-:1 " I.. _ •I AFIULA C:oNNFLTS Garth Myers (University of Kansas) and Martin J. Murray (University of Michigan), Series Editors Encountering the Nigerian State This scholarly series stands at the intersection of globcllitation c1nd develop­ ment studies, excunining the social, political, and economic effects of these processes on the African continent. For advocatcs and critic; alike, globaliza­ Edited by tion and development arc inescapable "bets of lift:" thc.lt ddinc the pcH<llll­ ctcrs of social action not just in Africa but throughout the world. Yet while academic debates and policy discussions careen between prc1ise and criticism, Wale Adebanwi and Ebenezer Obadare too little attention is given to how these processes actually operate in African settings. Rather than simply reacting to the mainstream sdolarly literature, books in this series seek to creativcly eng<1ge with contemporary deb<1tes as a way of developing new pcrspe-=tivcs that estc1blish and analyze the linkages between globalization and development. PUBLlSIIED BY PALGRAVE MACMILLAN: bzcowztering the Nigerian State Edited by Wale Adebanwi and Ebenezer Obadare, 20.\0 Zanibia, Mi11i11g, and Neoliheralism: Boom a11d Bust o1z the Glohalizcd Cupperhelt astair Fraser and Miles Larmer (forthcoming) ~~ ditcd by Al pal grave macmillan I._ 5 ~\WWB~~w4E--~~-~~a.~~--Da ~~~~<~~~~· Sa¥9~~ _.__ _ ~ __ ~,. ,. '.• I jl. • I ->;~~.,~~\ . ~ f;:;;'=,~·. ,·'~"""-~ -- I · ,; Contents Acknowledgments IX Notes on Contributors XI Introduction: Excess and Abjection in the Study of the African State Ebenezer Obadare and Wale Adehanwi 1 Deconstructing "Oiuwole": Political Economy at the Margins of the State 29 Olawale Ismail 2 The Spatial Economy of Abjection: The Evacuation of Maroko Slum in Nigeria 55 Sheriff Folarin 3 "Rotten English": Excremental Politics and Literary Witnessing 79 Sa rah L. Lincoln 4 The Perils of Protest: State Repression and Student Mobilization in Nigeria 99 Bukola Akintola 5 Vocalizing Rage: Deconstructing the Language of Antistate Forces 123 Azeez 0/uso/a Olaniyan 6 The Subaltern Encounters rhe State: OPC-State Relations 1999-2003 139 Omobolaji 0/arim noye 7 The State as Undertaker: Power and Insurgent Media in Nigeri3 155 Ayo 0/ukotzm 1-.. ·- ,, \ i . v111 Contents !> From Corporatist Power to A bjecrion: I. a bor ami State Control in Nigeria 177 Emma11ue/ Remi Aiyede ':! When the Start: Kills: !'olirical Assassinations Acknowledgments in Abacha's Nigeria l:J':! Isaac 0/awa/e Albert 10 The Sharia Challenge: Revisiting the Travails of tht: Secular State 217 Rotimi Suheru 11 Koma: A Glimpst: of Life ar rhe Edges of the Srarc 243 This book was originally conceived as a festschrifr for Professor Adigun Muhammad Kabir !sa Agbaje, then the Dean of Social Sciences, and now the Deputy Vice Chancellor (academic) of Nigeria's premier university, the University Index 255 of Ibadan, when he docked 50 in 2006. Agbaje, one of Nigeria's mosr engaging scholars and social scientists, has been our mentor and has largely influenced our academic lives. He has played the same role to many members of our generation and remains influenrial among mem­ bers of his own generation of Nigerian social scientists. As is normally the case with this sort of endeavor, many of the con­ tributors did not meet the initial deadline. The editors themselves suffered all sorts of distractions along the way, not least the battle to conclude our doctoral programs at the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics, respectively. But we soldiered on. first, we had thought that we might end up with a fesrschrift much later in the year than the month of the target birthday. When we missed the year, we decided to explore other target dares. When that failed, we decided to put the project in the cooler for a while. It was revived in 2008 after we both relocated to the United Stares. Because we had a thematic focus, it was easy to resurrect the project even though it was a !ready too late for the festschrift. However, in the intervening· period, some of our original contributors had sought and found alternative outlets for their contribu­ tions. A few others could nor meet the new deadline, while some chap­ ters had to be dropped because of their incongruity with the volume's problematic. It is against this specific background that we wish to thank the con­ tributors to the volume who kept the faith for four years and endured the drudgery of the revisions. We thank our senior colleagues, Professors Rotimi Suberu, Olawale Albert and Avo Olukorun and our other col· ~agues, Drs. Bu~ola Akintola, Wale. Ismail, Az;ez Olaniyan, Rcmi Iyede, Omobolap Olarinmoye, and Sheriff folarin and Mohammed Isa. Dr. Sarah Lincoln was invited to contribute to the volume only in 2009. We thank her for obliging us. ~ 1•. __,.....