D aniela P etrell
Steps 1 and 3 pertain to the user interface, while step 2 is concerned with more technical issues (i.e software architecture, searching algorithms) Inspecting each component separately allows locating where the problem
72 The Dynamics o f Inter-group Relations in Nigeria Since 1960
a nation with ethnic relations. This heterogeneous character has engendered the challenge of managing these contradictions by the Nigerian state, and the conflicts/crises provoked by these contradictions have not only strained democratic governance but have continued to challenge the continued existence of Nigeria as a corporate entity.
Since the introduction of the “indigenity clause” into the Nigerian statute book through the 1979 constitution, there has been a phenomenal increase in ethnicity-induced communal conflicts in the country. Whatever might have been the good motive behind the introduction of the clause into the Nigerian public laws has been defeated by the massive volume of wanton destruction of lives and property that accompany outbreaks of violence on account of crisis of identity generated by the indigene/settler dichotomy. At the core of the native/settler syndrome is the quality” of citizenship and its attendant opportunities and privileges. It has both inclusive and exclusionary characters which confer benefits and costs to persons so defined as natives and settlers”. These benefits and costs refer to political advantages and marginalization which the natives and settlers respectively are exposed to in the scheme of things within the political community. This brings to the fore the fact that material advantage is the major driving force of the indigene/settler animosity. The animosity is no respecter of religious affiliation as groups belonging to the same faith have disregarded their common religious identity in their quest for primitive accumulation. Reflecting on the perennial conflicts between the Tiv and the Jukun, Abdullahi Adamu rightly observes that:
The Jukun and the Tiv are mostly Christians. If religious differences were the sources of the inter-ethnic problems, these two tribes would live in total harmony with one another as Christian brothers and sisters. Crises in other communities where people are of the same religious persuasion show that the bond of religious affinity is often not strong enough to hold people together in the unending contest for social, economic and political advantages.1
A. Adamu, Ethnic Conflicts in Nigeria”. Paper presented at the Presidential Retreat on Peace and Conflict Resolution held at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, 2002, January 23-26.
Identity Crisis and Indigene-Settler Question in Nigeria 73
From the conflict between the Mambilla people and the Banso/Kumba people to the crisis in Kataf area of Kaduna State between the Hausa on the one hand and other communal groups such as Baju and Kataf on the other, the conflict between the Kuteb and Chamba in Taraba State, to the unending cycle of communal clashes involving the Egburra, Bassa and Gbagyi people of Nasarawa State, the settler/indigene syndrome has pitched communities that have hitherto lived in harmony against each other.
The hopes and expectations nursed by many people that conflicts rooted in identity would abate upon return to civil rule have been dashed. In fact, there has been a dramatic upsurge in the incidences of ethnic and religious conflicts since the inauguration of the Fourth Republic in May 1999. This singular fact challenges the thesis that democratic rule provides the best context to manage ethnically defined differences. It is now increasingly becoming clear that the existing constitutional provisions and policy framework have grossly failed to adequately manage the challenges of Nigeria’s pluralist formation.
This paper investigates the conundrum of citizenship in Nigeria. It has twin objectives. First, it interrogates the crisis of citizenship in the Nigerian state with a view to bringing to the fore how citizenship has been used as an “exclusionary” tool to disempower and marginalize Nigerians politically, economically and socially. Second, the paper suggests some policy and constitutional proposals by which citizenship could be used to promote equity, fairness as well as good inter- and intra-group relations all of which have implications for the nation-state project.
C o lo n ia l r o o t s o f I d e n tity C risis
Colonialism could be regarded as the foundation of identity question in Nigeria in two major senses. The first sense is the separate legal regime adopted by the British to govern colonizers and the colonized. The second sense is the nurturing of hostile and divisive feelings in the various ethnic constituencies in Nigeria through colonial policies which
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
pitched the various ethnic groups against one another in confrontation.
The British created two legal orders — civil and customary — which had implications for enjoyment of rights and privileges. The white settlers (Europeans) were to be governed under the civil law which conferred rights on them because civil law was rooted in respect for the rule of law and rights. Under the civil law regime marked by separation of governmental powers, the settlers were regarded as citizens who were entitled to all the rights that accompany citizenship. O n the other hand, the natives (Nigerians) were governed by the customary law under the charge of Native Authority. Under this system, the natives were treated as subjects who were not entitled to rights. Powers were fused in the traditional rulers which exposed the natives to the despotism of the rulers. This settler/native divide created what Mamdani calls a bifurcated state which favoured the settlers and disfavoured the natives.
