Nigerian Nation-state Research Articles

Yoruba-Igbo Rivalry 1937-1970: A Historical Analysis of the Birth of Nigeria's Political Dilemma

The political rivalry between the Yoruba and Igbo ethnic nations revolved around their undisputed leaders-Obafemi Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikiwe. It began with the return from the Gold Coast of Nnamdi Azikiwe. His return engendered an Igbo educational awareness that soon challenged the Yoruba domination of the economic and political life of the country; leaving in its wake the carcass of the once vibrant Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM). The brief thaw manifested in the formation of the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroons (NCNC) evaporated with the death of Herbert Macaulay, the erstwhile president of the party in which Nnamdi Azikiwe was the general secretary, Nnamdi Azikiwe and the NCNC did not take kindly to the formation by Obafemi Awolowo and his colleagues of the Edge Omo Oduduwa and subsequently the Action Group (AG). If anything, the general elections of 1951/52 into the Central Legislature exacerbated the rivalry rendering impossible hopes of Coalition governments by the NCNC and AG after the federal elections of 1959 and 1964; and in the process allowed the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) to dictate the direction, pace, and character of Nigeria’s political development, a trend that not even the military interventions and the civil war were unable to alter. This paper attempts to deepen our understanding of this rivalry and concludes that & worked to the utter disadvantage of the two ethnic nations and the Nigerian nation-state.

Singing the Body: Postmodern Orality and the Female Body in the Nigerian Hip Hop Nation

The current trend in the Nigerian Hip Hop Nation (NHHN) to transgress established socio-cultural codes of ‘adult-run society’ in the Nigerian nation state has become a phenomenal postmodern signifier of urban youth difference. While this development has been acknowledged in a number of academic submissions, there has however been a dearth of scholarship to account for the temporal socio-economic/cultural imperatives that have shaped it, and how these motivations have impacted new youth identity formations, intra-NHHN power relations and the remapping of gender. Recognising Nigerian hip hop as predominantly framed around a male entertainment orientation and counterhegemonic cultural outlook, this paper argues that the present-day circulation of hip hop in Nigeria is a deconstructive, transcultural, and capitalist practice that presents an arena of youth self-(re)encounter, especially in the area of an overwhelming politics of masculinity, rethinking nation/belonging and the discursive (re)drawing of the female body. In this context, I suggest that the representation/performance of the female body in the NHHN, quite against popular notions of its vulnerability to misogyny, revolves around a site of ambivalence in which woman is both visible and discursively veiled, claiming agency within a dominantly hyper-masculinist youth (sub)culture as much as getting objectified in it. In this context, it is difficult to posit a case of ‘Nigerian feminist hip hop’ within a definitive space of black sisterhood and this requires critical contemplation.

Family structure and fertility behaviour among undergraduates of the distant learning institute in Lagos State, Nigeria.

Context/Background: Given the current socio-economic conditions of the Nigerian nation-state, it is logical to say that the resources needed to cater for its ever-growing population are limited and the trend has moved the nation to adopt an anti-natalist policy. However, there is a paucity of empirical studies on the influence of family structure, as an intergenerational factor, on fertility behavior in South-Western Nigeria and thus, this study investigates the association between family structure and fertility behaviour in Lagos. Data Sources and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 185 married undergraduates of the Distance Learning Institute at the University of Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria. Multi-stage and simple random sampling was employed in selecting the respondents. Findings: The study revealed that the size of an individual’s family of orientation (O.R. = 1.22) and income (O.R. = 1.40) are predictors of the individual’s fertility and fertility preference. Conclusion: Attention should be given to the socio-economic factors that shape fertility behaviour and the immediate and unmet need for contraception among couples.

Adichie’s Thematic Construction of a Post-Colonial Nigerian Nation-State in Two Excerpts from Her Purple Hibiscus: An Experiential Meaning Scrutiny

Abstract This article digs into Adichie’s world view of the post-colonial Nigeria via her use of the English language in two extracts culled from her Purple Hibiscus. To go into details, the study examines how Adichie makes use of particular types of transitivity patterns to weave into her text her thematic construction of Nigeria after independence. To this end, the Experiential Meaning has been used as a theoretical lens given that the exploration of the transitivity properties in/of a text can provide a full insight into how the writer encodes his/her experience of the world therein as advocated by Systemic Functional Linguistics scholars like Halliday (1971/1976), and his followers Hassan (1985/1989), Eggins (2004), and Matthiessen (2004/2006). As a matter of fact, the study offers a linguistic analysis of the selected extracts, a summary of the findings, and the ensuing interpretation. Actually, the interpretation of the findings has revealed that Adichie has encoded tremendous meanings through her outstanding use of such process types as material, mental and verbal processes. The distribution of these key processes in the analyzed extracts per participant has also highlighted both some of the author's key characters and to what extent these latter ones embody her perceptions of the social, religious and political issues that she artistically tries to castigate in her novel under examination. The study ultimately opens up to further explorations embracing such other fields of the Systemic Functional Linguistics as the interpersonal and textual meanings.

