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….Says Certificates of Origin are Certificates of Disunity, Calls for Creation of ‘Ministry of Belonging’

Nigeria’s fragile union faces a dangerous test as an Apostle and Nation Builder, Citizen Bolaji O. Akinyemi has raised the alarm over what he described as the growing clash between “indigene identity” and “constitutional citizenship,” warning that Lagos has become the mirror of this national contradiction.

In a hard-hitting statement titled “Ownership of Lagos and the Rest of Nigeria: Indigene Identity vs. Constitutional Citizenship,” Akinyemi, who is also the President Voice of His Word Ministries and Convener Apostolic Round Table, declared that the country cannot survive if Nigerians continue to be treated as strangers in their own land.

“Every time we ask for Certificate of Origin, we tear a Certificate of Unity. Nigeria cannot be one nation on paper and 36 nations in practice,” he charged.

The Constitution vs. Ancestry Walls

According to the BoT Chairman, Project Victory Call Initiative (PVC Naija) and a strategic Communicator and the CEO of the Masterbuilder Communications, the Nigerian Constitution clearly guarantees every citizen the right to live, work, own property, and seek opportunity anywhere within the federation. Yet in practice, Nigerians are still chained to bloodline tests, ancestry walls, and Certificates of Origin that undermine unity.

He traced the crisis to the Land Use Decree of 1978, later enshrined in the 1979 and 1999 Constitutions as the Land Use Act, which vested land ownership in governors to be held “in trust.”

While the decree was conceived to simplify ownership and curb speculation, Akinyemi said it entrenched “a militarist ideology” in land administration, stripped traditional rulers of ancestral authority, and fuelled corruption, bureaucracy, and exclusion.

“In Yoruba land, our kings lost their unquestionability over land, stripped by fiat of ancestral authority,” he noted.

Lagos as the Test Case

Akinyemi described Lagos as the perfect case study of inclusive belonging, stressing that the city only became Nigeria’s economic heartbeat because it welcomed outsiders.

“Lagos did not rise to greatness by shutting people out. Its strength came from Egba and Ijebu traders, Nupe and Hausa merchants, Igbo entrepreneurs, Brazilian returnees—all of whom found home here,” he said.

But he warned that current proposals such as those by the Youth Empowerment and Protection Council (YEPC), which seek to restrict land ownership to indigenes, threaten to undermine that legacy.

“Such ideas are not merely unconstitutional; they are anti-development. They whisper to millions of Nigerians: you may be a citizen in law, but you are a stranger in practice,” he warned.

“A Certificate of Exclusion”

On the debate over Certificates of Origin, Akinyemi was blunt: “A Certificate of Origin is a certificate of exclusion. It tells a Nigerian child born in Lagos but of parents from elsewhere: you may grow here, but you cannot belong here. True fairness is built on equal citizenship, not ancestry walls.”

He also described as ironic the attitude of Nigerian elites who deny citizenship by residency at home but fight to have their children born abroad for citizenship by birth. “If bloodline were the measure of belonging, America would never have produced Barack Obama. Contribution—not lineage—must define citizenship,” he argued.

Heritage vs. Unity

Addressing those who insist that protecting indigene rights requires restricting others, Akinyemi replied: “The real stranger in Nigeria is injustice, not your neighbour. The Constitution already protects culture and heritage. What it forbids is discrimination.”

He further cautioned that heritage is strongest when shared, adding: “A Yoruba proverb says: A kii f’omo eni ju’ta, ka fi omo olomo se’yan—you don’t reject your own child to exalt another’s. If a Brazilian-Nigerian can dream and be fulfilled in Lagos, why should an Igbo-Nigerian be stopped in Lagos, or a Yoruba-Nigerian be stopped in Sokoto from becoming Medical Director of a federal hospital?”

Residency as True Loyalty

He dismissed the claim that residency can never equal indigeneship. “Residency is the truest test of loyalty. If I live, pay tax, vote, and contribute to a state for 20 years, am I less loyal than someone who left his village 30 years ago but still claims indigeneship? We must reward contribution, not ancestry,” he said.

Call for a Ministry of Belonging

To address the challenge, Akinyemi proposed the establishment of a Ministry of Belonging—an evolved Interior Ministry tasked with ensuring that no Nigerian is treated as a foreigner in their own country.

According to him, such a ministry should replace exclusionary papers like Certificates of Origin with a National Citizenship Card and serve as arbiter in identity disputes.

“Unity is never built by drawing tighter tribal circles. It is built by widening the circle of nationhood,” he stressed.

“Lagos Belongs to No One Because Lagos Belongs to Everyone”

Summing up his position, Akinyemi declared: “Lagos belongs to no one because Lagos belongs to everyone. Until Nigeria learns that lesson, we will remain a country of neighbours, not citizens.”

Looking ahead, he emphasised: “Our children don’t need a lineage test; they need a citizenship guarantee. If we fix that, Nigeria will stop being a geography and start being a nation.”

The Survival Question

For Akinyemi, this is no academic debate but a matter of national survival. “Nigeria will either rise to the challenge of inclusive citizenship—or collapse under the weight of exclusionary identity,” he concluded.

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