the ‘federal character’ provisions. They cannot stand for office, are not eligible for state education scholarships or other grants, and increasingly may not obtain jobs in the civil service of the state. This system has inadvertently created a population of millions who are not regarded as full citizens in any particular place in Nigeria. Though they may vote, there is no state in which they may hold public office and take part in the government of their country. Perhaps the only public office open to them would be the presidency itself; though in practice that, too, would be difficult without a clear support base in an individual state. Ethiopia, the only other fully federal constitution in Africa, remarkably provides for any self-defined group to make a bid for self-determination, up to and including complete independence. But the results of this effort to give full realization to minority rights have included the displacement of large numbers of ­people from areas now ‘owned’ by another group, where they then feel threatened. There are similar problems in many countries without explicitly federal constitutions, especially those that are most diverse; notably, the DRC. The ethnic violence following the disputed Kenyan elections of late 2007 had among its causes a persistent failure by government to provide an equitable pro­ cess to resolve the rights to land and to protection of the law of those living in a different part of the country from their ‘original’ home. Silencing individuals 15 Introduction Citizenship law has also proved a useful tool to incumbent governments wishing to silence critics, or exclude from elections opposition politicians who threaten to unseat them. A wide range of African governments have used, abused or rewritten citizenship and immigration law to silence those who have criticized them or sought to challenge their hold on power. They have changed the qualifications for citizenship, or simply asserted that someone is not a citizen and then deported them, with no right to challenge in court either the deportation or the assertion of non-citizenship. Although there are other means of silencing