Interrogating citizenship in contemporary Nigeria original inhabitants of a place, this claim is often fraught with contestation and lack of evidence. Moreover, the indigeneity principle privileges the host community with control of power and resources and often excludes migrant settlers; as a result, tensions rise over identity and resource control. Moreover, local governments and district heads issue ‘certificates of indigeneity’ to people who are indigenes of their jurisdictions. These certificates serve as documentary proof that the bearer is an indigene of the LGA, and possession of the certificate is the only proof of indigeneity. Indigeneity is also another way of delegating Nigeria’s citizenship management to the discretion of a LGA, primarily to determine who gets what; therefore, anyone without an indigeneity certificate could be treated as a non-indigene in their formal interactions with all levels and benefits from government. The unfettered local discretion through the proof of indigeneity thereby determines one’s citizenship rights, obligations and privileges as an indigene or non-indigene.10 Though indigeneity is not yet established as a clear, legal and procedural framework to determine the legal status of citizenship, it has organically evolved as an identification system where citizenship depends on and derives its authentication by a local government authority rather than a federal agency. While this system is without specific legal authority, it reflects the requirement for membership of an ‘indigenous community’ as the foundation of citizenship,11 therefore, making indigeneity a distinctive feature of Nigeria’s citizenship. Statelessness According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a stateless person is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law.12 The consequences of statelessness include continual denials of peoples’ fundamental rights, economic rights, political participation, social and education rights, among others. This occurs for several reasons, including discrimination against particular ethnic or religious groups, or on the basis of gender; the emergence of new states and transfers of territory between existing states; and gaps in nationality laws.13 Nigeria is a signatory to many international instruments like the 1954 Convention related to the status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the reduction of Statelessness and has drafted a National Action Plan (NAP) to eradicate statelessness in the country.14 One notable proposal of the NAP is to formally create a path towards citizenships for children of refugees born in the country through proper documentation. Yet for some Nigerian citizens, citizenship has not been securely held. Case studies North-East returnee women, girls and children This brief case study presents experiences by returnee women, girls and children in post-conflict and no-peace-no-war communities ravaged by Boko Haram activities in North-East Nigeria, and how indigene certificates are denied these returnees based on perceptions of their involvement with the insurgents. Following the current recapturing and reintegration programmes conducted by the Nigerian government and other actors, most of the returnee women and children born through sexual relationships with members of the sect are faced with stigmatisation, suspicion, marginalisation, and rejection by 10 Manby, B. (2018), ‘Who is a Native?’, in B. Manby, Citizenship in Africa: the Law of belonging, 147–258. Oxford: Hart Publishing. 11 Ibid. 12 UNHCR (2005). Nationality and statelessness: A handbook for parliamentarians, 3. 13 Ibid. 14 ‘Communique on statelessness’, http://citizenshiprightsafrica.org/wpcontent/uploads/2019/01/UNHCRNigeria_Communique-Statelessness_Dec2018.pdf European University Institute 15