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Ethnic Affiliation And Resource Challenges In Nigeria
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1Background of the study
It is a
commonplace fact that Nigeria is a multi-ethnic nation state with
socio-cultural differences between its component ethnic groups all of
which have resulted into cultural dissimilarity (Okafor, 2007). This
cultural dissimilarity has been manifested by, for instance, the
differences in language, diet, dress and types of social system. Shrewd
observers have noticed that the recent event such as globalization have
not significantly diminished these differences. This static situation
has been due to a number of reasons.
The indigenous languages, which
help to identify the various ethnic groups, are still spoken by almost
the entire population of Nigeria.
The style of life has not, for the
majority people, changed to such a degree as to produce appreciably
greater uniformity. Against this diverse background, many ethnic
problems abound in Nigeria, which arise principally from the hostility
that derives from competition between ethnically different peoples for
wealth and power (Okafor, 2007).
The establishment of
ethno-regionalism had a significant impact in Nigerian political arena.
Theoretically, Edlyne (2002) contented that, even the formations of
political parties, their manifestos, system of leadership and campaign
strategies were originated from ethnic and geographical dimensions. An
ethnic nationality refers to people who agree to share a common
language, their cultural ideology and self identity.
While Okafor
(2007) observed that since the beginning of democratic system of
government during the first republic Nigerian political parties were
forms into regional position supporting the three major ethnic groups
the Hausa/Fulani, Igbo and Yoruba. In similar vein, the third republic
of Nigerian democracy follows the same train. Furthermore, the model
indicates clearly that Nigerians are more loyal to their ethnic
background than their state.
The phenomenon of ethnicity becomes the
most essential aspect of national identity in Nigerian politics, because
people are more prone to their identity than being a Nigerian
(Ogundiya, (2010). Gilley (2009) observed that, majority of Nigerians in
their survey prepare to be label by their ethnic background. However,
Nigerians tend to cluster more readily around the cultural solidarities
of kinship, traditional entity than the class solidarities of the
workplace. They also opined that what is more, “religious and ethnic
identities are more fully formed, more holistic and more strongly felt
than class identities†as evidenced in the fact that “whereas those who
identify with religious and ethnic communities are almost universally
proud of their group identities…those who see themselves as members of a
social class are somewhat more equivocal about their prideâ€. Edlyne
(2002) concludes that looking at the historical antecedent of Nigeria
and the effect of colonialism the challenges is not a point of surprise
but to adhere into unity in diversity.
According to Ogundiya, (2010)
Nigeria has witnessed the transition from the military regime for a
quite long time to a democratic system of government since the year
1999, Nigeria failed to resolve its ethno-religious and political
violence which contributed to the weakening of democratic governance and
national integration. As a multi-ethnic nation, with diverse religious
and cultural background the political system is expected to cope with
and control both human and natural resources effectively, but in
contrast this diversity becomes the source of ethno-religious and
political violence. About five decades after Nigeria gained
independence, the Nigerian diverse social structure in terms of her
heterogeneity has not changed significantly.
Gilley B (2009) opined
that the diversity nature of the society has made identification with
the ‘nation’ a difficult task. Today, identification is easier at both
family and ethnic levels. A consequence of this is that many of the
citizens may never develop a proper concept of nation. This kind of
ethnic group relations signifies a negative dimension and which may mean
much for the Nigerian political system. Therefore, a discussion of the
effects of ethnic politics on the survival of democracy is or seems to
be highly desirable. It even becomes necessary given the cry of
political marginalisation coming from various ethnic groups in the new
democracy. In all political activities in Nigeria, the factor of
ethnicity is reflected. It is particularly obvious in areas like voting,
distribution of political offices, employment and government general
patronage of the citizens. It is against this background that this
research work discusses ethic affiliation and resource challenges in
Nigeria with particular reference to Igbo Etiti Local Government Area of
Enugu State (Gilley, 2009).
According to Levitsky, (2010) in a
federal system of government, revenue allocation involves two schemes.
The first is the vertical sharing between the federal or inclusive
government and the other tiers of governments. The subject of these
sharing schemes is the federally collected revenues. This is because the
revenues generated within the jurisdictional areas of the units –
states and local governments are not subject to the national sharing
formula.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 3]
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]This research work titled ethic affiliation and resource challenges in Nigeria with particular reference to Igbo Etiti Local Government Area of Enugu State. The researcher examined the effect of ethnic affiliation on the development of Nigerian economy. Four research questions and hypotheses were formulated in this project work. The research instrument used in this study includes oral interview and questionnaire. The population of the study was 209,248 while the samples size of 399 was determine ... Continue reading---
