Governance, Ethnicity, and Response to Conflicts: Deficit to Sustainable Development in Nigeria.

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue I, January 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186

Governance, Ethnicity, and Response to Conflicts: Deficit to Sustainable Development in Nigeria.

Osondu Chukwudi Solomon
Department of Public Administration, Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State – Nigeria

Abstract
Nigeria has never been more divided in its history along ethnic and religious lines than it is today. Not even in the period preceding the Nigeria-Biafra war was Nigeria faced with the level of internal dysfunction, disorder, fear and real challenge to the continued existence of the country as it is presently constituted. Internal conflicts have spread to areas hitherto believed to be insulated, the Nigeria Middle Belt or the North Central Nigeria. The current situation has raised ethnic and religious tensions, and internal security concerns to an unprecedented and unpredictable level. There seems to be a general feeling that anything can happen any time to the Nigeria project. For over a decade, the menace of the Islamist terrorism has crippled economic and social activities in the North Eastern part of Nigeria. Currently, the activities of the Fulani Herders, especially in the North Central Nigeria or the Middle Belt, pose grave danger to the future of Nigeria. Most of the states of the North Central Nigeria form the food basket of the country. The Fulani Herders have killed thousands of farmers and sacked many farming towns and communities. These activities have shown to pose serious danger to sustainable development and indeed the corporate existence of Nigeria. But the government weak response to these recent coordinated attacks by the Fulani herders against the Tivs and other ethnic groups in the Middle Belt states who are mostly Christians tends to accentuate an ethno-religious perceptions of government bias in favour of the Fulani Herders who incidentally are Muslims. The conflicts, the government lack-lustre responses, and the perceptions of the various ethno-religious groups at the receiving end of these conflicts, constitute sure setbacks to national development. This paper, therefore, interrogates the Nigerian Government’s response to conflicts in some parts of the country and concludes that these responses tend to justify the perception that the government is pursuing an ethno-religious agenda. The paper goes on to further hold that current situation is a deficit to sustainable development in the short run, and the continued existence of Nigeria in the long run. It finally tries to make recommendations on actions that may reinvigorate the Nigeria project and enhance sustainable development.

Key words: ethnic agenda, Fulani herders, internal conflicts, sustainable development

Introduction

Nigeria has faced many challenges to its corporate existence before and since independence in 1960. The climax of this was the Nigeria – Biafran War of 1967-1970. This was so because it was a war of secession, pitching the entire country against a “recalcitrant” ethnic nationality – the Igbo. Since after that war, Nigeria have seen many conflicts which have set back development and, in many cases, threaten its continued existence as an entity. The recent history of conflicts in Nigeria includes the Niger Delta conflict, the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency, the Biafran agitation for sovereignty and the Herders attacks. While the armed resistance in the Niger Delta region has abated, the agitation for a sovereign state of Biafran in the South Eastern region has been “crushed” by the federal government, even though this agitation had always been non-violent. The Boko Haram insurgency in the North East, though degraded, has remained very active, especially in Borno State. The Fulani Herders’ brutal attacks on many farming communities in the North Central, parts of the North East, South West and South East, is the conflict currently on the front burner. These attacks which seem not to be isolated cases have resulted in widespread killings, razing, and sacking of many communities (Jatto, 2017: 216). . Today, there is a widespread sense of insecurity in many parts of the country over the activities of the Herders, especially in the face of seeming inaction by the Federal Government of Nigeria. The perceived government weak response has continued to elicit reactions from the different divides in the Nigeria Project. The reactions could not be less when the seeming government inaction is coming in the heels of brutal military operations mounted by the same government to crush the pro-Biafra group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), in its non-violent self-determination campaign for a sovereign State of Biafra. The government even went ahead and enlisted the unarmed group as a terrorist organization (Soyombo, 2017:1). There is a general perception in the South-East, South-South and North-Central Nigeria that the current Nigerian government is tacitly, to say the least, encouraging a gradual but violent Islamization programme of the Hausa-Fulani in Nigeria.

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