ABSTRACT
This project is on the evaluation
of ethnicity and the issue of political development in Nigeria. The ethnicity
is a social consult that indicates identification with a particular group.
Which is often decended from common ancestors. Members as the group share
common cultural traits (such as language religion and dress) and are on an
identificable minority within the larger nation - state. While political
development is the progressive
reduction of ethnic cultural and
religion tension and elements of
non-continuities in the process of creating a virtually
homogenous constitutional and economic development leading
to the attainment of a
viable political culture.
The choice of this topic
was necessitated by the
destabilizing tendencies of this phenomenon
which has infact threatened the existence of Nigeria state in
a number of instable and has thus
hindered meaningful national political development. This work is an attempt to
trace its origin. Those factors that propagate its presence in Nigeria policies
and hold it can be eliminated so as to enhance national political development.
Though solutions have always be offered they have not yielded any positive result
hence the need to look for a more viable option by
looking at the division that
exist in a pluralist such differences. There
solution must come from power sharing
among the various ethnic or other sectarian groups. Yet another step
would be to inculcate religion autonomy and federation into the state system
which enable local and regional
authorities with a degree autonomous power and authority.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE i
APPROVAL PAGE ii
DEDICATION iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv
ABSTRACT vi
TABLE OF CONTENT ix
CHAPTER ONE
1.0
INTRODUCTION
1
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 4
1.2 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY 24
1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 26
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
30
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 31
1.6 SCOPE
OF THE STUDY 32
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS 33
CHAPTER TWO
2.0
LITERATURE
REVIEW 36
2.1 SUMMARY OFF LITERATURE REVIEW
57
CHAPTER THREE
3.0
METHODOLOGY 58
3.1 DESIGN OF THE STUDY 59
3.2 AREA OF THE STUDY 60
3.3 POPULATION OF THE STUDY 60
3.4 SAMPLE OF THE STUDY 61
3.5 INSTRUMENT FOR DATA
COLLECTION 62
3.6 VALIDATION OF THE INSTRUMENT 63
3.7 METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS 63
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0
DATA
PRESENTATION 64
4.1 DATA ANALYSIS 64
4.2 FINDINGS 69
CHAPTER FIVE
5.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 69
5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS
5.3 CONCLUSION
5.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
5.5 SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER STUDIES
REFERENCES
APPENDIX: QUESTIONNAIRE
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
The realm of politic is the field
of greatest conflict in the society.
This is not surprising since policies
are the process whereby society arbitrates over power and allocation or score
resource. However in modern western political dictionary political this
ability that been seen as
characteristic of the developing
country or countries in transition in African
Latin American and Asia transition in Africa
Latin America and Asia .
The political disability in African
countries could be attributed to many factors ranging from the frequently from
the frequency of militating coup to
political violence and civil disorders,
which are all as a result of the existence and
dominance of social elenge such as religion, regionalism
tribalism and most especially
ethnicity. Ethnicity in our political life having proved uncontrollable
deserves serious attention. It is evident that this Nigeria, which can be seen
from the frequent changes of government and coup date in the country. This
study is therefore going to concentrate on how the problem of ethnicity has
affected the political development of Nigeria.
Nigeria is a nation whose history
is replete with numerous and varied existing and political threats to national
political development. In colonial era till date, the sad yet unfortunate story
has been that of one geo-ethnic group attempting to assert and, in the process,
establish her hegemony over the other, perceived as posing a veritable threat
to its very existence. Consequent upon
this alleged threat of dominance
it has become fashionable
to see a particular sub national
group treating session
from the rest of
the federation unit on the basis of
on from of disaffection or the
other. For instance in 1953 the Northern segment of the country called
for session in the following year. It was
the west, therefore, secession
urges became dormant a determines
attempt to out of Nigeria
to constitute in self into an
independent entity. It is necessary to
state that these secession attempted his greatly affected the political
development of Nigeria. How these various
secession attempted has affected
political development of Nigeria will
be discussed in subsequent chapter.
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Nigeria by over four hundred ethnic
group with each having m it own language and tradition the dominant
ethnic groups as we have noted
above are the Hausa- Fulani in the North, the Yoruba’s
in the and the Igbo’s in the East.
