ABSTRACT
Nigeria
is a multi-ethnic society which is made up of about 250 ethnic groups. The
ethnic composition is divided into majority group and minority group. Over the
years, the minority groups have been held under the domination of the majority
group, while the minority groups have been group, while the minority groups
have been struggling to fight against domination and marginalization by the
majority groups. This is what is usually referred to as minority question in
Nigeria.
The
problem of minority question in Etche community could be better understood in
terms of socio-political and economic marginalization. However, existing
studies have focused solely on economic perspective of the marginalization with
little or no attention to socio-political perspective which could be insightful
in the study of the minority question in Etche. Therefore this work traces the
phases of political, economic and infrastructural marginalization of the Etche
people between 1960 and 2015.
The
work adopted the historical narrative approach to study. Moreso, it utilized
the qualitative method in gathering of data from stakeholders such as local
government officials, farmers and civil servants within Etche. This narrative
method and other data collected were subsequently subjected to content
analysis.
The
study concluded that some key minority group issues such as domination,
marginalization in appointments, and resource allocation, infrastructural
development and general well-being of the people. However, the study
recommended that the best solution to this problem is equity and fairness in
appointments and resource allocation and proper integration of the minority
groups including Etche people in the political and administrative structure of
the nation. More importantly, the study emphasized in its findings that the
dominating forces which include the political elite in Rivers State should
ensure that proper allocation of values and the Socio-economic allocation of
funds trail down to other minorities in the state. There should be a
collaborative effort by the youth and the elders in terms of dialogue with the
federal and state governments. Finally, there is the need by the government and
all its agencies to be seen as fair and just in the provision of basic needs of
life to the communities where oil is being exploited.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background
to the Study
A level which is
quite germane to this work is the Nigerian Federal Structure which could be
analyzed in the context of the marginalization between the Federal authorities,
the component state governments and the several local government councils in
the country. This level of analysis have brought into focus very important
issues which altogether translates into the minority question which is, the
focus of this study. For example, issues relating to the sharing of federally
deemed revenue to the three arms of government, the effect of the federal
fiscal policies on the constituting states, the role of political parties,
ethnicized political leadership in the unification process between the federal,
state and local governments and more so, intra deprivation of allocated
resources within the states - that is exploitation of the minority by the
Minority groups in a State manifest negatively on the masses bringing sharply
into focus questions of marginalization especially among the downtrodden.
As Osuntokun has
succinctly noted ‘’the demand by the ethnic minority groups for local autonomy,
equal opportunity within the federation was benignly neglected by the British
Colonial power in the 1950s despite the request of some political parties at
the time, the Action Group (AG), the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC), the
Calabar Ogoja River (COR) Movement for restructuring the federation by creating
more states’’1 Historically therefore, the imperfections of the
Nigerian union has long been recognized. This recognition and its problems
prompted all interested groups to demand for the creation of more states during
the 1957 Constitutional Conference. In reaction to the development, the British
colonial government responded by hesitantly setting up the Minorities
Commission under the Chairmanship of Sir Henry Willink with Sir Gordeon Hadow
(Deputy Governor of the Gold Coast, 1954- 1957), Mr. Philip Mason (A Director
of Studies in Race Relations, Royal Institute of International Affairs ) and
Mr. J.B. Shearer as members2
The
terms of reference of the Minorities Commission (popularly known as the Willink
Commission) among other things was mandated to
(i)
Ascertain the facts about the fears of
Minorities in any part of Nigeria and to propose means of allaying those fears…
and
(ii)
If, but only if, no other solution seems
to the Commission to meet the case, that as a last resort to make detailed
recommendations for the creation of one or more new state
With these
mandates and subsequent enquires, it is evidently clear that the Willink’s
Commission recognized the existence of both ethnic and religious minorities in
its report. However, the beat of independence in 1960 was too strong; hence
Nigerians accepted the imperfections of their federal constitution, the results
of which has been a lopsided post-colonial Nigerian federal structure. Although
subsequent constitutional reviews after independence attempted to address the Minority
Question, yet the problem of a defective and unbalanced federation,
intensification of ethnic consciousness and rivalries, a subverted indigenous
ethos of government and culture continued to exacerbate and manifest in various
dimensions especially in the Niger-Delta of which the Etche people of Rivers
State belong.
It is indeed in
the light of the endemic problems of the minorities that this study has
embarked on a case study of the Etche, a segment of the minorities in Nigeria
whose experience and peculiarities demand immediate attention by the Nigerian
government in order to alleviate those confrontations which has brought untold
limitations to their lives and economic development in all ramifications. As
earlier noted, the Henry Willink Commission set up on September 25, 1957 by the
Colonial Secretary completed its investigation in April 1958. In a recommendation that affirmed that the
minority fears were not unfounded, the Commission proposed the balancing of
power within the country so that there would be minimal temptation of the
majority to use power solely for its own advantage. While state creation was
seen as the panacea to the problem of the minorities, the Commission downplayed
this for the reason that it would create further minorities. Instead of state
creation, the Commission felt that the interests of the minorities could be
best protected at the Federal level by working out some democratic machinery
which would safeguard their interest.
