy to relocate alien Fulani to Southern Nigeria.
One may ask Kalu if “legislated indigenes” can become kings, or be inducted into certain societies and cults, have joint ownership and control over communal land, or even have access to certain groves reserved for aboriginals.
Even the Americans left some reserves exclusively for Amerindians who are not interested in joining mainstream American culture with its apple pie, Coke, baseball, and blue jeans, but prefer their tomahawks, feather headdresses, and moccasin shoes.
According to the quote on a T-shirt going around online, “No one is illegal on stolen land.” That phrase cannot apply to the Apache, Sioux, and Cheyenne—some of America’s aboriginals before the invasion from the Old World.
Has anyone wondered why the Ijaw of Bayelsa State and the Ekiti of Ekiti State celebrate being the only ethnic groups in their states? Has anyone wondered why the Ijebu, led by the late Awujale, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, want a state with only themselves as the sole citizens?
Confederation may be the best way to avert violent crises between indigenes and aliens in Nigerian communities. This way, indigenes and aliens will stay within boundaries but find civil ways to accommodate each other under the law.
Each state of the confederation will control its economy and will not feel that aliens from other tribes or regions will take over their lands or alter their cultures, the way Muslim Pakistanis and Arabs insist that pork should not be on the menu of their British and New Zealand hosts.
You may recall the vicious attacks by white supremacists on Britons of African and Asian descent towards the close of 2024. Many died, and it took so much effort before British Prime Minister Keir Starmer could rein in the racists.
America’s returnee President, Donald Trump, is even looking for a way to reverse the birther law that allows anyone born on American soil to have automatic American citizenship. The opportunity for children born to aliens is becoming increasingly slim.
“There would be no need for a law that forces indigene status if Nigeria adopts confederation.”
You shouldn’t endorse the laughable renaming of streets after Lagos indigenes by some Lagos State local governments. But you may pause a little when you consider what was thought to be President Buhari’s ploy to use RUGA to give ancestral land to alien Fulani in Southern Nigeria.
The conquest of most of North-West Nigeria by Uthman dan Fodio may explain why the Hausa are rumoured to be rejecting the notion that the Fulani Sultan of Sokoto could represent their interest in the Traditional Rulers Council of Nigeria, which he co-chairs with the Ooni of Ife, who is presumed to be the most prominent Yoruba traditional ruler, if not of the entire Southern Nigeria.
There would be no need for a law that forces indigene status if Nigeria adopts confederation, which grants autonomy to the constituent units, whose citizens will be secure and have no fear of being overwhelmed in their homeland.
Kalu’s Bill can become a law if Nigeria is no longer interested in preserving its diversity of culture. Confederation should allow each group to retain its cultural identity and absorb others at its own pace, as ethnic Turks were absorbed into Germany, whose population was diminishing.
The opinions expressed in this article are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily align with the views of JolibaLive News! or any of its staff members. The author is in no way associated with this online news blog.
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