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national identification card. An impressive 90% have the required
document of birth certificate to show a bond to the state according to
its laws. This might be that the National Population Commission, the
agency that has the mandate to register births has put in more effort
to register births across the country for a number of reasons. Just like
the two groups discussed above, some members of this group are
torn between ‘have an idea’ and ‘know about’ the concept of
statelessness and of course it is no surprise for their age group that
majority of them do not know about the concept. Again, considering
their age it is presumed that they have parents/guardians, therefore
the reason outlined for the working class and young adults in
regards to possession of these documents applies here the reason
being that this group could easily be their dependents.
d) Street Kids 45: All the children respondents (note, this group had the
questionnaire administered orally because they are unable to read
and/or write) identified that they did not have an idea about the
concept of statelessness. They were between the ages of 12-14 and
those that seemed much younger had no idea of their age. When I
They are children that have been sent into towns by their parents to learn Islamic Education from
an Islamic Scholar but usually end up begging on the streets. In Nigeria, they are popularly called
Almajiri. This is prevalent mostly in the northern part of the Country.
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