Although, the
minority populated Mid-West region was carved out from the Yoruba (West) in
1963, the political aspiration of Nigeria’s minorities for the security of
their own regions or states was not given any real attention until the collapse
of the First Republic in January 1966.It is against this background that the
current study takes off its investigation and research on how these issues
impacted on the Etche people, a minority group in Rivers State.
In
a multi-cultural society like Nigeria, some people have been on the advantaged
side due to their population, early contact with the colonialists or their
educational attainment. These gave rise to competition and struggle for
equality and fairness in the distribution of resources, offices and positions
available to the society to which they belong to.3This has been the
situation in Nigeria since independence in 1960. The minority ethnic groups
have been struggling for equality, fairness and full participation in the
management of the affairs of the country.
The majority tribes as noted are the Hausa-Fulani, Igbo and Yoruba.
While the minority ones are people of different ethnic groups found in the
northern and southern parts of Nigeria.4
At
the height of the ethnic minority question is the disenchantment with the
structure of the Nigerian federation perceived by the ethnic minorities to be
skewed in favor of the three dominant ethnic groups. To the ethnic minorities,
the federation is not inclusive and this has resulted in political, economic
and cultural marginalization. In comparative historical terms, the three
regions, the North, West and East have within them minority populations and
each of these has its own peculiar problems. In the South West, after
independence the minorities asserted that the government at Ibadan was
dominated by the Yoruba and that it would be difficult for a non-Yoruba ethnic
group to become the Premier of the Western region. This led to the demand for a
mid-Western Region. In the South East, after independence, the minorities
expressed fear that the Igbos would over-run them commercially and politically.
For this reason, they demanded for the creation of a separate region to
comprise of Calabar, Ogoja and Rivers States.5
In
the Northern part of Nigeria, the Ilorin and Kabba Divisions complained that
the system had been autocratic and that a change to democratic methods was yet
to be established. They demanded to be transferred to the Western region. In
non-Muslim part of the Emirate, there was strong objection to the operation of
Muslim sharia law.6There was a strong agitation by minorities in the
North central Nigeria for the creation of Middle Belt region to cater for their
interest and self-autonomy.
Reflecting
on the problems of minorities in general, David Miller underscores the point
that “democracy ought to be willing to include certain basic rights in the
constitution, precisely, to protect minorities against unfriendly nature of the
majorities at any moment”.7 It is however important to observe that
the problem of the minorities in Nigeria does not lie in the lack of constitutional
provision and protection of their basic rights. Their problem rather, is a
function of certain existential conditions, which negate the implementation of
the provision. According to Toyo, how constitutional provisions are translated
into practice depends on who is in power and this applies to the federal, state
and local government levels and the party in power which is of crucial
importance. A political party of tribal loyalists, power sharers, sycophants,
greedy opportunists and get-rich-quick gangsters can never translate intentions
of the constitutions into practice.8
The common conceptualization of ethnic minorities usually is in
contradistinction of in fact the majority group in any given society. For
Osaghae, “… ethnic minorities are usually defined in contradiction to major
ethnic groups whom they co-exist within a political system. These groups
experience systematic discrimination and domination because of their numerical
strength and a host of historical and sociological factors”.9These
minority groups sometimes take measures in furtherance of their collective
interests. Almost as a rule, minorities which are not subjected to domination
or discrimination, and instead constitute dominant and hegemonic groups, such
as white colonial regions in Africa and Asia, the Afrikaner whites in apartheid
South Africa, the Tutsi in post – 1994 Rwanda and the Fulani in Nigeria are
excluded from the category of proper minorities.”10
It is against this background that, Osaghae went further to
differentiate and categorize a workable definition of the term minorities in
the Nigerian context, as in “contradistinction to the three major ethnic
nationalities in the country – Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo – as
linguistically, culturally, territorially and historically distinct groups
which, because of their diffusion and numerical weakness within the modern
Nigerian state, have been subjected to subordinate political, social and
economic positions in the Federation and its constituent units.11
Arising from the foregoing, we can then see why the mainstay of
minority politics in Nigeria has been consistently tailored and tended to the
efforts by the minority elites and movements to redress the situation they have
found themselves, and improve the position of the minorities in the power
structure, resources allocation system and distribution pattern of the country.12
Just like all other minority ethnic
groups in Nigeria, Etche people faces these challenges in the hands of majority
ethnic nationalities in Nigeria and these challenges are the fundamental
national question. The minority question has remained a national issue in
Nigeria. The fear of domination, exclusion and neglect by the majority ethnic
nationalities form the fulcrum of the national question. These issues have
remained a national problem since independence and a fundamental issue in the
unity and political development of Nigeria. Ethnic domination and
marginalization cuts across all ethnic nationalities but smaller groups
complain of domination by the bigger ethnic groups. The Etche people experience
domination and marginalization by the major ethnic groups. This study therefore
historicizes minority question in Nigeria focusing on the Etche people of River
State.
