Identity crisis, contested citizenship and the challenges of democratic governance in Nigeria since 1999

Abstract

The article focuses primarily on the issue of identity and contested \ncitizenship within the context of democratic governance in Nigeria \nsince 1999. A deep understanding of the workings of Nigeria’s \ndemocratic terrain may not be possible without some \nunderstanding of the identity. Given the political salience of ethnic, \nreligious, and other social forces identities, it has led to a \nbifurcated citizenship crisis such as the dichotomy between \n“settlers” and “natives” and “indigenes” and “non-indigenes” or \nlocal citizenship. These centripetal and centrifugal forces have not \nonly has become the rule for distributing position, power, and \nresources in Nigeria but have also coalesced to give rise to an \nidentity crisis and contested citizenship. Different explanations \nhave been offered regarding the implication of the above subject \nmatter for democratic governance. However, the article tries to \nsubsume these explanations under the indigene-settler perspective. \nHence, the emergence of federal character, quota system, and true \nfederalism as well as several socio-economic and political crises \nthat became heightened since the beginning of Nigeria’s Fourth \nRepublic are the manifestation of identity and citizenship crisis. \nThe article, therefore, articulates viewpoints that bring into \nforefront intellectual debate on the future of Nigeria s democratic \ngovernance amidst identity crisis and contested citizenship. The \narticle adopts a historical research methodology and relies on \nsecondary sources of data.