I had a strong feeling of bereavement when the pictures of the Asagba of Asaba, Professor Chike Edozien appeared in some national dailies under obituary. It was after going through the story that I realized it was another professor of science, Chike Obi the renowned mathematician of international repute that died.

My sentiment was borne out of the fact that the Asagba is one of detribalized traditional rulers in Nigeria who does not discriminate amongst the residents in his domain from diverse ethnic and religion backgrounds. I had witnessed, as a corps member in Delta State a decade ago, how the revered traditional ruler provided the needs and protected young corpers from other parts of the country serving in his province. During Islamic festivals for instance, he hosted Muslim corpers from different states, especially from the North to special feast and showered them with gifts. We felt at home-away from-home through close interactions with him and his fatherly roles in our lives. It was not surprising that some of us even went ahead to cart away pretty spouses in marriage while other got automatic employments in the Niger-Delta State. I was lucky too to have worked briefly in Government House Asaba as a civil servant away from my place of birth and origin.

Could we have bothered about indeneship and federal character principles if similar gestures and respects as mentioned above are replicated in our various communities?

The issue of indigene and politics of state of origin which influenced the adoption of federal character principles in our national polity has remained as contentious as ever. Lately eyes brows have been raised on alleged lopsidedness in federal appointments by various groups which pose a serious challenge to the new Chairman of the Federal Character Commission, Professor Oba Abdulraheem Shuaib, who was former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin. He is being described as a detribalized Nigerian who is also married to an Edo woman. Sometimes one wonders if the sectional debate is not being manipulated by the elites to sustain their hegemony and hoodwink ordinary Nigerians from facing the reality.

We have witnessed negative effects of indigeneship/settlership imbroglio that alienate other Nigerians from freedom in their host communities and even ancestral places. The painful irony on this unnecessary dichotomy had resulted to bloody communal conflicts among groups within the same geopolitical environments with attendant lost of lives and properties. It is still fresh in our memory the Jukun-Tiv conflict in the North East, the Zangon Kataf debacle in the North West, Plateau’s Hausa-Burom clash in the North Central, the Ife-Modakeke crisis in the South West, the Umuleri-Aguleri conflict in the South East and Urhobo- Ishekiri rivalry in the South South.

In some states not only were the so-called strangers being denied the right to own businesses, build houses, get employment, obtain scholarship and free medication, they are even taunted like outcasts. And yet the governments of those localities benefit and survive from the free monthly allocation from the federation account that is derivable mostly offshore on criteria that include the population of the people in the states including the so-called non-indigenes. Won’t it be unfair to collect extra revenue on behalf of people on the basis of population and yet deny them equal right?

Since there is neither a historical document to prove that Adam and Eve were created in any part of Nigeria nor is there a record that a human germinated from the soil, the claim of origin of a place is deceptive. We are all naturally settlers by virtue of our forefathers’ emigration to the part of the world we now claim. While there are some advantages over the application of federal character principles due to our peculiarities as a nation of multi ethnic and cultural complexities, the issue of indigenes and settlers should be reexamine and discarded if they are in our laws.  Citizenship and residency rights of all Nigerians in wherever they are through economic empowerment and political rights should be encouraged to promote rapid development of the communities they live.

Nigeria could adopt residency rights for its citizens with some refinements by examining the conventional process of acquisition of citizenship of a country through parents, place of birth and naturalization to suit our peculiarities.

The basic requirement for residency rights may include  a stipulated  years of residence in the host communities, ability to speak the local language, intermarriage consideration, community development, payment of taxes and other civic responsibilities to entitle the person to all the rights and privileges of a place he/she resides. These conditions will further encourage national integration and reduce tension associated with ethnicity.

One of the glaring omissions in the 7 Point Agenda of President Yar’Adua is non-inclusion of programme of action towards national integration and cohesion for the promotion of national unity and social citizenship.

In as much as the Federal Character Commission is charged with the responsibilities of ensuring fair and equitable distribution of posts in the public services throughout the federation, its central concern should not be limited to appointments but also to play statutory roles in fair and just distribution of economic amenities to various communities in the country, even if from the controversial excess crude account. This idea was shared by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua at the inauguration of the body. In his speech read by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, he charged the Commission to ensure equitable distributions of socio-economic amenities because they impact more on the society than that of appointments which only benefit individuals. He also urged the body to ensure effective and fair representation of women and youths, the physically challenged and other disadvantaged groups in the workforce.

Towards this background the government should spread locations of industries, public institutions, security and infrastructure evenly amongst the states, local governments and even wards respectively that could create more job opportunities and development of such areas. Likewise programmes of poverty-reduction and mass literacy should be undertaken in the same patterns.