Nigeria was formed by the
gradual incorporation of
different areas and people into which empire
from 1861 onward and took it final
shape in 1914 the Amalgam a nation of the Southern and Northern protectorates
in 1939 the Southern protectorate was divided into Eastern and Western regions there are yet
other force within each of these dominant
regions. These were the minorities are
those who are shadowed and discriminated against by the three major ethnic groups in the
North, there is the middle belt, the west had mid-west and the
Calabar Ogoja river (COR) area in
the eat.
From above
analysis one is led to believe that the claims of separate social
group must necessary
be incompatible with the
demands of the w hole social
group this is not usually,
the case
for instance there are
French and English speaking
condition in Canada
Creak and Shovas in Czecholo Vakia, the French Italian and German in Switzerland
No doubt political instability
affect the political as well as economic development of any nation
but it consequence are often exaggerated. It has
been argued that political
instability is inherent in and country but the ability of the political system to certain stress generated within
it at any given time
determines political instability. While rejecting
this argument, it is important to
note that the British
introduced ethnicity into
Nigeria polities during the colonial period and what
they did at independence
was to create a political system hat was unable
to contain the stress
generated by this ethnicity
Thus a British colonial governor characterized Nigeria as a collection of Self contained and
mutually independent native state. Separated
from one mother and tradition and by ethnological
racial, tribal political social and religion Barrier’s (Clifford 1920)
it is not clamed hat hetegenous cultural
background does not affect political stability, the ability to weld the
different ethnic groups together is the
process of nation building, which
is not
an easy ask. It involves the
transformation of the pre-colonial
political entire of the
societies with the Nigeria temporary into a virile political
culture the would sustain the Nigeria state. When the alien
culture of Europe impinged on the existing societies is credited a problem of
adjustment which required new technique and ideas to deal with the new order.
Incidentally the instability as a result of ethnicity and other
social colleagues which permeated
the Nigeria political scenes, this
has consequently affected
the political development of Nigeria.
What made ethnicity to
assume an alarming proportion in the
polities of Nigeria was that
the focus of each of the dominant ethnic
group was on equal share of race-course.
The question was who get what,
how and by how much. They wanted to maximize their individual security the
control of the lion-share of the
country source resource
Today the biggest threat to
nation political development is that of
lack of unity. In the absence of duty of a kind to will became difficult to
define common national objective identification of a common
economy. The greatest threat to unity today is ethnicity.
This work
is therefore throughout a comitial review of the problem
of ethnicity and it effect
on the political development of
Nigeria since independence till date.
MEMORANDUM
OF DELTA STATE
Nigeria came into being as a result of the
empirical amalgamation in 1914 of the
protectorate of Northern Nigeria
one the one hand, and of Southern
Nigeria and they colony of Lagos on the
other hand. This brought together
communities of diverse peoples and
culture which evolved into an
independent sovereign nation in 1960. However,
Nigeria continues to face a number
of challenge and induced
by the Justice, inequity and unfair inherent in this internal socio-political arrangements. For the to develop into a
strong nation deliberates efforts must be made to deal with these factors.
Delta state is made up of five major
nationalistic, with a combined population of over 4 million people. This figure
is an undercount as we shall indicate in a later section under census. The state was created out of the
former Bendel state in 1991. it has a
geographical area on 17440 square kilometer consisting of dry land wetland creak rivers
swamps, extensive existence coastline
and continental shelf. Of this geographical area about 60, percent is made of its population live on the swampy river-line parts and
their traditional occupation and mainstay s mostly farming and fishing.
In addition to agricultural and
solid mineral resources, the state is endowed with enormous oil and gas reserves. Delta state has been
the major producer of crude oil
and natural gas in Nigeria since 1958
when first well were
drilled by the shell petroleum development company. As celebrate
n the pamphlet. the story of shell B.P (1972) The discovery of oil in
the western Nigeria Delta
established Nigeria firmly as a
major world producer of
oil.
