For 40 years, Nigeria has separated its citizens into two categories, ‘indigenes’ and ‘non-indigenes’. Indigene citizens can trace their genealogical roots back to a community in a locality. All local governments (LGs) in Nigeria issue certificates of indigene, which give access to the job market and university. This issuance of certificate of indigene has received scant academic attention despite the centrality of the indigeneity issue in Nigeria. In the two last decades, issuing certificates has become part of the political tensions and mass violence in Plateau State (Jos) as politicians and bureaucrats have transformed certificates to exclude most of the population from the local citizenship. Through an ethnographic approach, this article explores how a politics of suspicion can contribute to the growing literature on legal identification. Focusing on local authorities helps in understanding the centrality of suspicion in the making of new undocumented citizens which are not minority groups (foreigners, migrants and asylum seekers) usually targeted by national authorities. The complicated procedures to get certificates and the production of fake ones are an outcome of this politics of suspicion. The article also shows that a locally paper-based bureaucracy could expand at the same time as—and while being disconnected from—biometric identification.

中文翻译：

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尼日利亚的无证公民和身份证件的制作：乔斯怀疑政治的民族志

40 年来，尼日利亚将其公民分为两类，“土著”和“非土著”。土著公民可以将他们的家谱追溯到当地的社区。尼日利亚的所有地方政府 (LG) 都会颁发土著证书，从而可以进入就业市场和上大学。尽管土著问题在尼日利亚很重要，但这种土著证书的颁发却很少受到学术界的关注。在过去的两个十年中，颁发证书已成为高原州 (Jos) 政治紧张局势和大规模暴力的一部分，因为政客和官僚们已经改变了证书，将大多数人口排除在当地公民之外。通过人种学方法，本文探讨了怀疑政治如何为不断增长的法律识别文献做出贡献。关注地方当局有助于理解怀疑在制造新的无证公民时的中心地位，这些新公民不是国家当局通常针对的少数群体（外国人、移民和寻求庇护者）。获取证书的复杂程序和制造假证书是这种怀疑政治的结果。这篇文章还表明，本地纸质官僚机构可以与生物特征识别同时扩展，但同时与生物特征识别脱节。获取证书的复杂程序和制造假证书是这种怀疑政治的结果。这篇文章还表明，本地纸质官僚机构可以与生物特征识别同时扩展，但同时与生物特征识别脱节。获取证书的复杂程序和制造假证书是这种怀疑政治的结果。这篇文章还表明，本地纸质官僚机构可以与生物特征识别同时扩展，但同时与生物特征识别脱节。