Identity Transformation and Identity Politics under Structural Adjustment in Nigeria

235 Pages·2005·2.97 MB·English

Identity Transformation
and Identity Politics
under Structural Adjustment in
Nigeria

Edited by

Attahiru Jega

Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala
in collaboration with
The Centre for Research and Documentation, Kano
DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the ever-lasting memory of Claude Ake, scholar
patriot and activist, who died in a plane crash on 4 November, 1996.

This book was commissioned and published within the framework of the
Nordic Africa Institute’s programme on The Political and Social Context of
Structural Adjustment in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Programme Co-ordinator:
Adebayo O. Olukoshi

Indexing terms
Economics
Structural Adjustment
Identity

Nigeria

Language checking: Elaine Almén
Cover photo: Pressens Bild

© Nordiska Afrikainstitutet and Centre for Research and Documentation

ISBN 91–7106–456–7

Printed in Sweden by Elanders Gotab, Stockholm, 2000
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Table of Contents

FOREWORD................................................................................................................7
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...................................................9

1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. IDENTITY TRANSFORMATION
AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY UNDER CRISIS AND
ADJUSTMENT.........................................................................................................11
Attahiru Jega

2. THE STATE AND IDENTITY TRANSFORMATION UNDER
STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT IN NIGERIA..............................................24
Attahiru Jega

3. THE TRANSFORMATION OF ETHNO-REGIONAL
IDENTITIES IN NIGERIA.................................................................................41
Jibrin Ibrahim

4. RELIGIOUS IDENTITY IN THE CONTEXT OF STRUCTURAL
ADJUSTMENT IN NIGERIA.............................................................................62
Ibrahim Mu’azzam and Jibrin Ibrahim

5. TRANSFORMATION OF MINORITY IDENTITIES IN
POST-COLONIAL NIGERIA.............................................................................86
Abdul Raufu Mustapha

6. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN’S SOCIETIES AND
THE STATE, 1985–1993: THE USE OF DISCOURSES OF
WOMANHOOD BY THE NCWS....................................................................109
Charmaine Pereira

7. ADJUSTMENT AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF LABOUR
IDENTITY: WHAT’S NEW AND DOES IT MATTER?.........................134
Jimi O. Adesina

8. THE YOUTH, ECONOMIC CRISIS AND IDENTITY
TRANSFORMATION: THE CASE OF THE YANDABA IN KANO161
Yunusa Zakari Ya’u

9. YOUTH CULTURE AND AREA BOYS IN LAGOS...........................181
Abubakar Momoh

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10. STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT, STUDENTS’ MOVEMENT
AND POPULAR STRUGGLES IN NIGERIA, 1986–1996......................204
Said Adejumobi

CONTRIBUTORS..................................................................................................234

List of Tables and Figures

Tables
Table 1. Industrial Relations 1980–1995........................................................149
Table 2. Registered Unemployed and Vacancies Declared
(Lower Grade Workers).....................................................................152
Table 3. Registered Unemployed and Vacancies Declared
(Professionals and Executives).........................................................153
Table 4. Crime in Lagos State...........................................................................183
Table 5. Standard Score on Violent Crime in Lagos Metropolis
(1990–1992)..........................................................................................189
Table 6. Educational Enrolments in Nigeria 1969/70–1983/84.............210
Table 7. Rates of Return on Investments in Education
in Sub-Saharan Africa.........................................................................211

Figures

Figure 1. Strike Trend in Nigeria (1980–1995)..............................................150
Figure 2. Trend in Number of Workers Going on Strike (1980–1995)...150
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List of Abbreviations

