Nigerian History

Nigerian Political Leaders is a collection of comprehensive and well-researched essays on selected political leaders, both civilian and military written by notable scholars. While many leaders have ruled Nigeria since 1960, not all have made significant contributions to good governance and nation building. Because of leadership challenges, the search for sustainable democracy and political stability has been quite elusive. These problems have been compounded by the vastness of the country as well as its multi-ethnic composition, religious divide, and the recurrent intervention of the military in politics. Thus, the result has been an unending difficulty in establishing a workable political schema for an enduring unity. Given the series of political and religious disturbances, civil war, economic meltdown, plundering of national resources, and frequent change of government, are Nigerians as a people simply ungovernable or is poor governance the result of the failure of leadership? These are some of the questions that this book addresses.

Residential mobility is the mechanism whereby the character of social areas is maintained or changed; hence residential mobility has been a focus of intense research for the past few decades. However, in spite of the notable works in the area, many factors influencing residential mobility are still shrouded in obscurity. Against this background, the study examines the pattern of residential mobility in Kaduna metropolis. Data on socio economic characteristics of the respondents, cultural factors, reasons for relocation and distance moved were collected in the field by the use of questionnaire. This study used logit model to carry out analysis on the factors of residential mobility in the metropolis. The result of the logit model shows that the factor of religion reliably predicted the residential mobility within the metropolis. The analysis of the directional movement of households along religious divide shows a directional bias but with less precision as reversal flows were also evident. The lesson from this finding is that more effort should be geared towards research on residential mobility, as a unique factor of religion; hitherto, not given adequate attention in the literature is a major factor of mobility in Kaduna metropolis.

This chapter will look at the history of Boys’ Club movement in post-WWII Nigeria, focusing on the case study of Lagos, where the first Boys’ Clubs were created. While recognizing the British origins of the club and the function the colonial government hoped the clubs would serve, namely creating proper gentlemen, I will also explore the importance of the space itself as a site for leisure, camaraderie, fun. When we think of colonialism, we tend not to think of things like leisure pursuits or having fun; however, alongside developing nationalism, resistance to oppression, and unfair practices of colonial rule, Africans in the colonies did have fun and leisure time and fought to protect and shape these spaces. This is not to say that sports were without political undertones. But participation in various sports were some of the most treasured memories of the Nigerians I’ve interviewed, where they learned to be “men” and where they could gain the skills to navigate the new colonial urban city and its contours.

This book is largely a family memoir, but it also contains material of considerable historical value. Selina Molteno and Robin Cohen married in London in June 1967. Shortly thereafter they travelled on a mail boat to Nigeria where they were to stay for two years, in the midst of that country’s civil war. Their work, the birth of their first child, Miranda, their leisure activities, and their everyday efforts to combat illness and secure food and potable water are all described here. But the book goes beyond a mere description of family life. The travails of the University of Ibadan, their friendship with one of the iconic figures of the anti-apartheid struggle, Ruth First, and Robin’s analysis of the prelude to the civil war are all included. The book is lavishly peppered with contemporary photographs and many letters that give a flavour of this extraordinary period in Nigeria’s history.
If you would like it on Kindle or in a hard copy, it is available on Amazon in a number of countries. Please go to your country site and search “An Expatriate Family in the Nigerian Civil War”.

