NO MANNA IN THE LAND OF MILK OF HONEY

(An evaluation of religion and ethnicity as causes of violence in Nigeria)

BY

DENISE ESOHE ODARO

This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MSc in political Economy of Violence, Conflict and

Development of the School of Oriental and African Studies (university of London)

99045495

MSC VIOLENCE, CONFLICT & DEVELOPMENT, 2003

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In my pursuit and search for knowledge, I was blessed to come across the

most supportive and intelligent people to whom I am immensely grateful

for their individual yet collective contribution to this project. I am truly

blessed to be acquainted with these erudite. First and foremost I would

like to thank the Creator, my spiritual guide who has taught me, through

this project that patience is indeed a remarkable virtue. My father Dr.

Moses Osaruyi Odaro, an untapped resource of never ending knowledge.

My mother, Dr. Irene Odaro, a true mystic, one of the last great poets this

century.

I would also like to thank my brothers Bosa, Edosa,Otas and Osayaba for

their love and constant support. My sisters, Isoken and Ame for their

advice (not taken).

I would also like to thank Maurice

Finally, my immense gratitude goes to Dr Christopher Cramer, Dr. Tania

Kaiser and Dr Julie Hearn

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CONTENTS

Chapter Page

1. Introduction………………………………………………….. 52. Historical Background…………………………………….. 93. Religion…………………………………………………………4. Ethnicity………………………………………………………..5. Democratisation……………………………………………..6. Conclusion7. Sources8. Annexe

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Abstract

This paper concentrates upon the murky debate over religion as a cause of violence. It

concentrates

on the contradiction between the political and divine orders so relied on by

religion. Further, this work debates the failing to reckon with the tension between the

religion-informed philosophy of social justice and the political order; the greed and

grievance theory reduces the causes of conflicts to human

emotions. The paper reaches beyond the veil of the psychological argument to

examine hidden but vital explanatory causes of internal conflicts in Africa. Lessons

are drawn from the conflicts in Nigeria, specifically the Kaduna and Ogoni regions. . I

will attempt to discuss the situation of women in Nigeria in relation to religion,

education, economy, socio-political rights, violence, law, human rights, health and

reproduction and trafficking.

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Chapter 1

“No one will pass up a profitable opportunity to exploit someone else” Machiavelli Theorem

“Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold.” WB Yeats

'Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold.' The Irish poet WB Yeats wrote those words

in the wake of the First World War. Today the wave of political crisis across Africa is

probably greater than ever. The modern-day outbursts of internal violence in

predominantly Sub-Saharan Africa, has brought about a parallel line of studies in the

quest to elucidate, and expose the causes and dynamics of these conflicts. Ibrahim

Elbadawi and Nicholas Sambanis argue that 20 percent of the populations of

Sub-Saharan Africa live in conflict affected countries.2

Though large-scale inter-country wars appear to be declining as a model of political

conflict, threats from religious terrorists, and intra-country wars, sometimes involving

a separatist claim based on ethnicity, appear to be on the increase1. Undoubtedly,

countless resources are being mobilised to deal with the former threat, somewhat not

as much for the latter. It is imperative in this context to address the role that religion

and ethnicity play in both setting off and protracting these conflicts, in order to use

available resources sensibly to alleviate their worst effects.

Some schools of thought single out ethnicity and religion as the two most important

factors in the emergence of conflict.2 Scholars have maintained or inferred that the

roles of religion and ethnicity within the foundation and continued existence of

conflict are comparable, without much interest being paid to why they fit so closely

into the established models of conflict. Although ‘primordialists’ argue that conflict

1 Juergensmeyer; 2002, p6 & Kaldor; 19992 Indra De Soysa, “Paradise Is a Bazaar? Greed, Creed, and Governance in Civil Wars, 1989-99”, Journal of Peace Research, 39, 4 (2002), pp. 395-416.

