At its meeting of July 21, 2014, the National Security Council ordered a stop to any attempt by states to deport, register and provide identity cards to resident non-indigenes as a way to check the influx of suspected Boko Haram members. According to Ita Ekpeyong, the Director General of State Security Service, the council viewed the deportation of Nigerians from some states as more dangerous than the Boko Haram menace, in terms of its capacity to dismember the country and, therefore, directed that the exercise must stop immediately.
Before then Lagos State government had come under criticism for deportation of some non-indigenes, while Imo State government was also accused of registering northerners living in the state. The decision to register northerners in Imo State sparked widespread condemnation in the country, with the move being interpreted in some quarters as ethnic and religious discrimination. In reaction, a non-governmental group in Kano, the Arewa Youth Development Foundation gave a two-week ultimatum to southerners currently living in the north to relocate to their respective states to enable northerners who would be returning home have a space, while the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) cautioned the Igbo in the South East against maltreating northerners, warning that such could endanger the multi-billion naira investment of the Igbo in the North.
These untoward expressions of discontent, fear and threat by various entities in Nigeria are traceable to two fundamental issues. The first has to do with the unsettled notion of citizenship at the subnational. Here the failure of Nigerian leadership to develop a common citizenship is shown in discriminatory practices against non-indigenes in states across the country. While there are policies to ensure that various segments of the country are represented in the composition of governments and in the distribution of economic opportunities, in political appointments, admission to educational institutions, distribution of development project and so on, there is no effort to ensure that non-indigenes resident in the states have equal access to these opportunities. In many places non-indigenes are made to pay higher fees in public schools, are discriminated against in appointment and promotion in state bureaucracies thereby limiting their sense of belonging and consequently their unencumbered contribution to the development of their state of residency.
Second, there is a tendency in Nigeria to blame so-called outsiders for the failures of government and citizens. In the 1980s, at the onset of economic crisis, Nigerians argued that Ghanaians must-go so that the country can take advantage of the opportunities that have been usurped by the Ghanaians. They also blamed the Ghanaians for all types of shenanigans. The Ghanaians left but the crisis did not go with them. Nigeria was later to go through a long period of economic crisis, a painful structural adjustment programme and general instability without the presence of Ghanaians. During this difficult period, many Nigerians migrated to Ghana that has had more stable political and economic conditions in the past two decades.
The same rash fear has informed the current obsession about internal migrants in relations to Boko Haram. Whereas the Boko Haram crisis has driven many Nigerians, regardless of religion or ethnic affiliation from the north to the south, some northerners who are based in the south are treated as agents of Boko Haram, as if only southerners and Christians have been victims of Boko Haram in the north. Indeed, many indigenes of the north that are Christians, or even Muslims, have had their property destroyed and their family members killed during Boko Haram attacks. Thus, rather than enjoying the sympathy and love of their fellow citizens, northern migrants are profiled as terrorists, criminals or suspects. This is unfortunate.
While not downplaying the need to be vigilant, given the covert character of terrorist methods, serious development of intelligence capacity should not be replaced by lazy and divisive ethnic, religious or regional profiling. The registration of non-indigenes in some southern states and the reprisal threat of expulsion of southerners by some northern groups miss the point. The need to stem the surge of terror calls for greater collaboration with the security forces by state governments, and the concerted support of citizens across regional, ethnic and other divides.
In situations like the one currently engulfing the country, leadership is expected to inspire and galvanise citizens to confront the problem. As one writer observes, dealing with terrorism requires improving “non-kinetic, coordinated response that fuses domestic, regional and international strategies along the lines of diplomacy, development, and demilitarisation.” The defeat of Boko Haram and similar organisations is going to be a long haul. We must be prepared to give it what it takes, including making government more responsive and responsible to citizens.
