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Six ways to #BringBackOurGirls in Nigeria

The Nigerian government and those supporting it in the international community could do more to address urgent humanitarian needs and contribute to democracy and rule of law in Nigeria.

2. Reform citizenship laws

Rather than protecting the rights of all citizens equally, the Nigerian Constitution permits discrimination against people who migrate from one state to another. Even if these Nigerians have lived in a state nearly their entire lives, the law considers them “settlers” who have a second-tier citizenship status compared with the local “indigenes.”

This distinction has given rise to conflicts over land, political representation, and resources in the Middle Belt region, nestled between the north and the south. Thousands of people have been killed by violence that often has religious overtones, yet is rooted in these deeper constitutional flaws.

As a step toward broader federal citizenship law reform and as a way to help ensure just treatment for girls who attend “solidarity schools,” the government could declare that the girls in solidarity schools will be treated as full Nigerian citizens, no matter which state they are from.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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