By Olayinka Ajayi

The Pan Yoruba socio-cultural group, Think Yoruba First,TYF, has said the proposed Indigenous Status Bill does not promote unity but seeks to forcibly engineer a national identity at the cost of indigenous sovereignty.
In a statement, TYF’s Secretary-General, Dr. Bukola Ogundoyin, while reacting to Paul Asiodu’s submission a Policy analyst who recently said the bill is a necessary step to build a nation that transcends ethnic and regional lines, insisted that it is unacceptable and must be rejected.

According to the Yoruba group, “His recent submission attempting to sanitize the controversial Indigene Status Bill before the House of Representatives makes it crucial to interrogate its claims with sober analysis, constitutional clarity, and international precedent.”

The group noted that the assertion that opposition to the bill is a product of faux outrage or lack of understanding is dismissive and dangerously misleading.

“To suggest that we are ‘probably sponsored’ is reflective of his bad case of paranoia, where he cannot see that outstanding citizens of Nigeria imbued with the spirit and discipline of Awoism never ceased to exist in Yorubaland, Nigeria.

“Paul blend Nigerian citizenship with indigeneity, is a conceptual and legal misstep. Under Section 25(1) of the 1999 Constitution, every person born in Nigeria to Nigerian parents is a citizen. However, citizenship refers to nationality in relation to the Nigerian state, whereas indigeneity relates to identity, culture, ancestral ties, and legitimate claims to land and self-determination within subnational entities”.

The group cited examples of federations around the world that maintain both citizenship and native rights without conflict, such as Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. “Nigeria cannot pretend to be advancing ‘best global practices’ by forcibly erasing the foundational status of its indigenous populations through legislation.”

TYF further highlighted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which Nigeria voted for in 2007 and guarantees the rights of indigenous peoples to determine their identity and membership, land and territories traditionally owned or otherwise occupied, and freedom from forced assimilation or destruction of culture.

“The Bill does not promote unity but seeks to forcibly engineer a national identity at the cost of indigenous sovereignty, legal precedent, and social stability. That is unacceptable and must be rejected,”