The Honourable Minister Of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has expressed concerns towards resolving the issue of statelessness which has left some persons vulnerable to exploitations and human trafficking, with no legal protection and right to vote.
The Honourable Minister particularly expressed serious concerns about the plight of stateless children – refugees, war orphans and abandoned babies – who are starting life on the harrowing and uncertain lane.
In his keynote address, tittled, ‘We Must End Statelessness’, Aregbesola spoke during the launch of the National Action Plan (NAP) and inauguration of the High-Level Steering Committee (HLSC), to eradicate statelessness, which held at Congress Hall, Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja on Friday, September 2, 2022.
According to Aregbesola, “A stateless person without allegiance or commitment to a state remain a veritable security risk, especially when statelessness is caused by war. disputed territories, nomadic-pastoralist migration, foundlings among others.”
He maintained that resolving the issue of statelessness will go a long way in realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in the context of Nigeria’s Development Agenda, as a peaceful and secured environment is a positive panacea for Nigeria to flourish with her natural and human endowment.
Highlighting the hardships that stateless persons face, the Minister maintained that statelessness is a global challenge in which Nigeria is also playing a leading role in eradicating and has been working in concert with other nations to resolve.
“Stateless persons usually have no legal protection and right to vote. They often lack access to education, employment, healthcare, registration of birth, marriage or death, and property rights. They are vulnerable to exploitations and human trafficking.
“Stateless persons may also face these hardships: Inability to obtain travel documents; Long-term family separation due to that lack of travel documents; Possibility of being held in immigration detention for months or longer; Periodic reporting to immigration authorities on orders of supervision; Requirements to request travel documents from all countries to which they may have a claim to citizenship, either based on their parentage or place of birth; Requirements to contact third countries to ask their permission to be removed there, regardless of whether that individual has ties to that country; and to apply annually for work authorization.
“Nigeria is a signatory to various International Treaties, Conventions or Declarations relating to the status of stateless persons or reduction of statelessness in West Africa.
“In 2015, Nigeria joined other West African countries to sign the Abidjan Declaration organised by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), a milestone declaration which recognises statelessness as a significant issue in West Africa and set out specific measures on how to put an end to statelessness between 2014 to 2024. The milestone declaration was endorsed by Nigeria at the ECOWAS Summit of Heads of State in May 2015 in Accra, Ghana”.
According to the Minister, the Plan was approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on 25th November 2020, and it prioritized five key areas for implementation, which includes; Research, advocacy and sensitization; Preventing childhood statelessness; Addressing statelessness caused by transfer of territory e.g. Bakasi, Eradicating gender and other forms of discrimination in the recognition of citizenship and with regards to issuance of documents of identify, as well as Protection of stateless migrants or refugees.
The Minister therefore pledged that the Ministry of Interior, under his watch, as the focal Ministry on implementation of National Action Plan (NAP) to end Statelessness in Nigeria will partner with relevant MDAS, towards the speeding and timely implementation of the Plan, through robust engagement, budgeting and administrative measures and procedures, to ensure the realization of the 2024 timeline for an end to statelessness in West Africa.”
On her part, the Minister of Women Affairs decried the rate at which statelessness affects women more, from denial of a woman’s ability to pass on nationality, loss of nationality due to her marriage to an alien, the change of nationality of a spouse during marriage, or deprivation of nationality resulting from discriminatory practices.
Describing the Minister of Interior as an advocate of gender equality, Pauline Tallen recommended that unfavourable policies be amended to ensure the even conferral of nationality as well as the inclusion of straightforward naturalization systems to mitigate statelessness.
Also speaking, the Honourable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social development, Sadiya Umar Farouq maintained that Nigeria has an international obligation to protect stateless persons and ensure everyone in the country has a nationality which is the basis for enjoyment of other rights.
She Added that the National Action Plan was developed in fulfilment of Article 24 of the Abidjan Declaration urging ECOWAS Member states to develop and implement national action plans to end statelessness in their territories.