-- I· rl 2 The Spatial Economy of Abjection: The Evacuation of Maroko Slum in Nigeria i Sheri(( Folarin Introduction For several days after it had happened, "all the cover pages of newspapers bore searing images of pain and despair reflected on the faces of resi· dents struggling to come to terms with (the) reality" (ThisDay, July 29, 2006: 11). That reality was the leveling by government bulldozers of an entire community, home to over 300, 000. Maroko, in Lagos state, was part of those areas that Harvey (2000: 152) would describe as a "sea of spreading decay" spatially located by the side of "a patchwork quilt of islands of relative affluence" that struggle to secure themselves against the urban squalor, misery, and poverty that dominate the spa ti al ma rgin of the city. It can be argued that government policies in relation to ownership of landed property, acquisition of estates and tenancy, have exacerbated the problems of poverty and spatial abjection in Nigeria. This chapter recon­ - siders the spatial economy of abjection in Nigeria with a specific focus . ~n the evacuation of people, usually the poor and powerless, from shan­ t.tes, slums, and other gloomy sires in the major conurbations around the This chapter uses the case of evictions from the Maroko slum 'ln~?Untry.. Lagos · 1 · · · · : as a typtca example ot the d1sempowcrment that IS mvested, cteflpcted and · · · 1· d · I · I I · f h · · .' 111Stltuttona tze 111 sums parr1cu ar y 111 terms o r etr spa- soctal, economic, and political relations with the state and persons, and institutions that control or have <1ccess to the state and irs considered from the "traditional" urban political economy or from the paradigm of postmodern urbanism-which places 1•. ri \ The Spatial Economy of AbJ eC ti On 57 56 Sher·iff Folann Scott interrogates governments' "perennial efforts" to settle or reset­ emphasis on the spati<11 dynamics of urban bn.dscapes stressing their tle mobile and homeless people, which he categorizes as sedenrariza­ comcsted nature, particularly in terms of who belongs where and with tion. Reflecting on the premodern state without standard measures or what t:ntirlcments or citi1.enship rights (Murray ami Marrin, 2004: roadmaps for development programs that ended up in self-defeatist and U9)-the case of Maroko intt:resting on the spati,,l rev~.:als p~.:rspccrivcs crude interventions in masses' affairs, Scott wonders at the manner of the em:ounters of disempowered social forces with the typical postcolonial departure from the premodern to the postmodern rimes with all the stan­ dardization that should allow for simplification and legibility, ending up stare.Indeed, the economy of abjection in Nigeria is an expanding one, in "fiascos" because of the rigid and complex approaches to development with government policies at the three levels concerning the ownership programs (2-3). Hence, the more modernized statecraft became-just as of landed property, the acquisition of estates and tenancy exacerbating the more state simplifications unfold-the more the tragic outcomes of poverty and abjection. This chapter sets out to examine how abjection developmental state projects. Scott (3-4) ascribes this paradox to the fact pervades the nation as a result of the evacuation of communities, with that the state simplifications "did not successfully represent the actual particular rekrence to the Maroko slum in Lagos state. activity of the society they depicted, nor were they intended to; they rep­ resented only that slice of it that interested the official observer." It is these factors that are inherent in some lousy "white elephant projects" The State, "Sedentarization," and Widening Gaps in the old "Third World," which have constituted examples of huge agri­ between Opulence and Squalor cultural schemes and new cities that have failed their residents. These include the Great Leap Forward in China, Collectivization in Russia, and Is the postcolonial or developing state an accomplice of the wealthy u1 the compulsory Villagization in Tanzania already mentioned. ~.,._ ... morq~aging the well-being of the poor? Could that be the reason why rhc However, apart from these transformative state simplifications, three state parades "gtiod conscience" by instituting the policy of resenlement other factors central to the defeat of good state intenrions to berrer the as a smokescreen to provide free passage for the privileged to acquire srrc1· lot of their people include the following: high modernist ideology-an regie estates and lands? Or does the statt: initiate grand policies oi creat­ expression by the state of overconfidence in what science and technol­ ing a sedentary livdihood for the people at a very high price, rhus risking ogy can do leading to an uncritical, unskeptical, and an unscientifically the trust of the masses? Marxist scholarship that celebrates the perspec­ optimistic belief about the possibilities for the comprehensive planning tive that the wealthy class controls the instrumentalities of the capitalist of human settlement; authoritarian state-which uses its coercive power state would more probably submit that because the rich class controls to bring these high modernist constructs into being with the faith and the state, there may never be a state policy with the ultimate goal or sok conviction that what is being done is in the best interest of the people; purpose to bail out or benefit the masses.