Nigeria: Discrimination against ‘non-indigenes’ threatens civil peace

The Nigerian government must take the lead in ending discrimination against millions of "non-indigenes" - citizens who cannot show that their family roots are native to the community in which they live - in part to better secure the country's increasingly fragile unity, according to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) released recently. The 64-page report, "'They Do Not Own This Place': Government Discrimination Against 'Non-Indigenes' in Nigeria", charges that the legal division between "host" and "settler" communities - originally designed to preserve the traditions and cultural identity of most of Nigeria's more than 250 ethnic groups - has fed a growing sense of tension and conflict in many parts of the country.