This view of the primary of Delta state in the oil economy is
confirmed by the late M.O Feyider, Nigeria former secretary
of the organization of
petroleum exporting countries (OPEC). During the executive
directorship of Dimafume Onoge. Also G.G. Darah Delta state from group captain Luke
Ochulor Felix Ibru-To James Ibori. The
failure of the 1999 constitution to provide for his this diversity in the nations political
structure has become a major source of our
current difficulties. As a direct consequence of the concentration of powers
and resources in the federal government
under 1999 construction. Nigeria has
been purged into an unending series of
crisis upon crisis since the
commencement of the so-called
fourth republic on 27th May, 1999. The country is concurrently
confronted with:
Fierce competition for the capture
of power at the center leading to overheating and
instability of the polity. Mutual
supervision and fears of
domination and
marginalization between ethnic
state leading to the rise of ethnic militias and violet conflict on the fifth and last day, the tempo of the festival rises with increased booming of cannon
guns and echoes of Joyans Song by
some gifted women singer:. Expert tempters blow their
thrilling tune in praise of the Obi Okpala-Uku or Diokpa and t he prominent
farmers of the land.
On this day large quantities of
yams are roasted, cleared and mixed
with fresh or fried oil. Everybody
partake of it. Some quantities of it are sent to friend well wishers, finances
and others, an action which reflects to bond of cordial relationship. On this
day two meat of all the goat slaughtered the
previous day share among the people. More dancing and merriment continue
with boys and girls arranging special get-together to mark the occasion. During
the last two days of the festival,
the houses of the titles men and
women, the Iyase, the Odogwu, the Onu and others are
scene of great festivities
with several visitor from far.
These personalities, by virtues of their
special position in the town, bear a
great burden of the festival and are
often fully stretched to meet the
demand of their.
The impart of Iwaji on the people in such that many
opinion have been expressed in an attempt to
discern the motive of their
forefather in evolving the age-ling
festival. The social seventies sees the festival as a deconstruction of the people communities of interest. The agriculturist
say it was intended to serve as an impetus to woven white shirt dance round the village, some their elephant tusk
trumpets. Goats and cock are slaughtered before the family shrine by Ndichhie and Nze.
Libation are poured and the
spirit of the dead ancestors
are involved to share the joys of new session everywhere the music of
wooden group throb in the palaces of Obi’s and other traditional
rulers.
Before he ritual ceremonies, the shrine
including the god of the
farm Ifejioku are purified
by young Virgins (Umuada) with eggs and
chicken tied on piece of young
palm frond and dragged
around the premises reciting from
shrines and so make them worshipable. After the scarified before the family shrine
by Nze food is cooked and all
present parake of the pounded yam
which must be tested first
by the Obi or Diokpa
of each family group. This is followed
by merriment. Rejoicing and dancing particularly
by the young ones, who eat and drink
with abandon singing. In beautiful traditional attire and in the case of ladies
with headiest, neckless earrings to
match. They dance in group round their respective communities according to their age-grades. They provides
themselves with various
item of respondent, including Kola Nuts
soft drinks and
local gin, in the evening
of this day. Small children hold mock market with
several odd things. Including pick of new yams, the means of exchange is the
cowry.
CULTURAL
PERSPECTIVE
Iwaji (New yam) festival is one of the
oldest and most revered
traditional festival of the people
of Delta North arise of state where farming constitutes the main
source f the people live hood.
Although here are slight differences
in name and mode of celebration
from place to in the
area, the festival s essential an occasion
of great job and happiness among the people for it. .
Marks the end of the period of famine and the beginning of the season
of plenty like many other traditional festivals Iwaji no fixed date. It is however invariably
celebrates annually in the first or second week of September. It last for about
five days. Great preparation are usually made for the festival and the timing
is determined by a council of elder with
the Diokpa (Oldest man) or the Obi each
town presiding. They are usually guided in their by the phase of the third day the farmer
and all members of their families
go to the farm to collect
new yams, many which are sent as present
by husbands to their parent in-law and to their dear ones as a token of friendship.
The actual celebration starts on
the fourth day which is usually the native resting day called Eke. On this day guns boom, and the Obi’s and Diokpa clad in traditional increases productivity, the not-too serious minded man
in the street does not even
associate the any conscious
attempt by the ancestors to attain and
end, but rather regards it a mere passions or revelry. whatever the various
interpretation , the people f this area
regard the festival as native
reward for hard work and also a reminder f the
importance of farming in their
lives this no doubt, why
the people turn out in fall pomp and pageantry during the
occasion.