Nollywood and the Nigerian Security Situation: Prospects and Challenges of Alternative Security Outfits in Lancelot Odua Imasuen’s Isakaba

Peace and security are not only variables of national growth and development, but also panacea for sustainable development. However, amidst challenges of emergent culture produced by the Nigerian nation-state the two vital variables remain elusive. Hence, the ability to put these variables in place constitutes part of the puzzle and dilemma of almost every republic in Nigeria. Therefore, the problem of this study is persistent state of insecurity that bedevil most republics in Nigeria as manifest in incessant armed robbery attacks, students’ unrest, religious riots, and most recently, militancy and terrorism. Hence, the aim of this study is to assess prospects and challenges of alternative security outfits as solution to Nigeria’s security challenges using Lancelot Odua Imasuen’s Isakaba. The study examined Nollywood’s projection of the search for lasting solution to the nation’s security problems in an outfit influenced by African ritualistic practices, system of justice and its obvious challenges and prospects. Case study and content analysis approaches of the qualitative research method were adopted by the researchers for data collection and analysis. The study revealed that; individuals, organizations, communities, the media and various tiers of government in Nigeria have continued to experiment on how to ensure security of lives and property of the citizenry in the face of a corrupt and lukewarm police force. Consequently, propositions like: the use of the traditional security system, state police, individual security outfits, the use of armed forces and even individualized security systems which allow individuals the use of personal gun for self-protection have been made. The study concluded that alternative security outfits are closer to the people and is therefore more effective than the government security agents. However, the use of these outfits must be supervised by the state or federal governments

Nigeria's Postneoliberal Deficiency Syndrome

This study is critically about the reading of the writing on the wall in Nigeria, the neoliberal antecedents of the Nigerian state, the Boko Haram disaster and the consequent postneoliberal possibilities in the embattled Nigerian nation-state. It has been demonstrated in the study that as a matter of fact, the widely proclaimed religious interpretation of insurgent tendencies in Nigeria is only a neoliberal rationalization of what portends to be the most critical exemplar of Nigeria’s postneoliberal challenges. Findings of the study have led to the conclusion that in essence, the war against terror in Nigeria must encompass wars against the terrors of hunger and starvation, the terror of disease, the terror of illiteracy and indeed, the terror of relative deprivation. The Boko Haram debacle in the meantime, remains the strongest manifestation of deficient postneoliberal possibilities in the country

Transethnic Allegory

The present postmodern cultural and linguistic (re)presentation of the Yoruba world finds an invaluable transethnic expression within the space of Nigerian hip hop, a fact that has escaped sustained critical commentary. While this urban youth development suggests a transgression of conventional cultural boundaries, it ironically inscribes a statement of aesthetic and philosophical dynamism locating the Yoruba world as open to multicultural adaptations and self-critical interrogations of ethnic heritage. This article explores the adoption of hip hop by urban Yoruba youth as a development informed by the global transcultural gaze energized by the imperatives of late capitalism, a combustible impulse that defies the cartography of modernist containment. It reveals how hip hop empowers Yoruba youth to re-cast themselves within the Nigerian nation-state and the economy of the traditional Yoruba culture. This influences a sense of transethnic bonding among Nigerian youths and challenges youth invisibility, just as it draws new terms for gender relations and the openness of this Yoruba set of humanity to other cultures.

