scholarly journals Identity and Identity Politics in Nigeria: A Reflection on the Indicators

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4(17)) ◽  
pp. 263-286
Author(s):  
Tope Shola Akinyetun

Nigeria is a nation with plural ethnic, religious, lingual and cultural identities that are constantly exploited by the political class to promote their selfish interest. Although not a determinant forconflict, diversity in Nigeria has unjustifiably sparked identity-based conflicts which necessitateseparatism, insurgency and ethnic restiveness – among others, which threatens to drive the country to a perpetual state of fragility. This paper thence sought to assess Nigeria’s tortuous experience with identity and identity politics with particular reference to ethnic, religious, and lingual challenges. The paper furthers the discussion on identity politics in Nigeria to proffer practicable solutions. It argues that identity consciousness has overtaken national consciousness and engendered a relationship characterized by domination, superiority and hegemony by the various groups. It reveals that the currency of politics is an ethnic-hegemony-rivalry sentiment that threatens national integration. The paper reviews available literature on the subject matter from peer-reviewed journal articles, reports of reputable international organizations, working papers and newspaper articles. It concluded that identities have become powerful manipulative instruments in the hands of the political elites used to divide the Nigerian populace. It recommended the promotion of justice, equity and fairness in governance to ameliorate the chances of identity dissension and identity-based conflicts.

2005 ◽  
pp. 65-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Slobodan Naumovic

The text offers an examination of socio-political bases, modes of functioning, and of the consequences of political instrumentalisation of popular narratives on Serbian disunity. The first section of the paper deals with what is being expressed and what is being done socially when narratives on Serbian disunity are invoked in everyday discourses. The next section investigates what political actor sty, by publicly replicating them, or by basing their speeches on key words of those narratives. The narratives on Serbian disunity are then related to their historical and social contexts, and to various forms of identity politics with which they share common traits. The nineteenth century wars over political and cultural identity, intensified by the struggle between contesting claims to political authority, further channeled by the development of party politics in Serbia and radicalized by conflicts of interest and ideology together provided the initial reasons for the apparition of modern discourses on Serbian disunity and disaccord. Next, addressed are the uninnally solidifying or misinterpreting really existing social problems (in the case of some popular narratives on disunity), or because of intentionally exploiting popular perceptions of such problems (in the case of most political meta-narratives), the constructive potential related to existing social conflicts and splits can be completely wasted. What results is a deep feeling of frustration, and the diminishing of popular trust in the political elites and the political process in general. The contemporary hyperproduction of narratives on disunity and disaccord in Serbia seems to be directly related to the incapacity of the party system, and of the political system in general, to responsibly address, and eventually resolve historical and contemporary clashes of interest and identity-splits. If this vicious circle in which the consequences of social realities are turned into their causes is to be prevented, conflicts of interest must be discursively disassociated from ideological conflicts, as well as from identity-based conflicts, and all of them have to be disentangled from popular narratives on splits and disunity. Most important of all, the practice of political instrumentalisation of popular narratives on disunity and disaccord has to be gradually abandoned.


Author(s):  
Paul Collier

Are natural assets a curse? In The Bottom Billion I argued why I thought they often did more harm than good to the poorest countries. But the real measure is not just the damage they cause, but their harm relative to their potential. Natural resources are the largest assets available to these societies. Their known natural capital has been estimated to be worth double their produced capital. The failure to harness natural capital is the single-most important missed opportunity in economic development. Since writing The Bottom Billion I have accumulated more research on the subject, as have many others. Indeed, whether an abundance of natural assets is a blessing or a curse is currently one of the disputes raging among economists. There are some high-visibility instances of natural assets appearing to ruin a country: Sierra Leone’s diamonds, for example, seemed to shred the fabric of that society to pieces; Nigeria’s oil fueled the corruption of the political class. But are these just outliers? After all, Botswana harnessed its diamonds to produce the fastest growing economy in the world, and Norway used its oil to achieve the world’s highest living standard. The question becomes whether there really is a “resource curse,” and whether, if it does exist, it is limited to countries with deeper problems. I have come to regard this as the most crucial issue in the struggle to transform the poorest societies. The revenues that they could get from natural assets are enormous, dwarfing any conceivable flows of aid. They could certainly be transformative. If they deliver, any efforts to inhibit the extraction of natural assets from the poorest countries are not simply counterproductive but irresponsible, impeding the path out of poverty. If, on the other hand, natural assets backfire, then there is an argument for leaving them in the ground. There would indeed be the basis for an alliance between the environmental lobby, pressing for natural assets to be conserved, and the development lobby, fighting to end mass poverty.