Democracy after seven
years of democracy in
Nigeria oil company from all
over the world are keen to gain a
foothold on the Gulf of gummer the
“Next Gulf” last year in Bayelsa
state the poisonous mixture
emitted by gas flaring, a practice
that has now been beamed
by Nigeria court caused
5,000 cases of respiratory
disease and some 120,000 the
population affecting the food chain thousand of environmental refuge leaves the
earlier of the Beyalsa for the
Ghetoes of Port- Harcourt or Ajegule ,
on the out –shirts of Lagos, the
economic capital.
A weapon you never get is back.
Once the election was over, these
people took to crimes with he exercise they has been
betrayed fighting between military
groups caused frequent causalities, including Shel, Cherron,
Agip or Total, which along with other
foreign companies enjoy some of
the highest profit margins in the world- the shell petroleum development
company of Nigeria which produces 43% of Nigeria crude loses 10% of it production every day
through sabotage and illegal siphoning. On 18 February the
movement for the emancipation of the Niger Delta (mend) Kidnapped nine foreign
executives working for a shell
sub-contractors . after releasing six
of them on 1 March mend decided to
increase attack announcing five days latter would no longer
seek kidnap hostage but would
instead shoot to
kill the Nigeria Army
regularly targets such
gang for brutal repriests. The oil companies which hire
private security firms to protect their facilities often support such attacks
Cherron Nigeria (a subsidiary of Cherron). The leading, is export of Nigeria
crude lent the federal government is
technical at Escravos and t
helicopters, so that government force could raid communalities hostile
to the company, the oil firm play on local rivalries.
The Ijaw people of Bayelsa state,
Nigeria fourth largest ethnic group believe Alamuyeseigha is being persecuted
for supporting resource control. He demands that half of the revenue from Oil
should be set aside from where it was produced, rather than the allocation of
13% stipulated in the constitution. this was why he received
an hero welcome on his return to the Bayelsa State Capital, Yanegoa where nearly three quarters
of the population survive on less than a
day and more than 10 years after the execution
of the writer Sarowiwa, an
opponent of the military dictator,
General Sani Abacha the of the Bayelsa are looking for
heroes. But today’s idol are dubious figures, dabbling in political
activities and economic banditry.
Consider lhaji Asari Dokubo
volunteer orce (NDPUF) ARESTED LIST August for posing a threat to the sovereignty
of the state. Asari 40 is the son of a
local Ijaw notable. He made his name in the early 1990, play an active art in
student violence in the Delta universities. He is typical of a certain
class, unable to do anything but watch, powerless as the potential benefit
of an oil based economy slip through
it finger, a militant attack for
the local branch of the rubbing.
The People Democratic Party (PDP)
intimates the apposition. But when you give difficult task. However, it must be pointed out here what would
make for political development
and the unity of the
economy are also within
these divisive force and are examined
under recommendations.
1.2 PURPOSED
OF THE STUDY
Basically the purpose of this
study is to gain understanding of the effects of primordialism particularly ethnicity
on Nigeria political development.
It is our belief that because of
the dominance of primordialism in Nigeria polities. Some analyst entirely from the perspective, the impression
of given that the political process is determined and controlled by primordial
elements. Shortcoming and defects of the
Nigeria political system are as resulting fro
this phenomenon, thus their resolution is seen as laying in
balancing these primordial
interest.
It is our belief that while it is possible to have some awareness of the
nature of Nigeria from this perspective as an explanatory framework, it is
highly defective. It is defective
because it simple takes the question of primordialisms.
1.3
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The problem of ethnicity religion
and culture exists world wide. The problems are experienced in both the advanced and developing countries, for
example the problems abound in America, India and Chad.
Back home, in Nigeria, which is
the focus of this research, the impart of ethnicity become more divesting. Most
observers of Nigeria politics are agreed about the central role of
primordialism in Nigeria political process. This prevalence is evident from the
electoral process to the political
behavoiur of the Nigeria
electorates. For instance, there was the election crisis on Western Nigeria in
1964 and 1965 respectively, which incriminated in the then Tafawa Belewa government declaring a state of emergency in
area. Another example was in 1967 when Nigeria was plunge into Cauldron
of a thirty month fratricidal war. It was a nation overtaken by ethnic enthauvinism.
