Recently a Jos High Court delivered judgement
in favour of a young woman Fatima Akawu
granting her request to be given an indigene
certificate that qualifies her to be considered a
bona fide indigeneship of Jos North Local
Government in Plateau state.
First of all, let me state that I have a proprietary
interest in this matter for several reasons.
I was raised in Jos from right from early
childhood to adulthood and suffice it to say
that for all practical purposes, I consider myself
a ”Jos boy” even though by origin I am not from
Plateau state. There are millions of people in
my category some of whom have are of several
generations born and bred in the ”Tin city” or
”J Town” as Jos is often called.
Jos is a unique town in Nigeria as following the
discovery of Tin and Columbite in commercial
quantities during the colonial times, Jos
became a quintessential ”Boom town” with
many people from within and outside Nigeria
trooping into it in the thousands. Coupled with
the ambient temperature and the scenic beauty
of the city, Jos and much of Plateau state
became a ”Mecca” of sorts for people who
came looking for fortune in the Tin mines,
leisure and tourism and even for political
refuge in the often turbulent politics of Nigeria.
Of special reference are those that came to Jos
forcibly without their consent but under the
decree of the colonial authorities. These were
migrant workers or ”Diban Gomna” in which
the Colonial Governor of northern Nigeria
compelled every province of the region to
contribute labourers to work at the Tin mines
owned and run by British mining companies.
With the mines came trading companies who
also brought their own workers.
Thus all these contributed to the metrpolitan
population of Jos. There Urhobos, Itsekiris,
Ijaws, Ikas, Edos in Jos. There were Yorubas
mostly of Ogbomosho-Oyo extraction who
followed the late Soun who came to Jos in the
1940s and settled there before returning back
to his hometown to become the monarch.
There are also the Ndigbo component of Jos
who made the city a miniature Igboland of
sorts. Growing up in Jos a boy I knew of Igbos
whose had been living in the city for
generations and who only had a only a fleeting
knowledge of were their parents and
granparents came from in Igboland. Indeed in
my days as a youngster in Jos my family lived
harmoniously in the Igbo part of town.
Then of course there was the Hausas who came
for various reasons to Jos in their thousands.
The bulk of the Hausa were from Kano/Jigawa
axis and with the passage of time and
generations they considered themselves
”Jasawa” or Hausa indigenes of Jos.
The family from which the young girl came, the
Akawu Namata family, is one of the well known
Hausa families in the centre of Jos city. They are
known to have a established business in trading
and long haul transportation. And I can state
clearly that the family had been living in Jos for
generations. I even went to school with one of
them Umaru Akawu and one of the popular
Kannywood actors Tanimu Akawu is from that
family.
By all consideration, the Akawu Namata
family having lived in Jos for generations
preceeding the independence of Nigeria as with
the likes of the Nakande family and many
others not just Hausas have the right to make a
claim to be considered indigenes of Jos.
But with the granting of the status of
indigenship to Fatima Akawu, a storm of
discussions have followed with some
vehemently opposed to the judgement that
favoured the young girl against those who
argue otherwise. And because the issue had
taken on religious and ethnic colouration the
legal and constitutional underpinning of it
which ought to be our guide has been ignored.
So what does the Nigerian Constitution and the
legal statutes say about it?
The High Court Judge who delivered the
judgement on the case on June 9, 2026 Justice
C. Donglong, ruled that denying an indigene
certificate to Fatima Akawu who was born and
raised in Jos North Local Government Area,
solely based on her ethnic background was
unlawful, unconstitutional and discriminatory.
Justice Donglong could not have ruled
otherwise because the Nigerian Constitution of
1999 as amended, defines indigeneship in
reference to ancestral communities only. It
does not define indigeneship as a tool for
exclusion of a bona fide citizen of Nigeria.
Section 42 of the Constitution subsection 1
explicitly states that ”Laws or government
actions cannot subject a person to limits or
penalties that other groups do not face just
because of their background, sex or beliefs.”
This subsection also further states ”Laws or
government actions cannot grant special
privileges or perks to certain groups to others
that are denied to others for the same
reasons.”
Being aware of these provisions which are
clearly laid out in the Constitution which is the
ground norm of all laws in the country, Justice
Donglong cannot be failing in his duty to deliver
his judgement using any other parameters that
are not captured in the Constitution.
The arguments that have been advanced
against the judgement on the grounds that the
young woman in question does not come from
any of the ”recognised” ethnic groups in Jos
North or Plateau state is not reckoned with in
the Constitution. It will be thus unconstitutional
to deny the young woman or any other person
the right to all the privileges to be enjoyed
under the circumstances that Fatima Akawu
has found herself in Jos or any other part of
Nigeria for that matter.
The argument that Fatima Akawu should not be
granted the rights she sought for in Jos North
where she and her forebears were born and
raised because a Plateau man or woman cannot
and has not been granted similar rights in say
Kano, Sokoto, Katsina or any other state also
does not hold water. The question to ask is has
anybody of Plateau origin living in such states
taken similar action to secure their rights as
defined by the Constitution as Fatima Akawu
had done in Plateau state?
But why is this issue raising any hullababaloo
when in parts of the country, this has long been
in practice ? In Lagos state for instance, so called
non-indigenes have been fully integrated into
the affairs of the state. Our President Bola
Ahmed Tinubu and millions of others who are
originally from other states. In Kaduna
Katsina,Zamfara and Sokoto states I know of
Yorubas from Zaria, Kaduna, Funtua, Kaura
Namoda, Gusau who have been granted such
rights as Fatima Akawu without a Court case. In
Kano many so-called non indigenes of Yoruba,
Igbo, Igala, Egbira, Jukun, Edo, Borno, Nupe
origins also enjoy these rights without any fuss.
The Jos Indigeneship issue and the Constitution
