AN EVALUATION OF ETHNICITY AND ISSUE OF POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF DELTA STATE)
AN EVALUATION
OF ETHNICITY AND ISSUE OF
POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
(A CASE STUDY OF DELTA STATE)
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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
BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE STUDY 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
METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS 63
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0
DATA PRESENTATION 64
4.1 DATA ANALYSIS 64
4.2
FINDINGS 69
CHAPTER
FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 69
RECOMMENDATIONS
CONCLUSION
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
SUGGESTION
FOR FURTHER STUDIES
REFERENCES
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:
1.
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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