Interrogating citizenship in contemporary Nigeria MaryAnne Iwara The 1999 Nigerian constitution regulates tracks to attaining citizenship and the rights associated with it. It has limited provisions for revoking citizenship, and these have rarely been used. However, citizenship appears to have been abrogated in particular by the indigeneity principle, which leads to some Nigerians being denied either the status or benefits of citizenship in different spheres of life. This contribution discusses citizenship, indigeneity and statelessness in contemporary Nigeria, and in its two case studies, exposes some inconsistencies and weaknesses in the application of citizenship status and rights. The returnees from abduction by the Boko Haram have suffered the loss of rights associated with citizenship in regions where they are treated as non-indigenous, and the citizenship status of Nigerians in the Bakassi Peninsula has been rendered uncertain and insecure since the area was ceded to Cameroon. The contribution reviews the application and practicability of Nigerian law on citizenship revocation, in tandem with international human rights provisions and in context of Nigeria’s ethnic, linguistic and territorial heterogeneity. Introduction Nigeria is Africa's most populous country with an estimated 200 million people. It is also extremely diverse, with over 250 ethnic groups and 500 languages, and is administered through a system of 36 states. Each of these states has its own ethnic and religious composition. Nigerian citizenship acquisition is mainly regulated by the 1999 Constitution1 in Sections 25, 26, 27 and 28, which provides that citizenship can only be acquired through three legal pathways: through blood relations – parents or grandparents who belong to a community indigenous to Nigeria, registration – as a foreign woman married to a Nigerian man, and lastly through naturalisation. In spite of the provisions of citizenship and the rights accrued to citizenship, many Nigerians with formal statuses of citizenship are still refused rights of citizenship e.g. political participation, education, access to land, employment, welfare or similar, either as individuals or groups. Some are at risk of being denied citizenship and this is further amplified by local indigeneity laws. The supremacy of national citizenship has been circumvented by identity and labelling laws, in the form of indigeneity laws. According to Chapters Three and Four of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended), the 36 states must secure full resident rights for every citizen. By this, it prohibits discrimination based on place of origin, sex, religion, ethnic association and encourages inter-marriages alike. However, the reality is different, as the indigene principle allocates power and resources to certain groups or individuals in states or Local Government Areas (LGAs), while others who have migrated for different reasons are excluded. This gives rise both to grievances and fierce political competition, which too often lead to violence. David Ehrhardt lists the negative effects of indigeneship to include weakening the uniformity of Nigerian citizenship; politicising ethnic and religious identities; marginalising Nigeria’s minority ethnic groups; increasing discrimination of ethnic and religious ‘non-indigenes’ and even causing ethnic and religious conflicts.2 The causes of statelessness, where a person is not considered a national by any state, are numerous, including discrimination (e.g., on the basis of gender, ethnicity, religion), conflicts between and gaps in  Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Abuja. 1 The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is http://www.concourt.am/armenian/legal_resources/world_constitutions/constit/nigeria/nigeri-e.htm 2 Ehrhardt, D. (2017), ‘Indigeneship, bureaucratic discretion, and institutional change in Northern Nigeria’, African Affairs 116/464: 462-483. available at: 12