In societies still battling the shadows of their own history, belonging can sometimes feel like a privilege rather than a right. Nigeria stands at such a crossroads. To the casual observer, the idea of residency, the notion that wherever one has lived, contributed, and identified for long enough, should become one’s civic home, should be a straightforward instrument of national integration. Yet, in the Nigerian imagination, it remains a deeply contested concept, forever caught between the fear of domination and the possibility of true participation.
Residency and the Nigerian mind: Between fear of domination and the hope of integration, By Bolutife Oluwadele
