The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has expressed worry at the stateless status accorded abandoned children without any known parentage.
He reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to joining the global effort to eliminate statelessness.
The minister gave the affirmation when he featured at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja on Sunday.
Statelessness is the non-recognition of people, who either by the circumstance of their birth or condition of their stay have no right and privileges of citizens.
Aregbesola said it was imperative for Nigeria to join the global call to end statelessness, being a signatory to the International Treaty on the elimination of statelessness.
On Sept. 2, the Federal Government constituted a National Action Plan and High Level Steering Committee to eradicate statelessness in Nigeria.
According to the minister, the seriousness of the issue is such that even abandoned children without any known parentage are automatically regarded as stateless persons.
“That is the most harrowing part of it. What is the crime of that child? The child is innocent. It’s just unfortunate for the child to have been abandoned and for that such a child is not a citizen of any country?
“All rights and privileges are denied the child for a crime the child does not even know anything about, outside the fact that the child is born and is abandoned.
“People, who because of either natural disaster, war or famine move to another territory and have no identity you can tie them to, they are stateless?’’
Aregbesola noted, however, that the development had raised global concerns, prompting the world to come together to eliminate it within a given time frame, which Nigeria was signatory to.
The minister said that based on the treaty, the Federal Government immediately swung into action by setting up a national action committee.
He said that the committee would pursue the goals of the treaty vigorously, to abolish statelessness in Nigeria.
