Non-Formal Approach to Ethnicity: An Interpretative Explanation of Nigerian Peoples’ Coping Mechanisms

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

The Origin Of Ethnicity In Nigeria

Chapter Two

Nigerian Problems

Chapter Three

Strategic Interactions And Interethnic Cooperation

Chapter Four

The Underworld And Group Affiliation

Chapter Five

Institutions Of Close Contact And Interethnic Solidarity: The Role Of The Markets

Chapter Six

Economic Association And Interethnic Cooperation

Chapter Seven

Ethnic Economic Monopolies

Chapter Eight

Education And Interethnic Integration

Chapter Nine

The Coexistence Of Conflict And The Mechanisms Of Tension Management

Bibliography

To God Almighty

Gabriel Ajigbo, Jolaade, and Oyetunde Ogunnika

FOREWORD

THE SUBJECT MATTER of this book is topical, not only to Nigeria but also to the developing countries who also had colonial, economic, and neo imperialist experiences.

The problem of interethnic tension management in Nigeria is as old as the country. The problem was mainly created when the Berlin conference mistakenly put different nations (ethnic groups) together in a single country. There have been, however, several pre-colonial attempts to weld the Nigerian peoples together through the force of war and coercion as witnessed during the Fulani jihad and the unending interethnic wars among the Yoruba. The colonial equivalent of building interethnic unity came from Lord Lugard who amalgamated the then northern and southern protectorates of Nigeria into a single geopolitical entity (state). This attempt had its faults and problems, but it scored its first as it constituted the initial attempt to put peoples of different socio-cultural backgrounds under the same political administration.

Since the exercise by the colonists, scholars and even politicians have been attempting to find a solution and also to explain the phenomenon of interethnic tension and the possibility of its management in Nigeria.

This book, written by one of the foremost researchers in this field, represents one of the intellectual efforts at the explanation of the interethnic phenomenon.

The author went into the critique of the whole phenomenon and approached his frame of meaning from the actor’s side. That is why the book is subtitled: An Interpretative Explanation of Nigerian Peoples’ Coping Mechanisms He is phenomenological in his approach and believes that the genuine meaning of any event should be based on the experience of the actors. He combined the pessimisms of the ethnomethodologists with the realisms of the phenomenologist. The result of this is an essay considered as being nearest to the true situation of interethnic relations in Nigeria more than its predecessors.

A look at the work of this author’s predecessors illuminates their shortcomings that this book attempts to overcome. On the part of the politicians, most solutions to interethnic problems have been biased toward the interests of the policy maker. This accounted for most of the problems, which participants and policy makers encountered in most of the conferences on revenue allocation and constitutional drafting during the colonial administration. One could see the problem that followed the campaign by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo to make Lagos a part of the old Western Region. It took the sagacity of the secretary of the state for the colonies, Mr. Oliver Littleton, and the combined efforts of the Nigerian politicians who were not in favor of Lagos to return to the west to force Awolowo to drop the idea. The next attempt at secession was pioneered by Sir Ahmadu Bello who, in 1953, gave his eight-point plan leading to secession. This partly resulted into the Kano ethnic riots of 1953. Other serious interethnic problems include the one caused by the general election of 1959, the Western Regional election of 1964, and the Nigerian censuses of 1963 and 1973. The treasonable trial of Awolowo in 1963 increased interethnic tension, and his incarceration nailed the coffin. The military had not fared better. General Ironsi’s attempted unification led to the massacre of the Igbo and the subsequent coup of 1966. All these led to the bitter civil war in Nigeria, which ended in 1970.

In addition, there have been institutionalized attempts to solve Nigeria’s interethnic problem as seen from the use of quota systems and the federal character formulas in the employment and distribution of national resources in Nigeria. All these attempts resulted in failures despite their inclusion in the constitution of Nigeria.

This book is therefore unique as it starts from the assertion that: Decrees and laws cannot absolutely create inter ethnic unity because unity inheres in the sociology and social psychology of the ordinary actors who if left alone will evolve a working social and political system for themselves.

