Introduction: Recently, the leadership of the De Renaissance Patriots Foundation (DRPF) attended—by invitation—what was presented as a stakeholders’ consultation meeting on the decision of the Lagos State Government to move the issuance of Indigeneship Certification to itself, contrary to the constitutional rights vested in Local Governments and traditional institutions to do so. The state government is planning to transition the issuance from physical to digital formats, and the Lagos indigenes group’s position presented at the meeting is as follows:
The De Renaissance Patriots Foundation (DRPF) is committed to protecting the heritage, identity, and rights of indigenous Lagosians. We were invited to present our position on a proposal to transfer the issuance of indigene certificates from traditional institutions to a ministry.
After careful study and consultation with elders, historians, and stakeholders across all original Lagos communities, DRPF firmly opposes this proposed transfer. The issuance of indigene certificates is an ancestral function, inseparable from traditional institutions, which hold knowledge of lineage, family migration, community origins, genealogies, and historical legitimacy.
The role of traditional institutions in determining indigeneity
Traditional rulers and chieftaincy families are custodians of lineage records going back centuries—an authority that no ministry or modern administrative body can possess. They hold cultural and spiritual knowledge of the original land-owning families, historic settlements, clan roots, inter-family histories, migration patterns, and ancestral claims. This knowledge exists in oral traditions, royal archives, and family histories, not in government files.
Moving the indigene certification to the Ministry would open the door to:
• Political manipulation,
• Monetisation of certificates,
• The creation of “new indigenes,”
• Infiltration by dominant migrant groups, and
• The weakening of indigenous rights.
Scholars describe this as a form of “genocide by migration”—the gradual erasure of the original people through administrative dilution.
Why the proposed policy is dangerous
No other state in Nigeria has transferred indigene certification away from traditional rulers, and Lagos should not be the first.
Taking away this ancestral authority would:
• Weaken the standing of indigenous people,
• Reduce their ability to defend their heritage,
• Make them strangers in their own land, and
• Empower non-indigenes to claim equal ancestral status.
Legally, the Nigerian Constitution and the Federal Character Commission Act require legitimate indigenous certification for recruitment, representation, and appointment. Only traditional institutions can validate who is truly from where. A ministry-issued certificate lacks cultural legitimacy and could be challenged nationally.
The move also appears to be part of a broader agenda to weaken traditional institutions, reduce their influence, strip them of ancestral powers, and render them insignificant in governance, even though they are central to Lagos’ cultural, social, and historical identity.
Specific concerns
The policy:
• Promotes administrative dilution that could replace original Lagos indigenes with recent settlers,
• Diminishes the powers of Obas and Baales,
• Enables the state to manufacture indigenes in migrant-dominated areas, and
• Allows descendants of recent settlers to claim equal ancestral status with founding families.
Civil servants cannot verify family roots or lineages, and this policy risks unnecessary conflict between ministries and traditional authorities, thereby violating the cultural autonomy and identity of indigenous people.
DRPF positions:
• Traditional institutions must retain exclusive authority to issue indigene certificates.
• The Ministry may assist with digitalisation or verification frameworks but must not assume issuance powers.
• Any reforms should be undertaken in collaboration with traditional rulers, not as a replacement.
• The historical rights of indigenous Lagosians must be protected from administrative dilution.
Muftah Bolaji Are is the President of DRPF and Engr. (Dr.) AbdulLateef Onikoyi is a Member, Steering Committee, DRPF
