Bronwen Manby and Solomon Momoh to determine who became a Nigerian at independence, and thereafter initially provided for citizenship based on birth in Nigeria. The concept of ‘community indigenous to Nigeria’ as a foundation for Nigerian citizenship was introduced for the first time in the 1979 Constitution. The original intent was to take account of the fact that many communities in Nigeria are separated from their ethnic kin by colonial borders, leaving flexibility in determining the connection to Nigeria of persons belonging to cross-border communities.45 Just as during the colonial era, however, the concept of ‘indigenous community’ was not defined. The 1999 Constitution also provided no definition for the term. It is argued that there has been ‘a steady rise in communal tensions and conflicts since the introduction of the indigeneity clause into Nigerian public law through the 1979 Constitution’.46 The interpretation of ‘community indigenous to Nigeria’ has come to be determined largely within the context of debates over the concept of ‘federal character’, also introduced by the 1979 Constitution and repeated in 1999. The federal character principle requires that government positions at national level should be shared equitably among those who are ‘indigenes’ of the different units that make up Nigeria’s federal system, and similarly at state and local government level.47 In 1996 the military government established by decree the Federal Character Commission, giving it the responsibility to elaborate, monitor and enforce the provisions on federal character. In 1997, the Commission adopted Guiding Principles and Formulae for the Distribution of all Cadres of Posts, which effectively leave it up to each local government to determine who qualifies as an ‘indigene’, though they clearly prohibit claims of ‘dual indigeneship’, and state that women cannot change their status on marriage.48 In accordance with this scheme, a system has grown up by which all 774 local government areas in Nigeria, and the Federal Capital Territory, issue ‘certificates of indigeneity’ as evidence that a person is an ‘indigene’ of that area. In the absence of legislative authority, there are no established criteria on the basis of which a refusal to issue a certificate could be challenged, which are thus variable in different local government authorities. In 45 O. Adigun, ‘Nationality and Citizenship: The Legal Problematic of Transborder Ethnic Communities in Nigeria’, in Borderlands in Africa: A Multidisciplinary and Comparative Focus on Nigeria and West Africa, ed. A. I. Asiwaju and P. O. Adeniyi (Lagos: University of Lagos Press, 1989). 46 Jibrin Ibrahim, Democratic Governance and the Citizenship Question: All Nigerians Are Settlers. No date. Accessed 02/04/2019 via DAWODU.COM an online platform dedicated to Nigeria's history, socio-economic and political issues. https://www.dawodu.com/jibo1.htm 47 Constitution, 1979, article 14; repeated verbatim in the Constitution, 1999, article 14: ‘(3) The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few States or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies. (4) The composition of the Government of a State, a local government council, or any of the agencies of such government or council, and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such manner as to recognise the diversity of the peoples within its area of authority and the need to promote a sense of belonging and loyalty among all the peoples of the Federation.’ 48 Guiding Principles and Formulae for the Distribution of all Cadres of Posts, SI 23 of 1997, Part II, section 10(1): ‘An indigene of a local Government means a person: i. either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents was or is an indigene of the local Government concerned; or ii. who is accepted as an indigene by the Local Government: Provided that no person shall lay claim on more than one Local Government.’ Section 10(2) sets out similar provisions for states and the Federal Capital Territory; and section 11 relates to married women, stating that ‘A married woman shall continue to lay claim to her state of origin for the purpose of implementation of the Federal Character formulae at the national level.’ RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/12 - © 2020 Author(s) 15