ÖZ Bu çalışmada, Flora Nwapa'nın Women are Different adlı romanından yola çıkılarak Nijerya toplumundaki toplumsal cinsel kimlik modelleri incelenecektir. Bu romanda, Flora Nwapa Nijeryalı kadınların hakları konusunda örneğin eğitim hakkı gibi nasıl bilinçlendiklerini anlatmaktadır. Ayrıca, Flora Nwapa henüz yeni bağımsızlığını kazanan Nijerya'da yaşamanın kadınlar açısından avantajlarını ve dezavantajlarını da bu romanında gündeme getirmektedir. Romanda, (bir çelişki gibi de gözükse) bazı Nijeryalı kadın karakterlerin eski İngiliz yönetiminin olduğu günleri özledikleri gözlenmektedir, çünkü özgürlük onlara beraberinde bazı sorumluluklar da getirmiştir ve yeterli eğitimsel donanımları ve ekonomik özgürlükleri olmadığı için bu sorumluluklar bazı kadınların omzunda bir yük olmaya başlamıştır. Tüm bu olumsuzluklara rağmen, çoğu kadın karakter sömürge dönemi Nijerya'sından sömürgecilik sonrası Nijerya'ya geçiş döneminde elinden geleni yapıp sorunların üstesinden gelmeye çalışmıştır. Bu konulara ek olarak, Women are Different adlı romanda Nijeryalı erkeklerin toplumsal cinsel kimlik konusunun yanı sıra, toplumsal sorunlara ve sosyo-politik konulara olan tutumları da okuyucuya aktarılmaktadır. Romanda, Nijeryalı kadın ve erkeklerin toplumsal sosyal cinsel kimlik modelleri karşılaştırılarak, sadece Nijerya'da değil, aslında tüm dünyada kadın hakları konusunda bir bilinç oluşturmanın ne kadar önemli olduğunun altı çizilmektedir. Bu bağlamda, bu çalışmada Flora Nwapa'nın Women are Different adlı romanından örneklemelerle sömürgecilik dönemi sonrası Nijerya'sında kadınların rolleri ve sorumlulukları incelenecektir. ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to analyse the gender patterns in Nigerian society with reference to Flora Nwapa's novel, namely Women are Different. In this novel, Flora Nwapa narrates how the Nigerian women begin to gain consciousness about their rights such as having access to education. Furthermore, the advantages and disadvantages of living in a newly independent Nigeria for the Nigerian women are brought forward by Flora Nwapa. Related to this, in the novel, paradoxically it has been observed that some Nigerian women characters begin to long for the old British colonial days due to the fact that freedom brings some responsibilities as well. Lacking the necessary educational background and economic independence, these women's new responsibilities begin to be a burden on their shoulders. Yet, they try to cope with all the problems successfully during the time of the transition from the colonial to the postcolonial period. In addition to these, the Nigerian males' attitude towards all these political, social and gender problems are conveyed to the readers in Women are Different. Meanwhile, the Nigerian female gender patterns are compared and contrasted with the Nigerian male gender patterns and eventually, the importance of raising consciousness about the women's problems not only in Nigeria, but also all around the world has been underlined in the novel. Accordingly, in this paper, the Nigerian women's role in the postcolonial Nigerian society will be evaluated with regard to the examples given from Women are Different.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird anhand des Beispiels Nigerias diskutiert, welche Komponenten bei dem Aufbau eines Nationalstaats erforderlich sind und was für Herausforderungen den Prozess eines gelingenden Nationalstaats einschränken können. Dazu wird auf ein Konzept von Jochen Hippler zurückgegriffen, welcher drei zentrale Elemente für erfolgreiches „Nation-Building“ anführt: eine gemeinschaftsbildende Ideologie, die Integration der Gesellschaft und ein funktionsfähiger Staatsapparat.  Dieses theoretische Konzept wird gewissermaßen als Schablone für den „Nation-Building“-Prozess in Nigeria verwendet, um zu überprüfen, welche Bedingunsfaktoren die Bildung eines nigerianischen Nationalstaats beeinflusst haben. Dabei wird schwerpunktmäßig die Phase der sogenannten ersten Republik Nigerias (1960 – 1966) berücksichtigt, da die ersten postkolonialen Jahre Nigerias für die Entwicklung des nigerianischen Nationalstaates als besonders bedeutsam erachtet werden können.

Throughout the history of mankind, preference and preservation of one's kin or kind has been evident, an up-close observation of this behaviour birthed such theories as kin selection, social identity theory, realistic group conflict theory and reciprocal altruism. The sense of ''weness'' and ''theyness'' has largely precipitated most devastating wars and conflicts that have besieged the world, though incompatible goals or scarce resources are usually fronted as responsible. Such wars and conflicts have been called by different names like racism, xenophobia, nationalism or ethnocentrism. The term xenophobia has particularly gained wide recognition most especially in the wake of South-Africa’s crisis in the past. Nigeria has equally experienced such conflicts in the past and still does, however the magnitude of the violence in Nigeria has been played down due to the term used to describe such violence; sometimes it is called prejudice or discrimination or sometimes ethnocentrism or hegemony. This paper makes the argument that the phenomenon of xenophobia exists in Nigeria, may be more common than we realise and also may be an adaptive mechanism employed by people for personal and group survival. Examples of xenophobic acts in Nigeria are discussed and theoretical explanations for their existence and perpetuation are addressed, together with recommendations of managing their occurrences.