In addition to legal dualism, administrative practice of the colonial state also encouraged identity consciousness. As Olukoshi and Laakso observe, .... Colonial domination rested on a system of divide and rule which created or intensified suspicion among different ethnic groups, religions and regions politically, economically and even culturally at the expense of others”* 3 *. In its efforts to consolidate itself, the colonial state promoted the feeling of us versus them” in the management of the pluralist Nigerian society which resulted in the creation of animosity among the diverse groups that constituted the multiethnic Nigerian society under colonialism. As demonstrated by Jega, “religious, regional and ethnic differences were given prominence in development policies and projects under the indirect rule system of colonial administration favoured by the British. Thus, the differential impact of colonialism set the context of the regional, educational, economic and political imbalances which later became significant in the mobilization or manipulation of identity consciousness in order to effectively divide and
\
M. Mamdani, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy o f late colonialism. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996).
3 A. Olukoshi and L. Laakso, Challenges to the Nation-State in Africa. /Uppsala- NTA 1996).
/4 l he Dynamics o f Inter-group Relations in Nigeria Since 1960 Identity Crisis and Indigent Settilf Qneition in Nigeria 75
rule, as well as in the politics of decolonization and in the arena of competitive politics in the post-colonial era ....”< ll is within this context that one can explain the inter-regional mobilization of identity to capture power in the period before and after formal independence.
It is however tragic that almost five decades after the termination of colonial rule, categorization of citizens as natives or settlers still enjoys prominence in Nigeria’s public administration. Rather than the post colonial Nigerian state coming up with policy and constitutional measures aimed at managing the pluralist character of the Nigerian society in a manner that gives sense of belonging to the constituent groups, it has only succeeded in re-dividing the natives under colonialism into post colonial settlers and post colonial natives.
N a t u r e o f I d e n tity P o litic s in N ig e r ia n P u b lic L ife In the words of Jeffrey Week,
Identity is about belonging, about what you have in common with some people and what differentiates you from others. At its most basic, it gives you a sense of personal location, the stable core to your individuality...6
Some of the attributes of identity include commitment to a cause, love and trust for a group, emotional tie to a group and obligations and responsibilities in relation to membership of a group identified with by an individual.7 Identity politics, according to Alemika, represents an
4 A. Jega, Identity Transformation and Identity Politics Under Structural Adjustment in Nigeria. (Uppsala and Kano: Nordiska Stitutet and Centre for Research and Documentation, 2000).
5 M. Mamdani, “Beyond Settler and Native as Political Identities: Overcoming the Political Legacy of Colonialism” in Peter Ozo-Eson and Ukoha Ukiwo, Ideology and African Development. Proceedings of the Third Memorial Programme in honour of Prof. Claude Ake. PortHarcourt and Abuja: CASS & AFRIGOV, 2001.
<• J. Week, “The Value of Difference” in J. Rutherford, Identity, Community and Difference (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1991).
7 A. Jega, Identity Transformation and Identity Politics Under Structural Adjustment in Nigeria. (Uppsala and Kano: Nordiska Stitutet and Centre for Research and Documentation, 2000).
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
/ u m e uynam ics o f Inter-group Relations in Nigeria Since I960
emotional response by groups to social problems in a multi-cultural society which affords disadvantaged groups to demonize other groups for their circumstances.8 Politics of identity is targeted at claimed identities of its proponents in the context of inter-group political struggles to access the state and, ipso facto, sites of accumulation in a multiethnic political community. Identities inform and give meaning to social and/or political action in a plural society. Conflicts generated by inter-group contestations for state power and resources have become a recurring phenomenon in the historical development of Nigeria. The root of these conflicts is the practice of denying certain groups rights and opportunities including access to land simply because such groups are perceived as not being indigenous to a particular geographical space which may be a state or a local government area.
Identity conflicts rooted in the distinction between natives/
indigenes and settlers/strangers do not only occur in urban and rural contexts, with intimidating ferocity, they also assume intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic character. Thus, while both rural areas and urban centres have become sites of identity-related conflicts in Nigeria, particularly since the restoration of civil rule in 1999 after prolonged years of military dictatorship, the dimension of identity conflicts has also changed as groups who hitherto lived together as homogenous groups are taking up arms against each other. Examples that typify the new dimension are the recurring Ife/Modakeke crisis and the Aguleri/
Umuleri conflict in Osun and Anambra states respectively. We will later in this paper examine the patterns and consequences of some of these conflicts.
The bug of identity politics and the concomitant crisis it spawns has caught even the public university system in Nigeria. The university which is supposed to be a site of knowledge production and a detnbalized public institution has been corrupted by ethnic and other
E. Alemika, “Ethnic Minorities in Nigeria: Constitutional Democratic Framework
° r Aut° n°m y and Local Self-Governance" in Nankin Bagudu and Dakas C. Dakas, The Right to be Different: Perspectives on Minority Rights, the Cultural Middle Belt and Constitutionalism in Nigeria (Jos: League for Human Rights, 2002).
