Internally Displaced Persons and the Law in Nigeria

Aderomola Adeola, Romola Adeola

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9780367703837
• eBook ISBN: 9781000513462
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Law Theory & Practice
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book examines the national legal frameworks in place for internally displaced people in Nigeria and considers how they can be extended to provide further legal protection.

Despite a growing global awareness of the importance of developing solutions to the problem of internal displacement, how that translates to national level response is often under-researched. This book focuses on Nigeria, where conflict and violence continue to drive high levels of displacement. The book begins by examining the definitions and causes of internal displacement in the national context, before considering the state of national law, and the applicability of the Kampala Convention for furthering protection and assistance for internally displaced persons.

This book will be of interest to researchers of African studies and internal displacement, as well as to policy makers, civil society organizations, humanitarian actors and other regional and international stakeholders.

1 Context

DOI: 10.4324/9781003146025-1

1.1 Introduction

The issue of internal displacement has emerged as a major issue in contemporary Nigerian society. Given the prevalence of the challenge in many parts of the country, the need to provide a significant solution to the issue has emerged. This resonates both in relation to the magnitude of those displaced and the plethora of issues that account for internal displacement in the country. While internal displacement in post-colonial Nigeria is a challenge that dates to the early periods of independence, notably the Biafran civil war from 1967–1970,¹ contemporary Nigeria has significantly experienced a wave of growing internal displacement concerns, from the insurgent activities of the Boko Haram group to the onset of natural disasters including climate change. While there is a prevalent consensus that addressing the issue of internal displacement is imperative, knowing who these persons are is fundamental to curating solutions. This is because the protection dimension of these persons is not covered by refugee law. Rather, internally displaced persons (IDPs) remain within the borders of the state of displacement and as such protection is primarily with states in which they are displaced.

Over the last two decades, a plethora of research has flourished on the importance of legal protection for IDPs in various parts of the world. Precipitated on the wheels of global protection through the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (Guiding Principles),² there is now a consensus that these persons are a category of forced migrants for which protection and assistance are essential.³ Within several national contexts, understanding the nature of existing legal protection has become imperative as a step towards fostering sustainable solutions. This is also an imperative in the Nigerian context given the prevalence of the issue and the pertinence of finding durable solutions to the issue of internal displacement. It is within this context that this book finds expression, considering the law on internal displacement in Nigeria.

1.2 Migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons: clarification

Integral to the history of societies is migration and human mobilities. And this narrative evidently resonates in the way in which societies across Africa have been formed. Embedded in the histories of the plurality of cultures across Nigeria is the diversity of movement from within and outside the continent.

Pre-colonially for instance, the narrative of mobilities was conditioned upon ‘trade, trade routes, markets, religions, diplomacy, wars, conquests and slave trade’.⁴ For instance, the founding figure of the Borgu royal lineages – which spanned parts of the north-west region of Nigeria and the northern parts of Benin – was said to have originally migrated from Persia (pre-Islamic Iran).⁵ This founding figure (Kisra) derived his name from ‘the term Kisrā, which is used in classical Arabic sources as the title of the Sasanian rulers of pre-Islamic Iran.’⁶ A cursory look at the histories of other notable empires and kingdoms including the Ibibio Kingdom, the Kanem-Bornu empire, the Nri Kingdom, the Oyo empire and the Kwararafa Kingdom reflect the centrality of mobilities to the socio-cultural formation and emergence of the Nigerian state.⁷

Movements during the colonial epoch were mostly linked to colonial capital given the emergence of export-oriented plantations. As such, in this period, labour migration was a prevalent feature. Aworawo observes, for instance, that from ‘the mid-1930s, Nigerians came to dominate the labor that sustained Equatorial Guinea’s cocoa and coffee plantation’.⁸ Sundiata observes that by the year 1941 ‘there were 10,000 Nigerians already on Bioko. This number increased throughout the decade. In 1954–1955 a very conservative estimate of the total number of Nigerian migrants on the island was “about 15,800”’.⁹ However, by the mid-1960s, Nigerians comprised about 85,000 of 100,000 people on the island, ‘two-thirds of these Nigerians were Igbo-, Ibibio-, and Efik-speaking’.¹⁰ At least three factors drove this narrative. According to Sundiata ‘recruiters were generously paid by Spanish officials and employers. Second, there was pressure to pay taxes to the British colonial administration in Nigeria. And third, there was demographic pressure’.¹¹ But this was not solely the reality in Nigeria. Across various parts of the continent, there were seasonal movements to farms, mines and plantations with and across borders, that were sometimes strictly induced by the colonial administration.