Author(s):  
Yu. V. Kobets ◽  
T. B. Madryha

During the period of complexity of systemic reforms in modern Ukraine, the big importance of the qualities and actions of the political elite become on the first hand. Еhe ability to fulfill urgent tasks of democratic arrangement of different spheres of social life depends on these qualities and actions of the political elite. The article analyzes the problem of the quality of the political elite in Ukraine. The article proves the importance of forming a professional, effective, active, qualitative elite in the conditions of state building. The basic ideas of the founders of elitology are described, the content of the concepts "elite", "establishment", "political class" is revealed. The conclusions about the main stages of formation of political elites in Ukraine are made. It is proved that the process of forming a truly leading elite group is underway, which can unite the political, economic and cultural revival of our state.


Significance However, the launch of this initiative to bring “peace, security and development” to the Central African Republic (CAR) remains the subject of many disputes within the political class. Impacts Armed groups will continue fighting in the peripheries, including over control of mineral resources and trade routes. Divisions among international actors over whether armed groups should be invited to the dialogue will reduce the pressure on Touadera. Touadera will face pressure either to involve former President Francois Bozize in the dialogue or to agree to a plan for his exile.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Olu Awofeso ◽  
Paul A. Irabor

The study examines party cross-carpeting in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. These were with the view to investigating the effects of cross-carpeting on the country’s democratic engagement. From historical antecedence standpoint, the study reveals that cross-carpeting was patterned towards ethnic/religion inclination, intra-party feud and selfish interest of the political class. Coupled with these anti-democratic tendencies, the study also found that indiscipline in political parties and lack of ideology were the major factors that determined cross-carpeting in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. Finally, the study affirms that party discipline and ideology must be strictly adhered to by political parties to check the menace of incessant cross-carpeting among political office holders.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chijioke Basil Onuoha ◽  
◽  
Henry Ufomba ◽  
Ebong Itoro Bassey

One of the most contested issues in Nigeria’s political landscape and federal structure is the debate on the fiscal autonomy of the Local Government as the third tier of government. The literature on the subject appears to zero down the issue of Local Government fiscal autonomy to a political ‘devil’. The position of existing scholarship on the subject concludes that by taking advantage of Sections 7 and 162 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, it is common practice for the State Governors to usurp the autonomy of the Local Governments. The Governors are also accused of using the Joint Account framework to control the statutory allocations of the Local Governments. Hence, Local Governments in Nigeria lacks fiscal autonomy which is one of the main principles of the three tiers of government structure. However, the underlying politics that has played out in the Fourth Republic in Nigeria reveals that this historical and legalistic perception does not provide a complete explanation of the problem. This is because the literature does not consider the role of the political elite at the Local Government level in sustaining the shrewd nature of State and Local Governments interaction in Nigeria’s Federal structure, rather the existing literature focused entirely on the governor as a ‘devil’ and ignores the role of the political class at the grassroots level as “lying angels”. This paper is therefore an invitation for a deeper theoretical deconstruction of this phenomenon to stimulate an encompassing and interesting perceptive on what we conceptualize as State-Local Government Interactions in Nigeria (SLIN). Our primary objective is to draw attention to the role of the personalities of the political class at the grassroots level which makes up the highest cadre of the hierarchy in the Local Government in shaping SLIN. We present a case that future debates should go beyond “devil” and also focus on the profound role of “lying angels”.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chijioke Basil Onuoha ◽  
Henry Ufomba ◽  
Ebong Itoro Bassey