The born-to-die phenomenon has received much attention in Nigeria under the two popular names: Abiku in Yoruba and Ogbanje among the Ibo of Nigeria. These two names are used and known effectively by everybody both scholars and laymen. Many scholars had done extensive work on the reality and characteristics of the phenomenon. There are works on the traditional belief on born-to-die children. Health workers also approach the issue from the medical perspective and group the phenomenon among child mortality and morbidity. But this paper examines born-to-die (Abiku) and the fate of victim mothers in Nigeria. To achieve the objective of this treatise the writer adopts the historical, evaluative and phenomenological methodology. The writer discovers that the born-to-die issue put much scandal on victim mothers. Therefore the paper attempt an apology for the victim mothers since the case of Abiku (born-to-die) does not only affect the womenfolk but also men and the community at large. The paper submits instead of stigmatizing the women alone, more preventive measure should be employed to ameliorate the ugly experience. Then the paper concludes with a brief summary.

Keywords: Born-to-die, Abiku, Ogbanje, Fate and Victim mothers
 

Of all the arts, the theatre costume is the most multi-dimensional. The visual artist uses two dimensions to create his works.  The sculptor and the stage designer incorporate three dimensions. The costume designer thinks in terms of the 4th dimension—the passage of time—not the costume per se, but the moving and living costume. The costume designer’s work includes line, mass, light, sound, and movement. A theatre costumer’s first renderings on paper are generally black and white drawings, then coloured paintings, thus, visual art. The silhouettes chosen, designed, and built incorporate the choice of textures, materials and the accoutrements of accessories, and thereby become three-dimensional. However, it is only when a performer physically wears a costume that it lives through its innate sounds, light and movements. It serves as the rallying point towards the harmonization of the unity of time, place, and action in a theatrical production. In Theatre, there is a sharp division between “theatrical” and “ordinary” clothes. It is the theatrical-ness of costume that is the distinguishing factor between dress as “ordinary” and dress as “costume.” Costumes for any kind of presentation contribute toward the outward and visible appearance of the performer—actor, dancer or musician. With particular reference to Nigeria, for clothes to be transformed into costumes for use on the stage, a careful selection, adaptation and blending of the options available must be understood, as well as the reasons why dress and costumes were created and are now worn.

The challenges of scholarship in conceptualizing or teaching modern African history and politics in the African perspectives has been identified by several scholars as a source of weak understanding and inquiry within the space of western and African academia. More of acceptable or age-long perspectives tend to give credence to only ideas that were either propounded or perpetuated as the way and manner that European schools view the African society and what is left of the beauty of their westernization of the African locale in the name of civilization and modernization. The challenges that encircles the overall activities, process and system introduced by the western incursion in Africa has left much in doubt about the sincerity of European incursion in Africa long after African countries have gained political independence from European States who colonized Africa. With the dearth of intellectual materials on the study of European policies and impact on Africa societies, a combination of these seminar presentations written and presented by me in the postgraduate class as a Doctoral Research Scholar at Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti has been compiled as a relevant view point of modern African perspectives on TOPICAL ISSUES IN IMPERIALISM, COLONIALISM AND NEO-COLONIALIM IN AFRICA. It is expected that the study will bridge the gap in intellectual space and stimulate further research into the study with a view to situate and understand what western intervention meant to Africa and how it will continue to be seen for a long time until, Africa is able to break the yoke of underdevelopment and structural crisis that came with European civilization and modernization processes.

Violent conflict and peace-building are major recurrent themes in the history of post-independence Nigeria. The efforts of most succeeding governments at nation-building have been directed at either preventing the outbreak of violence, its escalation, its resolution or mitigating its effects on the corporate integrity of the Nigerian nation-state. This study examines the nexus between historical knowledge, violent conflict, peace-building and nation-building in post-independence Nigeria. It finds a positive correlation among them. It, therefore, concludes that the preponderance of violent conflict and the failure of peace-building are the direct outcomes of the weak foundation of the nation-building process in Nigeria. Finally, it recommends that the elite should be unanimous in their definition of Nigeria's nation-building objectives and direct historical knowledge towards them to achieve the goal of sustainable development of a twenty-first century Nigerian nation-state. This is the path to thread if Nigeria must break the cycle of violent conflicts that has ruined its post-independence nation-building efforts.

Nigeria is essentially an artificial creation, which, like most other African states, is a product of colonialism. It is a country of extremes and contrasts located in West Africa and it is also potentially Africa’s wealthiest country, however the potential could be said to be yet to be realised. It is more or less the most populous country in Africa as well as being one of the most powerful countries on the continent; it is even referred to as the ‘Giant of Africa’. Nigeria, irrespective of its reputation of crime and corruption, boasts one of the richest and most complex cultures in Africa as a result of its population. This makes it a wonderful haven for Britain to colonise because, through colonisation, came the acquirement of political influence and power; because they were competing with fellow European nations.