Such ethnic dominations are found in the
area of political domination and sharing of social and economic benefits of the
country. As Rodney Ciboh pointed out that in December 1984, when grumbling
about Northern domination of Muhammadu Buhari’s supreme military council (12 of
the 20 members were Northerners) became very loud, the front page report backed
with statistical chart to show the “gross imbalance in federal jobs”.13According
to Rodney, the report generated much controversy as the Southern-based
newspapers drew the attention to the “imbalance in the armed forces” and the
unbroken political domination of the northern hegemony which as noted has been
largely responsible for the many political compromises and maneuvers, untidy
unions and unholy alliances whose motives are far removed from the intended
goal of national unity and development.
1.2
Statement
of the Problem
Resolving the problems of the minorities
in Nigeria has remained a recurring issue in the Nigerian polity. Efforts made
by scholars in this past direction
focused mainly on the marginalization of the Odi, (Bayelsa State), Ogoni,
Ikwerre, Bonny in Rivers State and other oil producing communities. In effect,
no outstanding scholarly work has been undertaken by any researcher on the
Etche community thereby necessitating this current work that aims at addressing
the issues as it relates to this community and its people especially in the
areas of economic marginalization, infrastructural deficiency and development.
Substantively, existing studies have focused on economic perspective of the
marginalization with little or no attention to socio- political considerations
which could be insightful in the study of the minority question in Etche.
Therefore, this work traces the phases of political, economic and
infrastructural marginalization of the Etche people between 1960- 2015.
The problem which the study hoped to
resolve is that of providing and in depth historical account of how the
minority question has been manifesting on the Etche people which up to this
point is clearly deficient in literature and academic research mainly because
of its remoteness. Succinctly, this study on minority question in Nigeria: a
study of the Etche people carefully examines categorically the problems of
domination, political, economic marginalization and the inquiry into utter
neglect of industries and health facilities and a general subjugation of the
people within the Nigerian state. The issues mentioned above are visible
problems facing the Nigerian state which this study hopes to resolve. Therefore
for purpose of clarity, the study raises these hypothetical questions:
1.
To what extent are Etche people
marginalized in Nigeria even with their enormous oil resources and economic
contribution to the Nigerian State?
2.
What are the implications of the
minority question on the unity, progress and development of the Nigerian State?
3.
To what extent have the federal and
state efforts made by the government to address these minority issues been
oriented?
4.
Can the Etche minority question be
alluded to the question of exploitation by the dominating ethnic groups in
Rivers State such as the Ikwerre people?
In
sum, the study hopes to investigate not just the unjust failure of the federal
governments but to ascertain if there be any marginalization on the part of the
Rivers State government.
The main objective of the study is to
provide an expository account of the minority question in Nigeria and its
impact on the Etche people. The specific objectives are to:
1
trace the phases of political, economic
and infrastructural marginalization of the Etche people between 1960 and 2015;
2
assess the socio-economic impact of
various challenges neglect and discrimination faced by the Etche people as a
distinct minority Ethnic group in Nigeria;
3
historicize the relationship of the
minority groups which Etche is part and parcel of with the majority ethnic
nationalities in terms of statutory allocations and other denatures in terms of
social economic indices and
4
draw inferences based on the real
situation on ground in order to enhance the socio- economic wellbeing of the
Etche people through recommendations which shall be made to effect such changes
not just to federal and state governments but to other international
governmental and non-governmental agencies;
1.4
Significance
of the Study
The
significance of this study among other expected contributions to knowledge are
to:
Provide
an insight in to how negligence and subjective economic and political
considerations have undermined the development that should be given to marginalized
producers of natural wealth. The study is also expected to contribute to the
question of unity in diversity and as such is an uncontestable and fundamental
issue aimed at addressing equitable allocation of resources to engender
national development. The study is significant as it would evaluate the nature
and level exploitation of Nigeria’s oil by indigenous and foreign domination of
the resources of the Etche people as a contribution for feasibility study for
future development. More importantly, the study would bring into light another
dimension of the minority question; exploitation of minority by minority.
Finally, the study would complement existing literature on the minority
question for future academic research and to further provide the states,
federal government and other international organizations with potential working
documents through recommendations that would be sent there at the end of the
research.