With the attainment of political independence and the emergence of colonial nation-states, the narrative on movements began to shift towards the consolidation of national identities as constructed in national immigration policies and programs. With the retention of the Berlin borders, the post-colonial state redefined patterns of movement along the lines of national belonging. And this significantly shaped the socio-economic narrative, in some instances resulting in toxic exclusions and the negative labelling of those who did not belong to the legally constructed notion of citizenship and nationality. According to Peil, the ‘achievement of independence, provided several countries with an opportunity to get rid of “strangers” in their midst’.¹² For instance, Peil observes that ‘Ghana deported some Nigerians in 1954, and some Voltaics [Burkinabés] in 1961, because “their presence was not conducive to the public good”’.¹³ The undulations in national economic development were also in certain instances, conflated with the presence of non-nationals. And this resulted in cases of mass expulsions, for instance, of non-nationals including Ghanaians from Nigerians in the 1980s.¹⁴ According to Aluko,¹⁵

The parlous state of the economy had also contributed to the expulsion order. As a result of the combination of mismanagement, inefficiency, and unparalleled official corruption, and the glut in oil world market, the economy that was relatively buoyant throughout most of the seventies slumped by early 1981. Instead of the real growth rate of 7.2 per cent envisaged under the Four Year Development Plan 1981–5 there was only a growth rate of 2 per cent in 1981, and this fell below 1 per cent in 1982. The balance of payments surplus of the country that stood at ₦2,402.6 billion in 1980 turned to a deficit of ₦1,500 million in 1982. The foreign reserves of the country that amounted to ₦5,648.2 million in December 1980 had fallen to about ₦780 million at the end of 1982. The public debt that stood at ₦9,922.3 million in 1980 had risen to ₦12 billion at the end of 1982.

The austerity measures that were introduced in April 1982 had done little to improve the economy. Inflation in 1982 reached a record level of over 25 per cent. Unemployment (including graduate unemployment) had reached an alarming proportion of nearly 20 per cent of the work force. And more unemployment was daily being created by manufacturing and construction companies who could not easily import raw materials and spare parts, because of the austerity measures of the Shagari government. Given all these factors, then, expelling the illegal aliens must have been tempting if partly as a scape-goat measure for the failures of the government and partly as a popular move to create jobs for thousands of Nigerians in an election year. Alhaji Ali Baba said on 25 January 1983 that one of the reasons for the expulsion order was to create job opportunities for Nigerians.

The post-colonial preservation of the in-group and out-group narratives on identities with evident colonial links shaped the laws and policies of newly independent states from the early periods of independence. Over the last decades, national governance of migration and mobilities has been orchestrated through prisms of national security and in some instances, criminal justice.¹⁶ However, these approaches are mostly a consequence of negative binaries and systemic crisis of reception and mobilities management.

The existence of uneven patterns of laws and practices on migration and mobilities across the continent has led to an increasing call for effective governance at various levels that addresses the causes of movement (specifically in contexts where these are negative), protect various categories of persons (along the spectrum of voluntary to forcibly moved populations) and reinforce the continental drive towards unification. In developing solutions, it is useful to underscore the fact that the causes for migration and mobilities are not monolithic and this suggests an inherent complexity.

The patterns of migration and mobilities evidently reinforce the fact that there are several reasons why people move. While many of the movements in pre-colonial times were directed towards seizing on new opportunities, there were movements brought about by inter-tribal conflicts such as in the conquest of lands and territories. Moreover, there was the trans-Atlantic slave trade in which an estimated ‘12.5 million people were forced out of Africa’.¹⁷ As earlier observed, during the colonial era, labour-oriented mobilities were a significant feature. Though there were also forced movements due to inter-tribal wars, uprisings against colonial administrations and clashes. In post-colonial Africa, voluntary and involuntary dimensions of mobilities have also emerged linked to a plethora of factors including labour, conflict, socio-economic opportunities, education, and in more recent years, disasters linked to climate change. In the Revised Migration Policy Framework for Africa and Plan of Action (Revised Migration Policy Framework for Africa), it is observed that¹⁸

The root causes of migration in Africa are numerous and inter-related. The push-pull framework provides insight into this complex web of factors. Lack of socio-economic opportunities and the rule of law, poor governance, patronage and corruption, political instability, conflict, terrorism and civil strife are major push factors. Pull factors include the real or perceived opportunities for a better life, higher income, improved security, and superior education and health care in countries of destination. The push-pull dynamic is intensified by a number of other factors that facilitate migration. These include the lower costs of migration; improved communication, especially social media and the internet; greater information availability; and the need to join relatives, families and friends. The movement of people – voluntary or forced, legal or undocumented, within or across borders – is a complex process that affects policy making in a wide range of areas.

And along the verse spectrum of causes of migration and mobilities, normative frameworks have also defined categories and structured governance. In this context, the use of the word ‘migration’ or the term ‘migrants’ is often employed with respect to populations moving voluntarily. While such movements may be internal, much of the emphasis of migration governance from global and regional perspectives relates to the international dimension of these forms of movement. Within this context, movements may be regular or irregular. The spectrum of regular movements is often defined with reference to immigration laws and policies. Within this context are a broad group, based on national normative systems, which may include migrant workers, students, permanent or temporary residents and other categories of persons whose presence in a country are through the regular pathways provided within normative frameworks at national, bilateral or multilateral levels. In...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• 1 Context
• 2 Internal displacement in Nigeria
• 3 Applicable frameworks on internally displaced persons in Nigeria
• 4 Reflection on the National Policy on internally displaced persons, 2021
• 5 Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index