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Ethnicity And Power: The Long Courtship of MASSOB, MOSOP, OPC, And Such By Prince Charles Dickson Jos, Plateau Nigeria.
In the last couple of months the entire nation has been held hostage to events of tragic natures, while the nation has had to face these tragic though preventable events. On one hand though a trend has also gained momentum…ethnic militias or less I court controversy in this first paragraph I would safely use the phrase ethnic groupings.
As I battled to put this essay together, the entire Igbo community in Jos, Plateau State held their Igbo Day Celebrations, economic activities were abruptly closed down throughout that Saturday. Thus a strong statement was once again made on the ethnic line of Nigeria. The Niger Delta warlord Asari Dokubo, OPC chiefs, Gani Adams and Fedrick Fasheun, MASSOB’s Ralph Uwazurike and MOSOP, the Hi sbah groups, the Ijaw National Congress, Egbesu and many more have been in the news for all the reasons from the really good, terribly bad and nastily ugly.
The Federal government of Angel Obasanjo the only man who knows it all has simply packed all of the major characters into jail charged them with all manners of crimes from treason to killing his wife. The OPC has killed several innocent souls and recently a policeman, the NDVF has bombed oil installations, while MASSOB has burnt the only Zik of Africa’s house, whatever the real truth or defence, the fact is that its time somebody does something or we may just be slowly but certainly steadily gravitating towards…I do not know whether God will forbid it especially the way our leaders have taken Him for granted.
The ethnic conundrum that Nigeria id had been a major obstacle to the existence of a Nigerian state. Beginning with the transition from colonial to neo-colonial dependence to t he novel Obasanjo brand democracy. The conflict spiral generated by ethnicity can be seen at all the critical phases in Nigeria, its democracy, the party system, the electoral process and the sharing of the national cake via offices and resources.
The truth is that as much as some form of true federalism or on the extreme confederacy, resource control and largely self determination is desirable, however the salience of ethnicity in Nigeria can only be properly understood in the context of power struggle among various factions of the ruling class, especially within the context of the lower cla ss’ ignorance through manipulation. The empirical fact being that ethnicity cannot be deconstructed because we have a faulty form of state and a morally bankrupt crop of class in power.
The issue of ethnic politics has been on the fore rather than the politicization of ethnic identities, which has generated hot bad blood. The problems which Obasanjo’s led confusion through its ‘confabulation’ called confab and misrule failed to tackle is the ethnic autonomy question, revenue allocation formula, resource control et al.
Ethnicity has been also constantly shifting because of a fluid and dynamic nature of changing interests, for example a hitherto unknown South-South or a salient North-East, the n a newspaper Middle Belt, a political one, also A geographical Middle Belt. It has simple varied as demands change or as the social injustice id perceived, from the rigid North/South and Christian/Muslim divide. Then the mutual suspicion of the West/East and East/South –South down to statism in the form of the Kwara/Kogi yoruba question, Plateau/Nassarawa issue, Bauchi/Gombe, Anambra/Enugu. Either way each of these has continued to be usefu l in the politicization of ethnic identity with the changes in political struggles.
It is difficult to prefix a particular political tendency to the collectivity of an ethnic group because as the Nigerian example suggests, different political tendencies can be expressed within a particular ethnic group, like the differences between the Ohaneze ndi Igbo and MASSOB and that of the Afenifere fon awon Yoruba and the OPC.
The resurgence of ethnic identity only smacks of the total disillusions which the present ‘regime’ has brought about, the insecurity and uncertainty that pervades the air. The renews ethnic agitation surely has an implication both positively and otherwise, however with a deaf and near-sighted government like the present one their solution is lock them up, trump up charges and wish the real issues away.
It has been recently
easy for everyone to have an understanding of the term ethnicity within
a narrow conceptualization. This is rather a faulty assumption. For one,
there is a tendency to conflate ethnicity with other social phenomena
that share similar features especially those that fall within primordial
and communal identities like tribalism, favouritism, and the Biafran
struggle, Resource control et al. There could also be the tendency to
see ethnicity as the natural outcome of existence of ethnic groups,
which again is wrong, the fact that like any other portmanteau word, it
can serve as a euphemistic substitute for other appellations has led to
abuse, precisely as it has no independent existence of its own. It has
been driven by class interests or the quest for power. In our Nigeria
The major issue in the ethnic groupings of better still ethnic struggle is the phenomenon of politicized ethnicity. More often than not, ethnicity is invoked by interests which are not necessarily described in ethnic terms. As Claude Ake once put it, “conflicts arising from the construction of ethnicity to conceal exploitation by building solidarity across class lines, conflicts arise from appeals to ethnic support in the face of varnishing legitimacy, and from the manipulation of ethnicity for obvious political gains are not ethnic problems, but problems of particular dynamics which are pinned on ethnicity”. This is the Nigerian situation.
The tension of ethnicity in our so-called democracy is underscored by the contradictory tendencies associated between the two; ethnicity and democracy, while the interests and values pushed for by ethnicity are narrow and exclusive those of democracy are universal and have inclusive appeal. On this score on real democratic level it is possible for democracy to become a solution to the problems of deeply ethnically divided societies like ours…thus a good leadership can use it as a tool for political engineering, to be tailored to suit the particular circumstance of the plural society. This however is not our case as our leadership is at most described as confused and exploiting the situation, thus the rise of ethnic movements demand for justice, equality, liberty as even history places such as the basis which the Anti-colonial struggles were fought…mobilization and strength drawn and provided by ethnicity.
The contradictory tendencies of ethnicity is obvious today ad the need to provide important safeguard against centralization and authoritarian tendencies has once more arisen. The problem we have is that the mobilization of ethnicity as a way out has more often than not been for some few people’s material benefit and this has given rise to the questions of citizenship rights, statism, indigeneship/settler palaver. To an extent this has become a veritable tool that is internalized and used as a crisis generating mechanism and obstacle to democracy. This is the sense in which we are to understand the “boomerang situation”, because the madmen in power has continued in the legacy of “statutory codification and consociational engineering as mechanisms of promoting equitable access to resources”
…Deep ethnic fears generated by in-built structures that promote unequal access to power and resources is being exploited, and is part of the present government’s plan to stay beyond 2007. The Yoruba man don do im own..na so-so yoruba people full NNPC, Central Bank infact he has yorubalized the government. Na we turn, na we de produce de oil wetin…kai you I dey craze we get am for agreement, na kano get am now. No chikena forbid, give us now it our turn or … So if it is your turn you put any Mungo Park like we made the mistak e of appeasing Abiola’s spirit by putting a … this Akara and pap called power can be better dealt with, there are reasons for the agitation, the government knows, if we refuse to deal with, it will deal with us the cruel way the only way. The graphic pictures we see of violence every here and there is not enough until we become a market for weapons and center place for Humanitarian groups. May Almighty Allah help us.
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