Ethnicity constitute
a real problem to national political development, it is against this background that it
sources necessary to state
the problem thus, first people
think act not
in nation but in ethnic terms.
This sub-national particularism constitute an impediment integration and
political development, second,
ethnic cultural; and religion orientation
make efforts aimed making Nigeria a united country a very raining, widening of any intellectual
horizon which, prior
tom this project was
ostensibly parochial. It is also a source of motivation to me. As
indicated by the title, this study is an examination f the problem of ethnicity
and it effects Nigeria political development. This study
will cover the period of the Nigeria political development
starting from the colonial
period is during the nationalist
struggle for decolonization to contemporary Nigeria political i.e from
Igbo, when Nigeria got her political independent and thus became sovereign state to data.
In this study events from
the colonial period to the time of independent
and after, that prompted the
emergence of ethnicity in the Nigeria political science are explained.
The Nigeria politics before
independents was under the directions of the British government. The Nigerian government
has changes hard several times since 1960. The first republic was born in 1960
and it ended in a military coup in 1966. Since then different regime and
administration have come and gone, which will be discussed here in relation to
the political climate in Nigeria.
As given and does not by explain
how it come to be centrally place in Nigeria politics. In
other words, it does not tells the origin of primordialism in Nigeria politics ,
nether does it tell us the factors that have sustaining it within the Nigeria political system. This research will attempt
to explain all these.
This study is also called out
because of the concern for the
increasingly important nature of ethnicity in contemporary Nigeria politics. Again it is to provide a
basis for corporative analysis of
political events in the first and second
republic as well as the military
regime and also as a plant form
for analysis the third republic finally,
this study desire to suggest
way of minimizing political
stress and the effects of
ethnicity on the political
development of Nigeria.
This work will, I hope contribute
to the knowledge and understanding of this phenomenon.
1.4
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
It is my
sincere belief that the result of this
research work on the concept of ethnicity and the issue of
political development in Nigeria may constitute and invaluable rudimentary material for future
researches. However at this undergraduate level, much have been my
benefits from this understanding, these include
ample
1.5
RESEARCH QUESTION
The
research questions includes: -
1. Do you think there has been
free and fare election in Nigeria?
2.
Has ethnicity done more harm than
good in issue of political development in Nigeria?
3.
Does Nigeria political leaders
embrace ethnicity that resulted to crisis?
4.
Do you think there is political
development in Nigeria?
5.
Do you believe this ethnicity
problem is to be caused by
colonial masters through indirect rule?
1.6
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
As indicated by the title, this study is an examination of
the problem of ethnicity and its effects on Nigeria political development
starting from the colonial periodic during the nationalist struggle for decolonization to
contemporary Nigeria politics (i.e from 1960) when Nigeria got
her political independents and
thus became a sovereign state to date.
In this study crisis in Bayelsa and Delta state which
happened of recent that prompt the emergency of ethnicity in the state political science are
explained. The Nigeria government have changed have several time since 1960. The
first republic was born in 1960 and it ended in a military coup in 1960. since
different regime and
administration here come and
gone, which will be
discussed here in relation to the political eliminate in Nigeria.
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
No doubt, there are many and
varied sensed in which a particular world can be used. This single
usage deficiency of a word tends of blur understanding of individual
readers. These words are as follows:-
(i)
Primordialism
(ii)
Ethnicity
(iii)
Political
development
Primordialism:
By primordialism,
we mean the see and manipulation of primordial sentiment ethnicity sectionalism
religious etc for political purposes.
Ethnicity:
The term
ethnicity is used refer to ethnic groups whose member, exhibits common
attitudes such as language, religion and culture history and orientation or
inclination towards their future.
Political
development: As
some authors are defined t, it is the progressive reduction of ethnic cultural
and religion tension and element of non-continuities in the process of creating a virtually
homogenous constitutional and economic development, tending to the
attainment of a viable political
culture.
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