Non-Formal Approach to Ethnicity

The subject matter of this book is topical, not only to Nigeria but also to the developing countries who share colonial, economic and neo-imperialist experiences with her. The problem of inter-ethnic 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 recalcitrant’s nationalists together through the force of war and coercion as witnessed during the Fulani jihad and the incessant inter-ethnic wars amongst the Yoruba. The colonial equivalent of building inter-ethnic unity came from Lord Lugard who “amalgamated” the then Northern and Southern protectorates of Nigeria into a single geo-political 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, scholars and even politicians have been attempting to find a solution and also to explain the phenomenon of inter-ethnic 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 inter-ethnic 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 “The peoples’ non-formal mechanisms”. He is phenomenological in his approach and believes that 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 which is considered as being nearest to the true situation of inter-ethnic relations in Nigeria more than its predecessors. A look at the work of this author’s predecessors illuminates their shortcomings which this book attempts to overcome. On the part of the politicians, most solutions to inter-ethnic problems have been biased towards 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. 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 8 point plan leading to secession. This partly resulted into Kano ethnic riots of 1953. Other serious inter-ethnic 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. Awolowo treasonable trial in 1963 increased inter-ethnic tension while 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 inter-ethnic problem as seen from the use of quota systems and the federal character formulas in employment and distribution of national resources on 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 in themselves cannot create inter-ethnic unity. Unity inheres in the sociology and Social psychology of the ordinary actors who if left alone will evolve a workplace political and social 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 the W.I Thomas 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 inter-ethnic relations literature, a phenomenon he refers to as “market groups”. This group unlike its counterpart, the economic associations, is informal, enduring and based on proper inter-ethnic understanding. Its members owe commodity to dictate the pace 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 inter-ethnic 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 inter-ethnic 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.