Long ways to go for Africa’s giant concerning citizens’ birth registration; statelessness compounded with leaky borders further paints a picture for prevalent insecurity.
- Over half of Nigerian births are still unregistered;
- Over a million people in West Africa are stateless;
- The adverse effect on security from the identity crises in West Africa, particularly Nigeria is clear;
- Nigeria needs to improve its identity management framework and tighten its border control measures.
Unregistered births and statelessness
Earlier, we found that Africa’s Giant has the highest number of unregistered children in sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, less than four in ten children under five are recorded. And although Africa Check set the record straight suggesting Nigeria did not have 70% of her children unregistered, 53.1% is still steep. Nonetheless, we have come a long way as 1971 reportedly featured only 7.7% recorded births.
Closely related to unregistered births is statelessness. Like the former, this occurrence is another reason for the identity crisis in Nigeria. By law, a government does not recognise a stateless person as a citizen; ergo forgoing his or her rights. A report by the Centre for Democracy and Development in 2018 documented that as much as 1,000,000 people could be stateless in West Africa.
Unregistered births and statelessness go hand-in-hand. Just like unregistered births, being stateless renders the legal backing for fundamental human rights, invalid. An unregistered person, like a stateless person, may not work in a formal economy, open a bank account, or even buy land. And sometimes, these individuals can’t access education and healthcare.
Beyond human rights
Also important is the implication for national security. For instance, the Economic Community for West African States noted that because statelessness results in exclusion, it hinders development, peace and security. Moreover, human insecurity owing to forced displacement poses a threat to national and regional stability. In truth, statelessness might be a leading cause of insecurity in Nigeria!
Drawing from President Buhari’s words in 2018, “the problem (killings across Nigeria) is even older than us. It has always been there, but now made worse by the influx of gunmen from the Sahel region into different parts of the West African sub-region. These gunmen were trained and armed by Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. When he was killed, the gunmen escaped with their arms. We encountered some of them fighting with Boko Haram”.
Statelessness and the implication for insecurity
In essence, the president attributed terrorism in Nigeria to individuals of questionable identity. And while they may not be technically stateless, there are reports that suggest armed herders and bandits from neighbouring countries infiltrated Nigeria. Yet the high number of unregistered Nigerians makes identification of these “foreign” terrorists a Sisyphean. The situation is worsened by the prevalence of porous borders in the West African sub-region and Nigeria’s border porosity. In fact, 2014 saw 1,400 illegal routes into Nigeria– 1,316 more than the approved number of border control posts. Security experts also suggested a link between the border challenges to insecurity.
Rewriting the narrative
The security implications of Nigeria’s poor identity framework require urgent attention. Nigeria must attempt to implement the National Identity Management Commission Act of 2007. In the same vein, the relevant agencies should seek to improve the current identity management framework for the country. Similarly, the government should incorporate birth registration into Nigeria’s national life. First step would be to enforce and implement the 2003 Child Registration Act. Again, executing the 2015 Abidjan Declaration on eradicating statelessness is vital. Also important would be tighter border control measures.