Ethnic Nationalities And Emerging Challenges In Nigeria (1)

By Mike Ozekhome, SAN

INTRODUCTION

National unity is the most important factor that holds the country together. Nobody will fight for the strange people; nobody will care about the parted country and no country will develop and work together without the idea of national unity. After a wide research, one can confidently say that, Nigeria has over 400 ethnic groups, which ordinarily should amplify its rich culture but the reverse seems to be the case. These groups are broken down between religious, languages, and tribal lines. These divisions existed ever since but were further broken down at independence to a multiethnic nation state. With the divisions, the nation has been battling with the problem of ethnicity on the one hand, and the problem of ethnoreligious conflicts on the other, as has been witnessed severally when ethnicity and religious intolerance led to ethno-religious conflicts. However, according to historians, it was these conflicts that gave birth to many ethnic groups like the O’dua People Congress (OPC), Bakassi Boys, Egbesu Boys, Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC), Igbo People Congress (IPC), Arewa People’s Congress (APC), and Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). Since independence, Nigeria has experienced an avalanche of ethno religious conflicts that resulted in loss of lives and unquantifiable damages on properties. No doubt, the violent nature of ethno-religious conflicts, which often take the form of riots, sabotage, assassination, armed struggles, guerilla warfare and secession in Nigeria, have implications on the political and economic development of the nation. On Ethnic conflict According to reports, ethnic conflict is an issue that, particularly during the last decade or so, has crept to the forefront of international political debate.

Stremlau stated that, (1999-03-26:1), “polarization between ethnic groups and resulting conflict between them as they compete for resources, political and economic power and other goals, has spawned negative consequences of tremendous proportions, of which genocide, ethnic cleansing and civil war are but a few examples, have caused several losses of lives, livelihoods, displacements as well as properties”. An intriguing and or pertinent question to ask here would be, what really is the cause of all these incessant tribulations that seem to gain momentum every decade from one generation to the next generation? It can simply be put that, Ethnic conflicts in Nigeria and Africa in general, arise as result of scarcity of political resources, multi-culturalism, religion, militarization of ethnicity among others. These conflicts cannot be ignored as they are most times often initiated by people who benefit from control of state resources and power which are the bases of their patronage networks. Thus, they seek to instigate violent ethnic conflict. They often get away with this because of the high rate of unemployment, illiteracy, marginalization and an unequal distribution of the national wealth in the areas dominated by their ethnic groups. However, the most painful and regretful consequences of such ethno-crises have been far reaching. The parties always at the most detrimental end are the women and children.

One can simply put again that, the consequences of ethnic conflict on women, aged and children had the most damaging impact, thousands of women, the aged and children have been compelled to desert their homes and seek refuge in neighboring villages, towns and countries due to the ethnic conflict, they are internally displaced persons (IDPs) in their own country. Accordingly, the International Journal of Scientific Research in Multidisciplinary Studies further posited that “violence against women, the aged and children is devastating which include emotional and physical injuries, rape as a traumatic injury, sexually transmitted diseases, maternal mortality, unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortion and the use of child soldiers’ to fight in ethnic conflict. Truth be told, Ethnic conflict has certainly affected the government and the people generally and have resulted to political and economic instability, weakened patriotism, breed suspicion, lack of trust and true relationship among different ethnic groups in the country, and the only hope of a common man is to believe that responsive and responsible government would restore confidence among the population and promote de-Ethnicization policy among the competing ethnic groups in Nigeria. In Nigeria, the recent wave of ethnic-crises have become extremely alarming as it has become a daily routine practically across all geopolitical zones and states. Instances where we can draw inference from includes but not limited to, the raging and I dare to add, (a). Unending wars between Farmers and herdsmen, with the former bearing the brunt of the menace. (b). Gunmen recently attacked the Police Headquarters in Imo State, set several vehicles ablaze, and executed a jailbreak at the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) facility in the state capital, Owerri, where over 1,800 inmates escaped. (c). In Anambra, they attacked the Police Zonal Headquarters at Ukpo and killed two policemen while setting ablaze the compound. (d). In Ebonyi State, over 18 people were killed in an ethnic clash between locals and armed herdsmen. Same was also witnessed as Enugu State is not left out of the lot being that they experienced almost the same incident like Ebonyi Sate. (e). Again, another incident occurred at Shasha in Oyo State, an ethnic war followed the killing of a cobbler by a cart pusher that escalated to Ibarapa and some other parts of the state, leaving many people dead and properties destroyed. (f). The very heart-aching incidents that occurred in Ogun State, where some AK47- wielding herdsmen sacked remote agrarian villagers in Yewa North and Imeko Afon Local Government Areas (LGAs) such that surviving locals were reported to have fled to neighboring Benin Republic. And the list continues. So, the picture gets clearer with time. Africa’s largest oil and gas producer, Nigeria, has attracted negative international attention in recent years mainly because petroleum operations in the Niger Delta have created conditions for the eruption of major ‘civil disturbances’ and other forms of social conflict that threaten the country’s corporate existence. A number of issues foreground the conflict.