The book therefore reports the behaviors of Nigerians in actual situations. How different ethnicities pass and behave as if they are one. The book heavily relied on W. I. Thomas’s dictum, which says that if man defines a situation as real, they are real in their consequences. The consequences of mutual deception and strategic interactions mentioned in the book become real as they produce the real tools and mechanisms for tension management in a plural society.

The author dwells a lot on economic spheres where he identified for the first time in the literature on interethnic relations a phenomenon he refers to as market groups. This group is informal, enduring, and based on proper interethnic understanding, unlike its counterpart, the economic associations. Market groups members based their interactions on the types of commodity they sell rather than ethnic or primordial emotional attachments. One cannot do but remember Marx’s idea on fetishism of commodities in the section. Commodities assume and dominate the social psychology of the individuals and place ethnicity in the secondary position.

I was particularly impressed at the role of modern formal education in forging interethnic unity in Nigeria as reported in the book. The unity of curriculum and subjecting the students to take the same West African Senior School Certificate examination contribute to the nipping of the interethnic distrust in the bud. Another important thing one may think of is the problem of unity schools. I advise that more student exchanges should take place, and the federal government should increase the numbers of the unity schools.

I recommend this book to all students and scholars interested in the issue of race and ethnic relations in general and in the developing societies in particular. It should also be a very important companion of the policy makers, government functionaries, and top bureaucrats in the developed and developing societies. In fact, the executives and the administrators in the private sector need to read this book as a matter of necessity to help their organizations’ interactions with the social environment of their operations.

I therefore commend the author of this well-researched book for a job well done.

Mokerrom Hossain

Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator

Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice

Virginia State University, Petersburg, VA, USA

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I AM GRATEFUL TO my creator, God Almighty, who gave me the knowledge, ability, and good health necessary to complete this study.

I owe an enormous debt to a lot of individuals, organizations, and groups who have helped me in different ways toward the completion of this study. It is really impossible to list all of them, but I do want to thank all my informants in the field research in Kano. I am especially grateful to Chief Oguntimilehin, who was responsible for introducing me to the Kano notables who would not have welcomed me without his assistance. My thanks go to the following in Kano: Amos Adebowale, who housed me and catered for my needs; Tolu Ojeniyi and Bola Agbesusi, who translated all the tapes recorded in the Hausa language; and Ropo Oguntimilehin, who piloted me around Kano. I owe special thanks to my research assistants, Ayodejii Kuponiyi, Ahmed Isa, and Tunde Ogunnika, for their excellent performances.

I am indebted to Prof. Stanford Lyman for his support and encouragement. He gave me the impetus needed to pursue this study by providing me with the proper theoretical background.

I express my profound gratitude to Prof. Arthur Vidich for his immense contributions on sharpening my reasoning concerning the problems of the study. I am also grateful to Dr. Zoltan Tar, whose critical appraisal significantly contributed to the study.

I am also indebted to the Kano State Ministry of Education, Ministry of Information, and Ministry of Industry.

My thanks go to my brother, Mr. Oyetunde Ogunnika, who stood behind me seeing that I received a good education after the death of our father. By the time most of my relatives neglected me, he stood by me. My success in life really belongs to him, and this book is consequently dedicated to him. I am indebted to my parents, Chief Gabriel and Mrs. Jolaade Ogunnika for raising me in a home full of Godly love and imbibed in me the love and fear of God. This quality has been guiding and helping me throughout my life.

I am grateful to my wife, Olabisi Ogunnika who patiently read all my ideas about the evolutionary/functionalist analogy of human society to biological organisms. She criticized my biological concepts and offered suggestions on my ideas about the methods of the natural sciences. She read all the chapters and did a great deal of editing. I also enjoyed her support as a virtuous woman who stood with me throughout all my experiences in life.