One of the most contested issues in Nigeria’s political landscape and federal structure is the debate on the fiscal autonomy of the Local Government as the third tier of government. The literature on the subject appears to zero down the issue of Local Government fiscal autonomy to a political ‘devil’. The position of existing scholarship on the subject concludes that by taking advantage of Sections 7 and 162 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, it is common practice for the State Governors to usurp the autonomy of the Local Governments. The Governors are also accused of using the Joint Account framework to control the statutory allocations of the Local Governments. Hence, Local Governments in Nigeria lacks fiscal autonomy which is one of the main principles of the three tiers of government structure. However, the underlying politics that has played out in the Fourth Republic in Nigeria reveals that this historical and legalistic perception does not provide a complete explanation of the problem. This is because the literature does not consider the role of the political elite at the Local Government level in sustaining the shrewd nature of State and Local Governments interaction in Nigeria’s Federal structure, rather the existing literature focused entirely on the governor as a ‘devil’ and ignores the role of the political class at the grassroots level as “lying angels”. This paper is therefore an invitation for a deeper theoretical deconstruction of this phenomenon to stimulate an encompassing and interesting perceptive on what we conceptualize as State-Local Government Interactions in Nigeria (SLIN). Our primary objective is to draw attention to the role of the personalities of the political class at the grassroots level which makes up the highest cadre of the hierarchy in the Local Government in shaping SLIN. We present a case that future debates should go beyond “devil” and also focus on the profound role of “lying angels”.


Author(s):  
Ray Ikechukwu Jacob

This paper examines how ethnic conflict occurred as a result of actions or decisions made by either local  government, state or federal government in Nigeria. Ethnic conflict can be triggered due to various factors, such geographical proximity, group identity, deliberate manipulation of negative perceptions by political leaders, competition of resources, weakness of political institution transitions to democracy, and etc. However, the main focus of this paper is the implementation of Shari’a law in the Northern Nigeria and how the decisions and the implementations have led to blood-shed conflicts in the country. In general, a number of blood-shed events that occurred in Nigeria are also due to the process of decision-making by the political elites that could not fulfil the requirements of the respective ethnic groups. The implications had been overwhelmingly devastating in the country. Uncountable lives were lost via mayhem and blood-shed wars. Homes, shops and properties were destroyed. The economic implications of ethnic conflict have resulted in unequal distribution of resources among individual, groups and regions within the country. The growing economic disparities may increase the fear of those ethnic groups that are disadvantaged; this has warranted that the ignorant masses are often being remote and mobilized by the political class to engage in religious crisis in order to achieve their selfish political interests. In the same vein, similar ethnic based political movements have arisen in Nigeria. Therefore, decision-making is one source that could lead to ethnic conflict in a multi-cultural and ethnic country like Nigeria. Decision-making approach was used to examine the scene of conflict by focusing only on the religious conflict between Muslims and Christians in the country.


2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 704-725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Kaya

This article aims to answer the question whether identity-based movements are free from economic interests. By analyzing the actions and orientations of the Islamists in Turkey, I show that new social movements based on cultural identities are far from representing the demands of groups for recognition. Rather, these movements aim at establishing hegemony by controlling the intellectual life of society by cultural means. It is insisted that we need a Gramscian view of culture in order to understand the so-called identity politics. Identity-based movements do not refer to the end of social classes, but to the emergence of a new middle class. And against the advocating perspectives on identity politics, I argue that the possible solution to the question of fragmentation could be found in the idea of republic that does not prioritize any culture but seeks a central element that makes it meaningful to talk about such a collective arrangement as society.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 30-36
Author(s):  
Pavel Kandel ◽  

The subject of the article is repeat parliamentary elections in two countries by mere chance run on the same date. The external parallels of both election campaigns, such as the low turnout and the importance of voters from abroad, the continuing relevance of the agenda of toplevel corruption, the electoral failure of the socialists in both rounds are striking, and are scrutinized in the article. However, the outcomes of the campaigns are very different. In Bulgaria, even the second attempt to renew the government and the political class ended with an uncertain intermediate result, and its main triumphant Slavi Trifonov’s standing is far from looking encouraging. The success of the new counter-elite force and its leader is not promising to end the political crisis and is remindful of the previous scenarios already seen twice in Bulgaria: the unexpected rise of political psychics and the subsequent shift of sympathies to the next idol of the masses. In Moldova, the renovators succeeded in consolidating their grip on power and securing impressive credit of popular trust thus making a credible step towards implementation of their promises. It remains to keep track of who will be more successful.


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