For years, self-identified witches have demanded the public acknowledgement of witchcraft as “religion” in Nigeria. These political debates are reflected in a long-ongoing scholarly discussion about whether “witchcraft” in Africa should be regarded as religion or not. At its core, this discussion concerns the quest for African meanings. I argue that we should focus on the translingual practice as the reason for today’s perception of “African” and “European” differences as incommensurable. Tracing back today’s understanding of witchcraft among the Yoruba (àjé), the Alatinga anti-witchcraft movement of the early 1950s becomes the nodal point of Yoruba witchcraft history. Discussing the Alatinga as translingual practice, I understand Yoruba witchcraft concepts as products of a global religious history. Only in the aftermath of the Alatinga, a hybrid movement, did the need arise to demarcate “African” and “European” meanings. Thus, Yoruba translingual practice has also affected European understandings of religion and witchcraft today.

The  continuous desiccation of  the  Sahara,  inter alia, has mounted severe  pressures  on herding communities  in the  Sahel  regions  of  Nigeria,  leading  to  their  downward  movements  to  central and  southern  Nigeria  in  search  of  pastures  for  their  flocks.  This  has  culminated  in  terrific violent  conflicts  to  which  the  RUGA  is  one  of  the  intervention  policies  designed  by  the Nigerian  government  to  mitigate.  This  work  attempts  a  situational  analysis  of  the  RUGA policy  to  identify  the  various  factors  that  culminated  in  its  rejection  by  stakeholders  from central  and  southern  Nigeria.  Secondary  evidences  in  the  form  of  media  reports  and  primary data  such  as  press  releases  by  stakeholders  suggest  that  the  rejection  was,  among  other  things, instigated  by  the  hysteria  of  a  calculated  stratagem  by  the  federal  government  to,  through federal-might,  reallocate  ancestral  lands  of  central/southern  Nigeria  to  the  demographically pressurised  herding  groups  from  the  north  through  the  RUGA  settlement.  There  is,  therefore, a  need  for  rigorous  consultations  of  stakeholders  nationwide  in  drafting  and  implementing sensitive policies of national significance.

The paper elucidates poverty to be one of the challenges of the age. It highlights the efforts of various governments in Nigeria towards poverty eradication which seems not to have worked out well enough. The writer calls on churches to see poverty alleviation as part of their mission of evangelisation and be proactively involved in it. Salvation is holistic in the sense that it does not only concern the redemption of the spirit and soul but it also involves the enhancement of the physical status of an individual. The causes, effects and level of poverty in Nigeria are presented. The rationale for churches response to poverty is stated as well. The paper itemizes some possibilities through the corridors of Christian education which churches could adopt in the alleviation of poverty. Specifically, the emphasis of Christian education strategies for the church’s involvement in poverty alleviation in the paper is illustrated with three practical and spectacular  models/ patterns of ministry gained from an educational tour by the writer of the paper having visited sites of  some individual church members who are ministering to the poor in their community. The paper concludes with some recommendations.

Long before History Studies became one of Nigeria’s key research fields, details of local history had steadily been passed on through village elders. Since 1996, The Battle of Musanga and Love in Vendetta, a growing number of films have been showcasing Nigerian history through scenarios inspired by memories of real events gathered from community
elders or archived reports, which can safely be considered as testimonies on the past. In doing this, those films opened a new channel for the passing of information concerning regional and national history, giving a new lease of life to events from the pre-colonial, colonial and
postcolonial eras by commenting them for wider audiences. To fulfil this mission, film directors modelled folktale structure and style, with the main characters taking on the storytellers’ mantle and the film script reduced to a rough sketch, leaving actors more or less free to improvise. This new channel of communication has equally adopted the didactic
approach of folktales, thus facilitating the informal teaching of the country’s cultures, informed by popular readings of them. This influence of orality on Nigerian video films, which has not yet been studied, will be examined here in a number of films including nine directly inspired by past and contemporary Nigerian history.

