Identity overlap and context-dependent instrumentation of territorial belonging: an interrogation of multiple levels of indigeneship mobilisation in Nigeria

Abstract

ABSTRACT The subject of territorial belonging remains one of the regular flashpoints of conflicts in contemporary politics. With identity overlap and context-dependent instrumentation of belongingness, the question of how one identity classification attains preponderance over others in the overlap and the character of the associated conflicts compel studying every instance as a unique case. This paper interrogates the instrumentation of multiple levels of indigeneship mobilisation in inclusion politics in tertiary education institutions in Nigeria. Qualitatively drawing from vice-chancellor’s selection politics in University of Nigeria, this paper found that four incentives drove the preponderance of ethno-territorial indigeneship mobilisation over other levels of indigeneship mobilisation in the institution. First, politically, the collective interests of the dominant Igbo ethnic group were held paramount in the ethnic territory. Second, the rationales for the collective interest of the ethnic group were widely acknowledged by all communal settlements on the ethnic territory. Third, democratically, the phenomenon ensured the rule of the majority in vice-chancellors’ selection politics. Fourth, the merit prerogative of the academy, breached in inter-ethnic struggle, remained sacrosanct in intra-ethnic competition for the choice position. These exemplify the situation of many federal tertiary education institutions in Nigeria and become their prominent trademarks.