Interrogating citizenship in contemporary Nigeria Discussion At the centre of issues related to citizenship management in Nigeria is identity politics, one of the most contested issues in current societies.22 We speak of identity politics when the identity of a person or group becomes prominent or asserted in the interaction between the plural nature of the society (ethnicity, culture, religion) and the competition for political, economic and other resources. In Nigeria, the politics of identity has increased the tension between identity and citizenship management. Furthermore, prior to the delineation of the country into regions, attainment of independence and division of regions into states, citizen rights as distributed by colonialism were also based on this identity and affiliation. These practices have directly or implicitly been accentuated by colonial history, reiterated in different constitutions and practiced by local authorities. Though statelessness is often regarded as an invisible problem, in Nigeria, cases or incidents of statelessness exist, though not in high or visible records. This could be attributed to the absence of data, in the sense that population data is not updated and often politicized. Also, the on-going conflict in the North-East, including the instability in other regions, accounts for the poor and limited data. According to Iwuagwu, citizenship involves the enjoyment of basic socioeconomic and political rights as expressed in the constitution”.23 These rights summarised include basic goods and services such as access to healthcare, education, electricity, clean water, sanitation, social protection and so forth, and the onus to provide these lies with the state. This is however not the case, as over 50% of Nigerians live in extreme poverty and are further vulnerable to shocks. One then begins to question the role of the state, and how the failure of the state to provide these services poses implications for how its citizens are deprived and put at risk. Conclusion This paper has discussed the state of citizenship, indigeneity and statelessness in contemporary Nigeria, with attendant impact on socio-economic and peaceful coexistence among citizens. While it is expressively given in the constitution who should be a citizen and their accompanying rights, contention over political and economic power often create misperception and misinterpretation through indigeneity laws. The politics of who gets what continues to create animosity and disaffection among communities in the country, and these conflict dynamics, coupled with the ICJ judgement, aggravate the context of statelessness in Nigeria. Official data, due to limitations, fail to reflect the true context of statelessness in the country. Yet concerns about statelessness should be extended beyond its legal sense to the range of ways in which the State may have contributed to status deprivation and displacement. In addition to the design of conflict management policies and programmes that allow for conflict transformation and inclusion of all citizens in activities of societal rebuilding, local indigeneity laws that have led to marginalisation and discrimination should be reviewed. 22 Brubaker, R. & F. Cooper. (2000), ‘Beyond “identity”’, Theory and Society 29: 1–47. Voros, L. (2006), ‘Methodological and theoretical aspects of “social identities” research in historiography’, in Klusáková, L. and S. G. Ellis (eds.), Frontiers and identities: exploring the research area, 27-45. Pisa: Pisa University Press. 23 Iwuagwu, E. (2015), ‘The concept of citizenship: Its application and denial in the contemporary Nigerian society’, International Journal of Research in Arts and Social Sciences (IJRASS) 8(1): 165–177. European University Institute 17