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ETHNIC MILITANCY IN NIGERIA: A COMPARATIVE RE-APPRAISAL OF THREE MAJOR ETHNIC MILITIAS IN SOUTHERN NIGERIA
Abstract: Since the commencement of the 4th Republic in Nigeria in May 1999, one relatively permanent characterisation of the country’s political landscape has been ethnic militancy. Ethnic militancy exacerbated insecurity; confronted the status of the state as the sole legitimate monopolist of the instruments of force and violence; exposed the weak loyalty and allegiance of the populace to the Nigerian nation-state project; and threatened its continued existence as a corporate entity. Decades of marginalisation and injustice foisted on the citizenry by the Nigerian state, precipitated a spectre of frustration and deprivation, which triggered the formation of militant groups as extra-constitutional method for negotiation, and redressing the political cum socio-economic dehumanising conditions of the people. Prominent among such groups in southern Nigeria are: Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). This comparative study based on field research and data from secondary sources, revisits and re-examines the origins and dynamics of these three militia groups. Using the elite-instrumentalist theoretical perspective, the paper argues that among the three ethnic militia groups studied, only OPC was specifically formed and deployed by some Yoruba political elite as an instrument for the actualisation of their political objectives. Furthermore, it recommends the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference or an inclusive national conference whose decisions shall be subjected to a properly conducted referendum as a fundamental panacea to the challenge of ethnic militancy in Nigeria.
Keywords: Comparative, Elite-instrumentalist, Ethnic Militancy, Reappraisal, Southern Nigeria