1.5 Scope of the Study
The geographical scope of this study
covered the whole of Etche land in Rivers State and it covered the period
between 1960 and 2015 when minority issues and agitations became very visible
in the Nigerian socio-political system. In this study, occasional references
were made to the Niger Delta region where the people of Etche live, to enable
us have a clearer understanding of the subject matter. Reference was also made
to the period before 1960 to give a historical insight into the political
structure of Nigeria before independence in order to fully comprehend and explain
the general trend in socio-political interaction in Nigeria and how it has
affected the Etche people.
The period 1960- 2015 was selected for
the following reasons. Although the minority issues already constituted a
serious national issue before Nigeria’s national independence in 1960, the
pre-independence issues were less violent. The period 1960 to 1999 experienced
some forms of more serious agitations of the minorities, the repressive method
of administration of the country by the military reduced the level and
frequency of recurrence of the agitations. As from 1999 to 2015, the agitations
became extremely violent to the point of threatening the welfare of the
Nigerian State at large. Thus, being that the greatest threat to Nigeria’s
security occurred in the post-independence
era,
without expanding the socio-political and economic issues involved in the
struggle, the period has been perceived a best time of study of the phenomena
of minority issues in Nigeria. Limitations to this study were in the area of
insufficient quantity of secondary source materials to validate oral
information given by people and the inability of the local people to grant oral
interviews as they suspect every visitor searching for information as a
government agent due to their past experiences. However, these challenges did
not water-down the quality of this research as the researcher made efforts to
cover such gaps. Another limitation of this work is that it did not cover the
Etche people in Abia State as its scope is on Rivers State.
1.5
Methodology
Essentially, the
methodology adopted for this study is a historical narrative of the Minority
Question and the evaluation of the Minority Question and the evaluation of the
origin of the Etche people and how the issue of marginalization came to
manifest in its land and on its people. The research has therefore employed the
use of Content Analysis primarily based on data collection techniques involving
research bulletins, journals and newspaper publications. It also utilized a
critical review of extant studies both theoretically and empirically and
supporting all available and reliably coded assumptions of former scholars on
the national question. All these have been complemented with interviews from
stakeholders on the subject matter and other experts,- workers of
multi-national companies on the subject matter and from the rural dwellers who
actually experience the day to day deprivations, sufferings and
marginalization.
1.7 Ethical Consideration
This study has taken into consideration
every possible effect that this study is likely to have on the general public
and has carefully tried to curtail any negative effect thereof. By this, the researcher confirms the
confidentiality of information received from the study through the issuance of
the informed consent form which guarantees the protection of the interviewees
and the information gathered from them, therefore, information that shall be
received through interviews and focal group discussions in the course of this
research work shall be treated with utmost discretion and confidentiality. The
research work would create a wider knowledge of the minority question and the
grievances in Etche Land against the Nigerian state. Therefore, it is these
deficiencies stemming from the above problems that have prompted the need for
this research.
END NOTES
1 Akinjide
Osuntokun:’ The Historical Background of Nigerian Federation’
In A.B. Akinyemi etal, Readings in
Federalism. Lagos. NIIA 1979) 102
2
Report
of the Minorities Commission. Lagos: Daily Times Special Report, August 1958,) 2.
3 J.
D. Galadima, The Press, Identity Politics and Conflict Management in
Northern Nigeria, Jos, Plateau State,(Selidan publishers, 2010,) 13
4
J. D. Galadima, The Press,
Identity Politics and Conflict Management in Northern Nigeria, Jos. Plateau State, (Selidan publishers,
2010,)13
5 J.
O. Ojiako, Nigeria: Yesterday, Today, And … , Awka, (Africana
Educational Publishers, (Nig), Ltd, 1981)45
6 J.
O. Ojiako, Nigeria: Yesterday, Today And…., Awka, (Africana Educational Publishers), 1981) 45
7
D.
Miller, Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, Oxford
University Publishers Press 2003)
8
D.
Miller, Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford,( Oxford University, Publishers,
Press. 2003)
9
E. E. Osaghae, Nigeria Since
Independence, Crippled Giant, (London: Hurt and Company, Publishers1998) 45
10 E.
E. Osaghae, Nigeria Since Independence, Crippled Giant, (London: Hurt and Company, Publishers 1998)
45
11 E.E. Osaghae, Nigeria Since Independence,
Crippled Giant, (London: Hurt and Company, Publishers 1998) 45
12 E.
E. Osaghae, Nigeria Since Independence, Crippled Giant, (London: Hurt and Company, Publishers 1998)
45
13
Rodney Ciboh, ‘’ Federal Character, the fear of
Domination and Sovereign National Conference in The Sovereign National Conference edited by Okpeh O. Okpeh, p.
64
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