African Histories and Modernities

Series Editors Toyin Falola The University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas, USA

Matthew M. Heaton Virginia Tech Blacksburg, USA This book series serves as a scholarly forum on African contributions to and negotiations of diverse modernities over time and space, with a particular emphasis on historical developments. Specifically, it aims to refute the hegemonic conception of a singular modernity, Western in ori- gin, spreading out to encompass the globe over the last several decades. Indeed, rather than reinforcing conceptual boundaries or parameters, the series instead looks to receive and respond to changing perspectives on an important but inherently nebulous idea, deliberately creating a space in which multiple modernities can interact, overlap, and conflict. While privileging works that emphasize historical change over time, the series will also feature scholarship that blurs the lines between the historical and the contemporary, recognizing the ways in which our changing under- standings of modernity in the present have the capacity to affect the way we think about African and global histories.

Editorial Board Aderonke Adesanya, Art History, James Madison University Kwabena Akurang-Parry, History, Shippensburg University Samuel O. Oloruntoba, History, University of North Carolina, Wilmington Tyler Fleming, History, University of Louisville Barbara Harlow, English and Comparative Literature, University of Texas at Austin Emmanuel Mbah, History, College of Staten Island Akin Ogundiran, Africana Studies, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14758 Uyilawa Usuanlele • Bonny Ibhawoh Editors Minority Rights and the National Question in Nigeria Editors Uyilawa Usuanlele Bonny Ibhawoh State University of New York at McMaster University Oswego Hamilton, Canada Oswego, USA

African Histories and Modernities ISBN 978-3-319-50629-6 ISBN 978-3-319-50630-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-50630-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016962727

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover illustration: © powderkeg stock / Alamy Stock Photo

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland For Nosakhare Ikponmwosa Usuanlele (in memoriam) and Francis Ehidiamen Ibhawoh (in memoriam) Contents

1 Introduction: Minorities and the National Question in Nigeria 1 Uyilawa Usuanlele and Bonny Ibhawoh

Part I Minorities, Colonialism and Decolonization 15

2 Decolonization and the Minority Question in Nigeria: The Willink Commission Revisited 17 Oluwatoyin B. Oduntan

3 Historicizing Ethnic Minorities’ Movements and State Creation in Nigeria, 1946–1967 41 Arua Oko Omaka

4 Minority Groups: Bridgeheads in Nigerian Politics, 1950s–1966 61 Emmanuel Oladipo Ojo

vii viii Contents

Part II Minorities and Postcolonial Politics 85

5 The Owegbe Cult: Political and Ethnic Rivalries in Early Postcolonial Benin City 87 Joseph Nevadomsky

6 Midwest State’s Non-Igbo Minorities’ Responses to the Biafran Occupation and Federal Liberation in the Nigerian Civil War, 1967–1970 113 Uyilawa Usuanlele

7 Ethnicity, War and Military Politics in Nigeria 143 Sanya Osha

Part III Minorities and Contemporary Nation-Building 163

8 Willink’s Report, Niger Delta Region and the Nigerian State 50 Years After: Any Hope for the Minority? 165 Emmanuel Osewe Akubor

9 National Integration, Citizenship, Political Participation and Democratic Stability in Nigeria 183 Enaruna Edosa

10 Federalism, Ethnic Minorities and National Integration in Nigeria 207 Festus O. Imuetinyan

11 Religious Referent Power and Ethnic Militias in Nigeria: The Imperative for Pax Nigeriana 227 Benson O. Igboin

Index 247 Notes on Contributors

Emmanuel Osewe Akubor holds a Doctorate Degree in History from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria. His specialization is economic history, and he has taught history since 2001. He was for- merly the Head of the Department of History and Diplomatic Studies, Samuel Adegboyega University, Ogwa, Edo State, Nigeria. He was the first Deputy Director of the Center for Research and Development of Esanland (CERDEL) and the Director of General Studies, Samuel Adegboyega University, Ogwa, Edo State. He is presently with the Department of History, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, where he is the coordinator of the postgraduate programme. Enaruna Edosa is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institute of Public Administration and Extension Services, University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. Previously, he was an assistant financial secretary and auditor of the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU), University of Benin branch. Edosa’s scholarly work is in the field of comparative politics and development studies. His areas of research are democratic development, the political elite, plural and federal studies, development administration and public financial management. Bonny Ibhawoh is Professor of African History and Global Human Rights at McMaster University. He has taught in various universities in Africa, Europe and North America. His research interests are African history/ politics, global human rights, peace/conflict studies, and legal and impe- rial history. Previously, he was Human Rights Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs, New York; a research fellow