In Nigeria, Religion values and morals are seen as necessity in human life. In it, there is a part which deals with the idea that safeguards the life of the people in their relationship with one another and the world among them. The world of the Ikwerre people is dotted with a lot of deities in which the Ali-earth goddess is one of them. This divinity checkmates human excesses, thereby bringing sanctity to the community and society at large. This paper therefore, brings to bare the moral effect of the earth goddess, seeing it as an instrument that brings stability in our nation. The paper suggests that no matter ones Christian inclination, one should also have the traditional belief of the sanity that can be created by the Ali earth goddess at the back of his mind; since it can also climaxed morality in Christian religion and other religion as can be seen in Ikwerre cosmology

The “vital power” of Igbo music, “intensely passionate”, which “touches the chords of man’s inmost being”, noted by Basden (1921: 192) more than a century ago, has since been acknowledged by de Montclos (1994: 272) who concurred that music is, as much as literature, the best witness to Nigerian artists’ creativity.” Yet, the roles of songs inspired by the Biafran war, and the reasons behind their dissemination, have seldom been considered. This study is based on sixteen songs – six in Igbo, eight in English and two in Ijo – recorded during the civil war 15km away from the frontline just before the fall of Umuahia in April 1969; other songs used here are those noted in 1968 by a French journalist, a third set of songs which found their way into novels and other narratives published between 1968 and 2006,  and Njoku’s 2009 book, Enyi Biafra: Regimental Drills, Duty Songs, and Cadences from Biafra, Owerri, Goldline & Jacobs Publishers.
This presentation will consider the themes of those songs, their style, structure and their language, to get a better understanding of the reasons why they were noted down by journalists, novelists like Ekwensi, Ike, Adichie, Aniebo, Iroh and Akuneme and other writers like Madiebo.

There has been an increase in the number of Muslim women who embraced prophetic practices regarded as Sunna in Yorubaland since the late 1980s. Many of them abandoned the local Muslim women dressing for the hijab (headscarf) and niqab (veil), contested local beliefs and practices, and became more engaged in learning about their religion. But they face several challenges as they seek to break institutional and social boundaries that confront them in the expression of their new Islamic identities. This affects those who seek for jobs, and young women in educational institutions who either abandon their veils, drop their desired course of study or change school. This merged into another experience regarding ambivalence and negotiation in their way of life which results from the expectations to be both pious and live in uncertain circumstances. The women’s turn towards the Sunna is part of the global Muslim revivalist movement between the 1980s and 1990s that saw many Muslims ordering their lives toward piety, which often produced Islamophobic reactions in many parts of the world. Based on ethnographic data collected between 2016 and 2017, this paper discusses the challenges of those women who adopted the Sunna in Yorubaland.

This dissertation aims to assess the role of colonial legacies in creating political
instability in Nigeria, by evaluating the link between colonial legacies and the issues of tribalism (ethnic competition) and political corruption in the colonial and post-colonial period.

This is a compilation of the pictures of the past (and the two present) apex leaders of the Nigerian Baptist Convention - from S. G. Pinnock (the convener of the first annual gathering of NBC) and Mojola Agbebi (the first elected leader of NBC) to Olumide Kehinde (the current NBC Chairman) and Supo Ayokunle (the current NBC President) - and a brief description of each of them.
“This is a historical pictorial booklet of fine and insightful presentation, worthy of its place on the library. It is an enthralling and captivating compilation, which contributes significantly to our understanding of aspects of Nigerian Baptist history, through the lenses of its apex leadership, many of whom might be appropriately tagged among the heroes of the Baptist faith in the country.” - S. Ademola Ajayi, PhD Professor of History, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

This paper examines the value and impact of textile production in Okene area of Kogi state. Primary and secondary data were used for this study. Primary data was gathered from newspapers, dairies and oral interview with management staff of Okene local government women training centre, College of Education Okene and local weavers from different part of the local government, such as Okene-Eba, Obehira-Eba, Obehira-Uvete, Idoji and Upogoro/Odenku. Women leaders from various associations were also interviewed. Secondary data came from websites, published textbooks, academic research papers, academic journals, and articles that are relevant to this study.

Of all the West African societies, the Kingdom of Benin is the one most mentioned in contemporary European literature. Since the end of the 15th century, a great deal of material about Benin has been supplied by sailors, traders, etc., returning to Europe. However, information on the Edo people before this date is very difficult to obtain, as there was no written record and the oral record is at best rather fragmentary. Thus, there is a shortage of information on the early days of the migration and settling down of the Edo in their present-day home. At the same time, a re-investigation of sources dealing with the early history of Benin showed that some information has not been fully exploited yet, although there remain gaps in our knowledge which may never be filled.