Identity Crisis and Indigene-Settler Question in Nigeria 77
primordial interests in a manner that erodes the capacity of the university to serve as a source of elite recruitment and circulation as well as a source of manpower for national development. In many public universities today - federal and state - ethnic considerations are given prominence in'the appointment of principal officers including the Vice Chancellor. This clearly violates the selection process for such appointment as contained in the statutory provisions governing public university. The scenario is more scandalous in state-owned universities where preferential policies designed consciously to facilitate the emergence of “indigenes” for such positions are put in place. As documented by Jinadu (2003), the Governing Council of Lagos State University expressly stated in the advertisement for the post of Vice Chancellor in 1996 that applicants for the job must be Lagos state indigenes which ultimately denied qualified candidates from other states of the federation the opportunity of competing for the job even if they were resident in Lagos.9 This kind of practice precipitates inter-group animosities in many Ivory towers across the country.
C r is is o f C itiz e n s h ip in th e N ig e r ia n S ta te
Citizenship is a status bestowed on those who are full members of a community. All those who possess the status are equal with respect to the rights and duties with which the status is endowed.10 Citizenship, however defined, entails enjoyment of political rights and civic obligations making it to be reciprocal in nature. It involves both the claims that an individual makes as a citizen of a particular political community and the duties of the individual towards the reproduction of the community. These duties include but not limited to participation in the management of public affairs, defence of the territorial integrity of the community and enhancing the economic capacity of the community through payment of taxes or other levies.
’ A. Jinadu, “Democratization, Development and the Identity Crists in Nigeria . Paper delivered at the 2nd Annual Lecture of Department of Sociology, University of Lagos,
July 30,2003. . _
10 T. Marshal, Citizenship and Social Class (Cambridge: Cambridge University 1 ress, 1950).
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
■' Kciations in Nigeria Since 1960
in C|T S ° f CitiZeni . ip in contemPorary Nigeria has its root not n he qualification for Nigerian nationality and rights and privileges hat go with it as the requisite conditions for acquiring Nigerian citizenship are clearly stated in Chapter 3 (Sections 25-27) of the 1999 presidential constitution. The real problem of citizenship in Nigeria is ocated ,n the politicization of citizenship through the distinction that is made between citizens and indigenes ^ ^ ^ ^
I n d k e n f h " ^ “ .Un,V"rsal citizenship and local citizenship, lgeneship is conceived as being exclusive accommodating only th o « who can claim nativity of a particular geo-political space aid thus «
garded as owners of the land” or “sons of the soil”. The indigenes tend to claim absolute control of public affairs within the geo-political space and this control, according to Alubo, “includes who gets what political appointments and in many cases, who runs for what political office !n effect the indigenes are first class citizens and the others are second class At the heart of citizenship question in Nigeria is the recognition of indigemty as the basis of enjoyment of rights and entitlements. For one to be considered an indigene, he or she must be a native of a particular geographical space while to be considered a citizen one must be an indigene. If one is able to make claim to a p a n ic u ^ geographical space it becomes a license to access power and resources within that space. All those who cannot make such claim are regarded as settlers/strangers that cannot be allowed to enjoy similar privileges.
us Momoh has noted “nativity or indigenity privileges people
while settler status disempowers.”12 6 P P
m a n
JJf
character implicit in the practice of citizenship in many African countries today should not, however, be seen as a peculiarAfrican disease . As demonstrated by Ntalaja, exclusionary character was inherent in the original legal definitions of citizenship in many countries of the North. According to him, citizenship was reserved for only free and native born men in the democratic Greek city-states while
p ° ‘ Alub° ’ E* T C- COn/llC‘S Und Citizenship Crises in the Central Region (Ibadan- Programme on Ethnic and Federal Studies, 2006). ^ (Ibadan.
P -A- A!’ “Even Birds Have a Home: Explaining the Patholog.es of the Citizenship Question in Nigeria”, EMPARC Annual Lecture. Series No. 7, 2001
Identity Crisis and Indigene Settler Question in Nigeria 79
in the Roman Empire, citizenship was initially restricted to only : -resident in Rome and was only extended to all free inhabitants of t empire in A.D. 212.13 Even in the United States, unarguably the most successful democracy in the world, African Americans were not regarded as American citizens and were not granted full voting rights until the emergence of Voting Rights Act of 1965 However w i e conscious efforts are being made in other regions of the world to addres the conundrum of citizenship through legal and non-legal measures, Africa’s governing elites, by their actions and inactions, are deepening the exclusionary character of citizenship practice on the continent with the aim of gaining political advantage over opposition candidates or parties as witnessed in Zambia and Ivory Coast, respectively, over the presidential ambitions of Kenneth Kaunda and Allassane Dramane 0 The “indigeneity” clause contained in Nigeria’s presidential constitution of 1979 was basically introduced to facilitate the implementation of the “federal character principle consciously designed^
to forestall the domination of national affairs by people from particular section(s) of the country. This may be a good intention on the part o the framers of 1979 constitution. However, the introduction of biological or ethnic criteria into qualification for indigene status through the requirement that one’s parents or grandparents must belong to a community indigenous to a state legitimises the exclusion of certain groups in the intra-elite competition for power, privileges an
opportunities.14 . . . . i ■ /
A major policy manifestation of indigeneship is the adoption introduction of “preferential policies” by state governments which may be in the form of laws and administrative rules aimed at favouring indigenes of the states ahead of indigenes of other states in competition for values. These policies violate certain provisions in the constitution
13 G. Nzongola-Ntalaja, G., Citizenship, Democratization and the State in Africa Adelakun, and O. Igbuzor, National Scientific Survey on the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic o f Nigeria. Citizens ’Forum for Constitutional Reform. Research Report, 2003.