I am grateful to all the faculty and students of the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice of Virginia State University for the warm and friendly work relationship. We work as a family, and together we achieve as a family. Most of my successes in the department are attributed to this friendly work climate. I particularly thank Dr. Mokerrom Hossain for his support, encouragement, and love for me. He agreed to graciously write the foreword to this book. Dr. Joyce Edwards, the Chair of the department, is commended for her tolerance and love for faculty development, which inspired me to continue striving for greater success. Dr. Zoe Spencer has been a productive companion, friend, and colleague. She did a lot of editorial works and suggested important theoretical issues, which added to the elegance of this work. To Dr. G. Ahmed, I am grateful for his words of advice and encouragement. He helped me a lot in discussions about the social structure of African societies south of the Sahara. I thank my students who specifically contributed to the production of this book. Asia Frazier is a super student, clever, ambitious, and helpful; she typed most of the chapters of the book with the support of Joy Garrison, Aaron Watkins, Jhana Murphy and Grisel Campbell who encouraged me a lot. My gratitude also goes to Aniqua Sterling, Roland Edmunds, Filisha Hobson and Toyin Ogunnika for helping in the final editorial work. I thank the students in my course, sociology of developing societies, whose numerous questions and quest for more knowledge on African societies helped sharpen my thoughts. Marlena Brown Woods, Nix Amy and Brenda White were really exceptional students who always encouraged me to finish up the book in order to permanently have the knowledge in their possession. I am indebted to Dr Adeyemi Adekoya for his encouragement and the numerous clips from the recent internet and newspapers account of inter ethnic conditions in Nigeria.

I am indebted to Dr Muyiwa and Femi Ogunnika and their sisters Toyin and Seun Omosa who are my dear children. Their encouragement, prayers and the confidence reposed in me increased my motivation to complete the book. Despite the facts that my ‘boys’ are engineers they still enjoy reading and giving words of advice which sharpen my thoughts. The girls edited and collected very useful information for the study. I am indeed grateful to them.

I am grateful to Senator O. Hambagda who read the first draft of the book and criticized the contents where necessary. He is an academic to the core. I appreciate his contributions. Dr. Musa Haruna also helped me in numerous ways toward the completion of this book. He did a lot of reading and translations of my tapes. My thanks also go to my numerous students who gave interesting and challenging questions during my lectures in the course Ethnic Relations. However, I accept responsibility for any shortcomings found in this book, and I will be receptive to constructive criticisms toward advancing the course of knowledge in the field of ethnic relations.

Zacchaeus O. Ogunnika

Virginia State University

March 8, 2013

CHAPTER ONE

The Origin of Ethnicity in Nigeria

NIGERIA IS MADE up of over 250 ethnic groups that are socially, culturally, and historically distinctive. Obafemi Awolowo identified these numerous ethnic groups and concluded that each of them possesses distinctive characteristics that would qualify it to be a separate nation. Each of the ethnic groups also resides exclusively in different geographical areas of the country. The only contact between these different groups is in the cities, where members of each ethnic group have migrated in search of government jobs and economic opportunities.

Researchers have been investigating how Nigerian ethnic groups operate when carrying out their daily social and economic activities in the cities. This is their primary focus because the cities represent the backbone of the economic and political development. Empirical evidence has revealed the constant rivalries, competition, and conflicts that exist among the different ethnic groups. Various authors have described the frequent struggles for power by members of some of the ethnic groups to exclusively control Nigerian economy.

Little or no attention, however, has actually been focused on interethnic cooperation or the conflict resolving activities of the Nigerian ethnic groups. This book attempts to examine this problem in order to shed some light on the mechanisms of tension management utilized in Nigerian cities to ensure interethnic cooperation.

The specific focus here is on how the members of the different Nigerian ethnic groups in cities manage to reduce interethnic tensions and resolve interethnic conflicts in their social and economic interactions. To achieve this objective we utilized Kano City, which because of its cosmopolitan nature, can be regarded as a microcosm of Nigeria, as the study setting.

Within the context of Kano City, we pose three basic questions: (i) what is responsible for the continuing social and economic relations between different ethnic groups in Kano, despite the apparent mutual differences between these groups? (ii) What factors prevent the Kano society from turning into a Hobbesian pit? (iii) Why has the Kano society not collapsed and finally broken down as a result of its frequent interethnic conflicts? In fact, Kano City has experienced more interethnic confrontations and violence than any other city in Nigeria. Three significant interethnic riots have taken place in 1953, in May 1966, and in September 1966. In fact, the 1966 Nigerian civil war started as an interethnic problem in Kano. In addition, most national unrests become ethnic violence in Kano; for example, the Maitatsine uprising was utilized to kill hundreds of the members of the stranger ethnic groups in 1980. Most protests that resulted from the accusations that elections were rigged mostly turned to interethnic violence in Kano. The 2011 presidential election led to the killings of hundreds of southern ethnic groups’ members in Kano and also led to the continuation of the activities of the dreaded Boko Haram (a militant Islamic movement) in the Northern Nigeria. The Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for killing almost three thousand Nigerians in Northern Nigeria. Their targets are Christian churches, military personnel and government officials.