First, since 1956, when a commercial oil well was struck in the small rural town of Oloibiri (in Bayelsa State) – but particularly since 1958, when the country commenced crude oil export – Nigeria has grown steadily dependent on this resource for its export revenues. For instance, while oil accounted for 57 per cent of total export revenues in 1970, this proportion rose to 96 per cent (1980), 97 per cent (1990), 76 per cent (2000), and 92 per cent (2004) (OPEC 2005). Second, the Niger Delta is composed of minority ethnic nationalities (in a country demographically dominated by three largely non-oil-producing ethnic groups, namely Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo). Third, the Niger Delta is one of Nigeria’s most underdeveloped regions. Lastly, the ‘lack of development’ in the Delta belies the fact that the region’s petroleum wealth practically sustains the entire country. Grassroots discontent in the Niger Delta has found expression not simply in protest marches but in such acts as oil pipeline vandalism, abduction of oil company employees, and reprisals against community subgroups considered by local activists to be sympathetic to the Nigerian government and transnational oil interests.

Of late, armed confrontations with the national security forces have become prominent. All this has occurred amidst sustained environmental and civil rights activism spearheaded by local, national and international civil society groups, as well as the mass media. The Nigerian government has estimated the monthly cost of the Niger Delta crisis to be about US$1 billion in lost Petro-revenues. Now this The growing body of literature on the Niger Delta crisis does seem to underline one point: there is an ethnic undertone to the crisis. For one thing, the argument goes community groups in the Niger Delta regard the non-oil-producing regions (those of the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo) as the principal beneficiaries of federal petroleum exploitation and revenue sharing policies. The ethnic minorities of the Niger Delta are treated as objects (property) owned by the majority groups to be dealt with according to their whims and caprices. Therefore, however, otherwise the Niger Delta crisis disguises itself, there is a feeling in the re- gion about ethnic domination and hence the main target of grievances (and possible future insurrection) must be the non-oilproducing regions.

What tends to give credence to this line of argument is that in ethnolinguistic terms, Nigeria is one of the world’s most diverse countries, with some 510 ‘living languages’ spoken across over 300 ethnic groups. Let me pause for a moment and state here categorically that this incessant incident has almost become the order of the day such that most persons do not feel the shock anymore until it hits them one way or another. Unfortunately, across all the states in the South, bandits and terrorists now masquerade as herdsmen and have resorted to raping, killing and kidnapping natives with reckless abandon without recourse to justice. Similarly, in most Northern states, these armed brigands have carried out mass kidnapping for ransom and cold blood murder of school pupils, travelers and anyone.

The one I still can’t seem to wrap my head around is the fact that these bandits now go into worship places (i.e) Churches and Mosques, they even trail their victims up to their residential homes and kidnap, assault, rape and even kill them. So, the list is truly endless and sometimes when you arrest these culprits and enquire to know the aim or the reason for their actions, some of them would tell you it’s an off-shoot of community misunderstandings; some would tell you that they just do it as a means to survive a very though economy; some would also tell you that they are acting based on instructions given to them from unknown sources. Well, amongst all of these painful incidents and incessant ethnic clash in the country and even the world at large, we must find a civil and very quick solution to these issues because if care is not taken, we may wake up one day and find out that everyone around us have become a victim or we may even be the victim. We need to equip more persons with sound understanding on how to mitigate ethnic gaps within the security framework, processes, practices and spending.

Ethnic champions have now arrogated to themselves powers to issue quit notices. This is very unhealthy, dangerous and a big threat to national security. We must do something to rescue this country and corridor it from those misery vendors and merchants of death. (To be continued). And this Crack your ribs “Omo na God save me ooooo, as I first saw the new naira note. I come think say garri don colour my blindness”. –Anonymous Thought for the week “We live in a society that wants to label you with a colour, sexuality, religion, or ethnicity. It divides us, but it also allows us to find pride in our identity”. (Logan Browning).

Last line God bless my numerous global readers for always keeping faith with the Sunday Sermon on the Mount of the Nigerian Project, by humble me, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, OFR, FCIArb., LL.M, Ph.D, LL.D. Kindly, come with me to next week’s exciting dissertation.