Under Reconstruction: Ethnicity, Ethnic Nationalism, and the Future of the Nigerian State

This article, using a diachronic approach, advances the argument that a genuine national cohesion and the future of the Nigerian state cannot be fully guaranteed in the clear absence of addressing the inherent structural defects of the country’s malfunctioning federalism. The Nigerian post-colony is, presently, confronted by the challenges pose by ethnicity/ethnic nationalism with negative consequences of political ethnicity, ethnic conflicts, etc. It is argued that the entrenchment of plural democracy has the capacity to address the lopsided policies of the central state that are at the peril of the weakening federating states and most importantly, the oil-bearing ethnic minorities of Nigeria’s Niger Delta. In addendum, the article argues and demonstrates that democracy in the real sense of it has the potency of democratising the Nigerian nation-state; strengthening of mediatory and regulatory institutions; promoting intraand inter-ethnic relations, etc. The agitations and activities of the oil-bearing ethnicities and various ethnic social movements of the Nigeria’s Fourth Republic for autonomy and social justice were used to buttress this article basic arguments and concludes with the government’s efforts in addressing Africa’s most populous country’s multilayered ethnic problems. 1 An abridged version of this article has been published in Law and Politics in Africa, Asia and Latin America [Verfassung und Recht in Ubersee, VRUE] vol. 42, no. 2, 2009, pp. 212-239. 2 A Nigerian social scientist, Isiaka Alani Badmus is currently an Australian Government funded international scholar attached to the Centre for Peace Studies, School of Humanities, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia where he is conducting a Doctoral research on International Peacekeeping. E-mail: Tel: +61403051521. * Acknowledgment: The author would like to thank ’Dele Ogunmola of the University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia; ’Demola Victor Akinyoade of Salem University, Lokoja, Nigeria; Maureen OgbonaNwaogu of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Lagos, Nigeria, and Unumeri Godwin, author, social scientist and independent researcher/consultant based in Lagos, Nigeria for useful comments on earlier drafts. I thank Dr. Karl-Andreas Hernekamp, Editor of Law and Politics in Africa, Asia and Latin America (c/o Institut fur Internationale Angelegenheiten, Universitat Hamburg, Germany) for his permission to publish the full-length manuscript. Remaining errors are the author’s responsibility.

The Roots of Political Instability in an Artificial "Nation-State": The Case of Nigeria

The Nigerian nation-state is an artificial project of European 19th century colonial endeavor in Africa. As a cobbled variety of the state in Europe and North America, its pretence to the concept of state has not spared it from the contradictions of its awkward past. The immediate implication of this failure is the persistence of political instability. In this paper, I argue that as a state, its construction is not only flawed and absurd, it has remained unsuccessful as well. The primary reason for that lies in the respective refusal by both the British and the Caliphate undertakers of the Nigerian colonial state and its post-colonial successor to acknowledge the resilience of the distinct groups and identities that were forced into Nigeria. I also argue here for a new paradigm that locates political conflict and instability in Africa within the dialectic of state-civil society dissonance situated in a a context-specific articulation of three concepts: construction, entrenchment, and transformation. I argue further that nation-states are stable or unstable to the extent that they are able to fulfil the tasks of construction, entrenchment, and transformation. That solution to Nigeria's political instability lies in first by unraveling its present constitution, and secondly by the evolution of a new entity which accepts a new dialogue that proposes a challenge beyond formal construction of state apparatuses to an active relationship of entrenchment and transformation.

Conflict and Conflict Resolution in the Niger-Delta the Bayelsa Experience

Conflicts, crisis, youths restiveness, hostage taking, kidnapping are recent phenomena that appear synonymous with the Niger Delta, the oil rich region of the Nigerian Nation-State. This region serves as the economic nerve center of the federation. Since the discovery and the production of oil in commercial quantities in 1958 at Oloibiri. Annual budgets of the country had largely depended on oil, with oil revenue accounting for about 80-90% annually which translates into huge financial resources to the federal government, little or nothing is left behind to alleviate the sufferings of the people of this region from whose land bank accounts of transnational companies abroad and the treasury of the federation are been swollen. The concern of the people from this region is that the Nigerian State has not been fair. The formula being adopted after the discovery of oil is fraudulent to the extent that it deprives them the right to control their resources. They hold ths view against the backdrop that before the discovery of oil and oil revenue the principle of derivation was 100%. The feeling of neglect, deprivation and underdevelopment has given rise to so many violent conflicts in recent times. From Ondo State in the SouthWest to Cross River State in the South-South region. Notable among these conflicts are: the Ijaw-Arogbo/Ilaje crises, the Warri Crises, these are inter-ethnic crises over resources and Local Government Headquarters, the invasion of Opia, Ikiyan, Odi, Ikebiri, Olugbobiri, Isoko/Olomoro Crises, Evwreni killing and so on. These are resources driven. The Kaiama declaration, the Ogoni Crises and so on are political and resource driven. IFE PsychologIA Volume 9 no 3, 2001, pp. 95-111