ABU Ahmadu Bello University
AFRC Armed Forces Ruling Council
AC Action Group
ASUU Academic Staff Union of Universities
BLP Better Life Programme
BYM Bornu Youth Movement
CAN Christian Association of Nigeria
CBN Central Bank of Nigeria
CD Campaign for Democracy
CRD Centre for Research and Documentation
CDHR Committee for the Defence of Human Rights
CLO Civil Liberties Organisation
CODESRIA Council for the Development of Social and Economic Research in Africa
COR Calabar Ogoja and Rivers Movement
CRP Constitutional Rights Project
DA Democratic Alternative
DFFRI Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure
ECWA Evangelical Church of West Africa
FNWS Federation of Nigerian Women’s Societies
FOS Federal Office of Statistics
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GNP Gross National Product
ICWA Igbo Community Welfare Association
IDB Islamic Development Bank
IMF International Monetary Fund
ING Interim National Government
JMI Jama’at Nasril Islam
LGA Local Government Area
MAN Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria
MOSOP Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People
MSS Muslim Student Society
NACOMYO National Council of Muslim Youths’ Organisation
NADECO National Democratic Coalition
NAK National Archives Kaduna
NANS National Association of Nigerian Students
NAOWA Nigerian Army Officers Wives’ Association
NBA Nigerian Bar Association
NCNC National Council of Nigerian Citizens
NCW Nigerian Council of Women
NCWS National Council of Women’s Societies
NDLEA National Drug Law Enforcement Agency
NEPU Northern Elements’ Progressive xUnion
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation
NLC Nigeria Labour Congress
NPC Northern People’s Congress
NPN National Party of Nigeria
NRA National Reformation Army
NRC National Republican Convention
NRM National Reformation Movement
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NUJ Nigeria Union of Journalists
NUNS National Union of Nigerian Students
NUPENG National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers
OIC Organisation of Islamic Conference
PENGASSAN Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria
PRP People’s Redemption Party
RPF Rwandan Patriotic Front
SAP Structural Adjustment Programme
SDP Social Democratic Party
UAC United Africa Company
UDD Universal Defenders of Democracy
UMBC United Middle Belt Convention
UN United Nations
UNPO Unrepresented Nations’ and Peoples’ Organization
UNRISD United Nations Research Institute for Social Development
UPN Unity Party of Nigeria
WDF World Development Fund
WID Women in Development
WIN Women in Nigeria
YOUMBAS Young Muslim Brothers and Sisters
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Foreword

One of the innovations which the Nordic Africa Institute has attempted to
promote as part of its networking mandate with African researchers and
their institutions is the extension of funding support to groups of scholars
based in Africa to undertake collaborative work on a mutually agreed sub-
ject. This study on identity politics in Nigeria falls within this category of
co-operation between the Institute and African scholars and it was pro-
moted within the framework of the Institute’s research programme on The
Political and Social Context of Structural Adjustment in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is
particularly gratifying that the collaborative effort has not only stimulated
close interaction among the African researchers concerned but also demon-
strated the full workability of that mode of co-operation with the African
academic community. For this and other reasons, I would like to extend
both my personal gratitude and that of the Institute to Dr. Attahiru Jega
who was the co-ordinator of the Nigerian research group, and the Centre
for Research and Documentation in Kano which was the institutional host
in Nigeria for the project, for all the effort which they put into ensuring the
production of this manuscript.
The book itself represents the first systematic effort to undertake a de-
tailed, case study-based analysis of the dynamics of identity politics in con-
temporary Nigeria. The study was initiated and undertaken at a time of great
political turmoil and continuing economic decline which was conditioned by
an adjustment programme of sorts and the most brutal experience of mili-
tary dictatorship in Nigeria’s history. This broad context was to have a di-
rect role in shaping and re-shaping identity politics in Nigeria during the
1980s and 1990s but many students of Nigeria’s contemporary political
economy were to feel a great sense of frustration at the absence of a prop-
erly-researched and historically-grounded analysis of the shifts which were
taking place in the contours of identity politics. This study, therefore, repre-
sents a major contribution to an understanding of contemporary Nigerian
politics, economy and society and is highly recommended to readers for this
reason in the hope that it will be found to be insightful and stimulating.