ix x NOTE ON CONTRIBUTORS at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, Copenhagen; and an associate member of the Centre for African Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Benson Ohihon Igboin is a lecturer in the Department of Religion & African Culture, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria. He is a co-editor of Religion and the Nigerian Nation: Some Topical Issues (2010), co-author of “Theistic, Atheistic Arguments: Issues and Problems” (2006) and the review editor of the Journal of Religion and African Culture. His research interests include philosophical debates on religious conflicts, inter-religious dialogue and global harmony. He has published several articles in reputable national and international journals and contributed numerous book chapters. Festus Imuetinyan received his PhD in Comparative Politics from the University of Benin. He is a senior lecturer in the Department of Public Administration, University of Benin, Edo State, Nigeria. He was previously the head of Extension Services Division, Institute of Public Administration and Extension Services at the University of Benin, Nigeria. He was also a senior research fellow at the Centre for Democratic Studies (CDS), The Presidency, Nigeria. His teaching, writing and research deal with federalism and inter-governmental relations. He has been active in policy and politics of federalism in Nigeria. Joseph Nevadomsky is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology in the Humanities and Social Sciences faculty at California State University, Fullerton, California. For 20 years, he taught at the University of Lagos and the University of Benin. He also served as a visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Southern California (USC). His interests include Benin art, ritual and architecture. He has published on kingship rituals among the Edo in Southern Nigeria and related groups, Edo history, brass-casting, urban and rural religious performances, and initiation rites. His more than 10,000 transparencies for the period 1975–2005 are housed as “the Nevadomsky collection in the Eliot Elisofon archive” at Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (NMAFA). Oduntan Oluwatoyin is Assistant Professor of History at Towson University in Maryland, where he teaches courses on world, African and intellectual histories, and on historical methods. His research interests are elite formation, cultural identity and modernity in Africa. NOTE ON CONTRIBUTORS xi

Emmanuel Oladipo Ojo is a senior lecturer and Acting Head of the Department of History and International Studies, Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria. His research interests are political history, democracy and development studies. He has published several scholarly articles in reputable local and international journals. His current work focuses on a reinterpretation of the exogamous and endogamous causes of Africa’s underdevelopment. His latest research work, “The Atlantic Slave Trade and Colonialism: Reasons for Africa’s Underdevelopment?,” will be published by the Journal of Social, Economic and Political Studies. Arua Oko Omaka holds a PhD from McMaster University and special- izes in African history and conflict studies. His research focuses on human- itarianism, genocide, peace and conflict studies, counterinsurgency and globalization. Arua is currently a sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto. His articles have appeared in reputable journals, including the Canadian Journal of History and the Journal of the Oral History Association of Australia. Sanya Osha holds a PhD in Philosophy and taught the discipline in various Nigerian universities for a decade. He has published on anthropology, cultural studies, knowledge systems of Africa, the politics of the West African region and also the sociopolitical and cultural realities of Southern Africa. He is the author of Kwasi Wiredu and Beyond: The Text, Writing and Thought in Africa (2005), Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Shadow: Politics, Nationalism and the Ogoni Protest Movement (2007), Postethnophilosophy (2011) and African Postcolonial Modernity: Informal Subjectivities and the Democratic Consensus (2014). He is also the editor of The Social Contract in Africa (2014). Uyilawa Usuanlele had his education in Nigeria, Sweden and Canada, and has majored in history, and peace and conflict studies. He has worked as a researcher and administrator with the National Council for Arts and Culture, Nigeria. He was a founding member/coordinator of the Institute for Benin Studies, Benin City, Nigeria. He is a recipient of the Swedish International Development Fellowship award and has read papers at con- ferences in Africa, Europe and the Americas. He has contributed articles and chapters to journals and books. He presently teaches history at the State University of New York (SUNY), Oswego, New York State. List of Abbreviations

ADL African Democratic League AG Action Group APC Arewa People’s Congress BDPP Benin Delta Peoples Party BYM Borno Youth Movement CAN Christian Association of Nigeria CRP Constitutional Rights Project ITP Ilorin Talaka Parapo MASSOB Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra MSM Mid-West State Movement NCNC National Council for Nigeria and the Cameroons (later, National Council for Nigerian Citizens) NDSC National Defense and Security Council NPC Northern People’s Congress NSCIA National Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs OPC Oodua People’s Congress UDD Universal Defenders of Democracy UMBC United Middle Belt Congress

xiii List of Tables

Table 5.1 1952 census by ethnic group 92 Table 5.2 1952 census by mainly Edo-speaking divisions 92 Table 5.3 1952 census by mainly non-Edo-speaking divisions 93 Table 8.1 Reported road accidents cases, 1999 172 Table 8.2 Reported road accident casualties 173 Table 8.3 The Niger Delta human poverty index as of 2005 176