ECOWAS calls for an end to statelessness in Africa.

Jose Canhandular UNHCR representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS has asked leaders of the ECOWAS
member states to do more to tackle the issues of statelessness in Africa by ensuring proper registration
of persons at birth.
Canhandular disclosed this during the #IBELONG campaign organised by the UNHCR in Abuja.
He added that every person has the right to a Nationality therefore those who have the knowledge
should educate those who don’t so that by 2024 every one will belong to a Nationality and statelessness
will be eradicated.
He further expressed concern over the internally displaced persons in Nigeria especially those displaced
in Borno state by Boko Haram , they have no means of identification neither from Nigeria nor from
Cameroun and have no prove to that effect.
Meanwhile the former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission Chidi Odim Kalu has called
on the federal government to ensure Nigeria has in place a Nationality and citizenship law so that the
#IBELONG campaign can be a success.
He added that Government must also have an accurate data, acknowledge enumeration and
institutional progression ‘why is it difficult to know you’re Nigerian ? Why do we have to find it difficult
to have access to birth registration? If you cannot prove where you’re born that’s the beginning of
statelessness.
Odim-Kalu said if the citizenship law is in place the Bakkasi peninsular issue that displaced over 300,000
people who were rejected by Cameroon government and Nigerian government as well, wouldn’t have
thrown these people to a situation of statelessness.