Adebayo Olukoshi
Co-ordinator,
NAI Research Programme on The Political and Social Context of Structural Adjustment in
Sub-Saharan Africa.
7
Preface and Acknowledgements

This book is the product of research conducted by a group of scholars who,
in February 1995, formed a national working group to undertake a study of
the transformation of popular identities in Nigeria, especially in the context
of structural adjustment and the Babangida regime’s programme of transi-
tion to civil rule (1986–1993). A small group of those of us associated with
the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and Bayero University, Kano, political
economy programmes conceived of the project which has resulted in this
book for two basic reasons. First, it was designed to serve as a follow-up to
previous collaborative efforts to study and explain contemporary trends in
Nigerian politics, society and economy from the political economy perspec-
tive. These previous efforts had resulted in the publication of The Politics of
Structural Adjustment in Nigeria (1993), edited by Adebayo Olukoshi, and Ex-
panding the Nigerian Democratic Space (1996), edited by Jibrin Ibrahim. Second,
we have been increasingly concerned with the phenomenon of the resur-
gence of negative forms of identity politics in contemporary Nigeria, as well
as dissatisfied with the growing inability of conventional theoretical frame-
works to explain the emerging trend. We, therefore, set out with the aim of
investigating this phenomenon fairly rigorously and throwing more light on
its dynamics in the contemporary Nigerian political economy.
The work of the national working group was greatly facilitated by a
grant offered by the Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, through its pro-
gramme on The Political and Social Context of Structural Adjustment in Sub-
Saharan Africa. The grant enabled us to hold a methodology workshop pre-
paratory to field research in December 1995, defray part of the research ex-
penses incurred by the researchers, and then hold a national seminar in
January 1997, at which the result of the research conducted by each of the
individual contributors was presented and discussed extensively by a select
group of Nigerian scholars and representatives of a number of nongovern-
mental organisations and civil society groups. It is the revised and edited
versions of the papers presented at that national seminar that constitute the
chapters in this book.
I wish to acknowledge, with gratitude, the encouragement and assistance
given to us by the Nordic Africa Institute, both in conducting the research
and in the final publication of this book. Our special thanks go to Adebayo
Olukoshi, the Director of the programme on The Political and Social Con-
text of Structural Adjustment in Sub-Saharan Africa. The personal interest
he showed in the project, as well as his patience, understanding and prod-
ding, contributed greatly to the completion of this book.
The Centre for Research and Documentation (CRD), Kano, of which
the majority of the contributors are members, also offered generous support
Preface and Acknowledgements
to the project and the preparation of this book. It co-sponsored the meth-
odology workshop and the national seminar together with NAI, and also
provided a tremendous amount of administrative and secretarial assistance
to the contributors, and especially to me as the project co-ordinator. We
gratefully acknowledge this assistance, and wish to particularly thank Dr.
Yahaya Hashim, the Director of CRD for his enthusiastic support and en-
couragement.
Many other people contributed in different ways and at various stages of
the preparation of this book and they deserve special thanks. They include
Omafume Onoge, Eskor Toyo, Akin Fadahunsi, Björn Beckman, Ogban
Ogban-Iyam, Peter Ozo-Eson, Usman Bugaje, Judith-Ann Walker, Issa
Aremu, Kate Meagher, Adagbo Onoja, Haruna Wakili, Emma Ezeazu, Ab-
dullahi Sule Kano, Salihu Lukman, and Nasiru Kura, who participated either
in the methodology workshop, or the seminar, or both, and who made very
useful comments on earlier drafts of the chapters in this book. Similarly,
Abdallah Uba Adamu, Hadiza Jega and Abubakar Hussaini read the first
draft of the manuscript and made useful comments, and generally offered
tremendous assistance in the final stage of the preparation of the manu-
script, for which I am profoundly grateful.
Finally, I wish to thank all the contributors for their commitment to the
project and for their valuable contributions to this book. Their perseverance
and sacrifices, in spite of the stifling intellectual atmosphere in the Nigerian
universities and the competing demands on their time, are highly appreci-
ated, for they went a long way to ensure that this collaborative effort was
made both possible and worthwhile.

Attahiru Jega
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