The Setting—Kano City

Kano City has been the major commercial center of the Central Sudan since 1806, at the beginning of the Fulani dynasty. The Fulani conquered the Hausa people of Kano and installed one of their own members as the new ruler with the title emir (Hogben and Kirk-Greene 1966). The city did not lose its position of economic leadership during the British colonial period. Instead its importance increased to the extent that at the time of Nigerian independence in 1960, and as late as 1965, Kano accounted for half of all the trade in Northern Nigeria and 50 percent of all cash turnovers in the north (Parden 1971). The position of Kano remained the same, with only Kaduna, which lay a few kilometers south of the city, as its main competitor. Kaduna was the capital of the former Northern Region. It was the seat of government. Unlike Kano, Kaduna is not an ancient city. It was created to serve as a capital city for Northern Nigeria by the colonial administration.

The economic importance of Kano made the city a target for migrants from all over Nigeria. Paden (1971) reported that Kano was three times larger than the next largest northern city in 1952. The rate of urbanization in the city has been dramatic, as Parden revealed that there was a 26.8 percent increase in its population from 39,368 in 1911 to 49,938 in 1921, and the population reached 130,173 in 1952. The 1963 census put the population at about three-quarters of a million, and it was established by the 1991 census that Kano has well over a million people. By the 2006 Nigerian census, the population of Kano had increased to almost 3 million (2,828,861).

Kano’s rapid urbanization has been made possible by the in-migration of the members of the different ethnic groups to the city. The indigenous inhabitants of Kano consist of the Hausa, and a few Fulani who are prominent in the ruling family (emirship); however, hopes of economic prosperity have brought the Yoruba, Kanuri, Igbo, Tiv, and all others into the city. [Most books refer to Igbo as Ibo. Igbo is the real name of the ethnic group that inhabits Southeastern Nigeria. The foreigners, especially the Europeans, were unable to pronounce the sound gb, which they pronounced as b; and for them, the word Igbo became Ibo. The British writers have maintained this pronunciation in their literature; therefore, it persists to the present day. The ethnic group will, however, be referred to as Igbo throughout this book, except where referred to otherwise in quotations.] The large influx of strangers from other Nigerian ethnic groups necessitated that a new settlement be created for them outside the ancient walled city of Kano, which is called Birni. This new settlement is called the Sabongari (new town). Literature gives reasons why Sabongari was created. Some believe it was to protect the culture of the indigenous residents of the town from being contaminated by the strangers. Sir Brian Sherwood—Smith believes that Sabongari sprang up to house alien communities from other parts of Nigeria… whose religion and ways of life did not conform with that of the (indigenous) people. As far back as 1954, at least sixteen different ethnic groups residing in Sabongari were regarded as distinctive enough to be included separately in the government census. Table 1.1 shows these different categories.

The population increase in Kano has been equally distributed among its six separate residential sectors. Each of these sectors (Sabongari is one) is distinctive in terms of ethnicity, standard of living, length of existence (age), and rate of in-migration.

Table 1.1

Sabongari ethnic composition (1954-1955)

Source: selected and compiled by the author from Tribal Population Statistics, NAK Kano Province (5908), 1954-1955. Cited in Paden (1971).

Birni, which is called Kano City, represents the ancient walled city of Kano, said to be one of the oldest cities in Africa. As Table 1.2 shows, the Hausa constitute 77 percent of Birni’s inhabitants, whereas the Fulani constitute 11 percent. Other Nigerian ethnic groups account for only about 10 percent of the total population. The emir of Kano resides in Birni, and the central mosque is