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
.dating to the enjoyment of citizenship rights. Such provisions include section 15(2) of 1999 constitution which states that “.... National integration shall be actively encouraged whilst discrimination on the grounds of place of origin, sex, religion, status, ethnic or linguistic association or ties shall be prohibited”, and section 15(3) which p r i d e s that for the purpose of promoting national integration, it shall be the duty of the state to (a) provide adequate facilities for and encourage free s T u re 'h n Pe°5 e’ 800dr ndr SerV,CeS throu8hout the federation, (b) secure full residence rights for every citizen in all parts of the a'nd'the0" ' * “ ^ CO™binat;on of the P ^ tic e of preferential policies and the consequences the implementation of such policies has on non-indigenes that Jinadu refers to as “fractured citizenship”15. In another
intension, the way in which indigenity status is defined in Nigeria has led to the emergence of a multi-layered system of citizenship with l a v T r ^ A ^ T l ^ 7 ^ PrivileSes for occupants of each
r o l b " 8 M / erVed by EgWU’ multi-laye- d citizenship, apart om being capable of generating confusion and controversy “precludes the development of national unity and the evolution of a harmonious political community. 7
The actual practice of citizenship i„ Nigeria today creates a direct relationship between geographical space/location and quality of citizenship. As one moves out of a space he/she can claim indigenity, the quality of his/her citizenship (defined in terms of rights and
facli rfd ° r n r 7 her) dimi” ishes' This is the d ile m L being faced daily by millions of Nigerians. Women are the worst hit by these
b^IhT„SrhP"-re fr T T “ thcy are “ p0sed to discrimi„a,ion oth in their native homelands as well as in their husbands'. Against this
80 The Dynamics o f Inter-group Relations in Nigeria Since 1960
15 A. Jinadu, “Democratization, Development and the Identity Crisis in Nigeria- Paoer
is * '
2Ao”"i‘U c , u r e **&*•
‘ Citizens' Forum for Constitutional Reform, Memorandum submitted to the N i g e t y J o l 11" ° n Pr°Vm0n5f0r and o f Citizenship and Rights in 17 S- Egwu, “Citizenship and Ethnicity in a Federal State" in A.T. Gana and S.G Egwu
°fDemOCratlC Jersey: Afnca
Identity Crisis and Indigene-Settler Question in Nigeria 8 1
background, one cannot but concur with the assertion that Nigerian citizenship has different geographies.18 The dynamics of geographies of citizenship are partly captured in situations such as denial of scholarship awards to nonyindigenes, differential policy of tuition fees for indigenes and non-indigenes, non-employment of non-indigenes in the public sector or at best contract employment for non-indigenes. All these not only challenge the spirit of inclusive citizenship envisaged by the constitution, they make the attainment of nation-state an elusive project.
I n d i g e n e / S e t t l e r C r isis in N ig e r ia : A n O v e r v ie w
The explanation for native-settler dichotomy can be situated within two related contexts namely the ubiquity and immensity of state power and the uneven access to the sites of accumulation by different identity constituencies that constitute the multi-cultural Nigerian society. e immensity of state power is accentuated by the dominant and crucial role it plays in capital accumulation which makes state power ra i y attractive to the various factions of the governing elite. This largely explains the combative character of political contests for state power in Africa These contests were to become more intense in Nigeria with t e export earnings from oil in the 1970s which considerably expanded the revenue base of the Nigerian state. Within this context, identity-based politics becomes an instrument for power acquisition and retention y the ruling factions while those in the opposition mobilize identities to protest perceived injustice and marginalization in power equation. It is however paradoxical that, in spite of the gradual disengagement of the state from production and distribution as a result of market-base economic reform, the contest for the soul of the state has not become less intense. This further tellingly demonstrates the profitability of state power for accumulation and status security.
«• o. Abah, Geographies o f Citizenship in Nigeria (Zaria: Tamaza Publishing Co. Ltd,
2003).