We can take a cue from developed nations that have progressed rapidly through their culture of assimilation and policy of integration where appointments are based on merit but development efforts are spread evenly. In fact many Nigerians have been appointed, elected into public offices abroad … in fact some of them even serve in the armed forces in other nations. It may sound strange to sectional leaders to realize that one of the great contenders for the presidency of the United States of America in the present dispensation is Senator Barack Obama, a son of an African Muslim. It is not about ethnic representations it is about whom the cap fits to develop a nation.

While some states like Lagos and Kano have shown good example in their deliberate policy of appointing and electing non-indigenes into their respective public offices to give other ethnic groups sense of belonging, lets hope that we would soon witness an Igbo person as an elected senator from Sokoto, an Hausa as democratic governor of Enugu, a Yoruba as a minister representing Borno, Ijawwoman as chairperson of local government in Kwara, Kanuriman as a commissioner in Rivers and Fulani as a Speaker of the State Assembly in Ogun. While the topmost post of the president should go to a stateless Nigerian. Do I hear you say amen or you are still debating my summation?

Yushau A. Shuaib

yashuaib@yashuaib.com

Wuye Estate, Abuja

Robot  Villager

# 1 I had a strong feeling of bereavement when the pictures of the Asagba of Asaba, Professor Chike ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 03.06.2008 22:42

sholly  JJC

# 2 We are all settlers. The Hausas claim thery are from Ethiopia and Egypt, Kanuris from Sudan, Igbos from Israel, Yoruba from Mecca and the Niger-delta people, especially the Ijaw from Ghana or was it cotonou. We may be require to send return to our through original countries considering our divisive tendencies. Posted by sholly| 04.06.2008 02:51

icmarshall  JJC

# 3 Nigerdelta are not immigrant from Ghana or any country. We are origin of our place. Please take note. On the Obama he has been confirmed as the Democratic Presidential candidate in the next presidential election. Election pits McCain vs. Obama By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - The Democratic presidential nomination his, Barack Obama reached out Wednesday to mend fences with his defeated rival as Republican opponent John McCain tried to frame the fall campaign on his own terms. "I think he has exercised very bad judgment on national security issues and others," McCain said. Hillary Rodham Clinton was angling to become Obama's running mate and her aides ramped up the speculation on that matter Wednesday. "I think a lot of her supporters would like to see her on the ticket," Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said. But Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs cautioned "there is no deal in the works." Clinton has yet to acknowledge Obama's victory in the bruising Democratic race and her aides — also dodging that conclusion — said on the morning talk shows that she would take a few days to decide what comes next for her. Obama spoke by phone with her Tuesday night and both sides predicted he and Clinton would sit down together before long. "When the dust settles and it makes sense for her, he'll meet whenever she wants to," Gibbs said. "She's accumulated a lot of votes throughout this country. We want to make sure that we're appealing to her voters." On the final night of the primary season, Clinton won South Dakota on Tuesday while Obama took Montana — and a slew of party superdelegates who declared their support to help him clinch the nomination. He did it, according to The Associated Press tally, based on primary elections, state Democratic caucuses and support from superdelegates. It took 2,118 delegates to clinch the nomination at the convention in Denver this summer, and Obama had 2,144 by the AP count. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a dogged Clinton supporter, recognized the brutality of the arithmetic. "I am the last of the Mohicans, but it is over," he said. But after all of Obama's struggles to win over white blue-collar workers and older voters who flocked to Clinton, Rendell said he remained "a little wary" about the Illinois senator's prospects. "Senator Obama is an exciting candidate, he's smart as a whip, he's got the backbone," he said on CNN, "but he's got some work to do, no question about it." Obama and Clinton were both back in Washington on Wednesday to address the national conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The primaries behind them, Obama and McCain were drawing the battle line for a fall fight that will make history with the election of either the oldest first-term president in McCain or the first black commander in chief in Obama. In speeches marking the start of the general election, both maneuvered for the advantage with voters sour on the status quo. Both were competing beyond their party's base, too. "The key to winning the election is independent voters and Democrats as well," McCain said in an interview shown Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America." Even so, he said "I don't think so" when asked on CBS whether he'd pick a Democrat as his running mate. In St. Paul, Minn., Obama, 46, ceded no ground on the reformer mantle and cast McCain as a continuation of the unpopular President Bush's eight-year tenure. "My differences with him are not personal; they are with the policies he has proposed in this campaign," he said Tuesday. "Because while John McCain can legitimately tout moments of independence from his party in the past, such independence has not been the hallmark of his presidential campaign." The campaign is the first in half a century in which neither a sitting president nor a vice president is running for the highest office, and the first since 1960 in which a senator will assume the White House. A fragile economy and an ongoing Iraq war, as well as matters of age and race, serve as a backdrop. Posted by icmarshall| 04.06.2008 09:29