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is parallel to cultural differences, ‘instrumentalists’ believe that, rather than a given,

difference constitutes a tool for realising elites’ parochial political ends.3 In the

aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the primordialist view seems to have

achieved the significance of a scientific fact.4

Nigeria remains one of Africa’s if not one of the world’s most strategic nations. Its

surface area of 932.8 thousand sq.km5 inhabits 135.6 million people6. In addition, it is

the world’s 5th largest oil producer (reference). Nigeria's export of 12 million barrels

of oil a day comes from 12% of the country's land which contains Ogoniland, a

minute parcel of land of about 404 square miles in South-eastern Nigeria with a

population of around 500,000.

The following chapter explains the historical background of Nigeria, setting the scene

leading to specific eruptions of violence in Nigeria concentrating on conflict in the

Northern region of Kaduna in Nigeria and the Ogoni region which also holds an

important economic interest as the threat of a violent rebellion in the mangrove

swamps of the oil rich Niger Delta region which houses the Ogoniland means a steep

rise in the price of crude oil and by products in the Western world as is evidential in

the current rebellion and effect on oil futures in the Western world. EXPAND.

The effect of the recent approach democratisation will also be discussed. There is in

the literature a relatively diverse approach, which centres on the availability of light

weapons, lack of democratic structures, poverty, and factors in the arena of

international political economy.7 In this connection, Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler

3 Ibid4 Samuel Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?”, The Globalization Reader ed. Frank J. Lechner and John Boli, (London: Blackwell Publishers, 2000), pp. 25-33.5 World Bank Development Nigeria Data 20046 http://devdata.worldbank.org/external/CPProfile.asp?SelectedCountry=NGA&CCODE=NGA&CNAME=Nigeria&PTYPE=CP7 Dietrich Jung, Schlichte Klaus, and Jens Siegelberg, “Ongoing Wars and their Explanations”, Between Development and Destruction: An Enquiry into the Causes of

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combine a series of causal explanations of conflicts into two essential categories:

Greed and Grievance8

Chapter 2

The journey of a thousand miles…

Conflict in Post-Colonial States, eds. Luc van de Goor, Kumar Rupesinghe, and Paul Sciarone (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1996), pp. 50-62.8 Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler. “Greed and Grievance in Civil War”, online athttp://econ.worldbank.org/files/12205_greedgrievance_23oct.pdf

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Nigeria has a surface area of 932.8 thousand sq.km9 inhabits 135.6 million people10.

It is a vast land with dense mangrove swamps and tropical rain forests of the Atlantic

coasts, wide belt of savannah and edges of the Sahara desert. The ethnicity of Nigeria

is so varied that there is no definition of a Nigerian beyond that of someone who lives

within the borders of the country11. A former English colony, the Federal Republic of

Nigeria declared independence from Great Britain in 1960 and joined the United

Nations in the same year using the U.N. International Bill of Human Rights and the

European Convention of Human Rights as guidelines, Nigeria promulgated a

Constitution to protect “Freedom of Conscience, Freedom of Expression, Peaceful

Assembly and Association, Freedom of Movement, and Freedom from

Discrimination.”1

The boundaries of the former English colony were drawn to serve commercial

interests, largely without regard for the territorial claims of the indigenous peoples. As

a result, about three hundred ethnic groups comprise the population of Nigeria, and

the country's unity has been consistently under siege: eight attempts at secession

threatened national unity between 1914 and 1977. (Reference)

Ever since Nigeria gained its independence from Britain in 1960, it has witnessed at

least a million deaths in Africa’s biggest civil war, the assassination of two

government leaders, six successful coups and four failed ones, twenty-eight of the last

forty-four years has seen rule a series of military governments. Regional, ethnic, and

9 World Bank Development Nigeria Data 200410http://devdata.worldbank.org/external/CPProfile.asp?SelectedCountry=NGA&CCODE=NGA&CNAME=Nigeria&PTYPE=CP11 Ukpo, p. 19

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religious differences have contributed to the country's instability, and Nigeria's

development will depend on advancing a political formula that accounts for the

country's diverse characteristics. Albeit in recent years Nigeria has played a regional

leadership role through the West African peacekeeping force- the Economic

Community of West African States Monitoring Group Soldiers (ECOMOG), mostly

Nigerian which restored peace in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Nigeria accounts for 47 percent of West Africa's population and 41 percent of the

region's GDP. Nigeria's economy is profoundly reliant on the oil sector, which

accounts for around 95 percent of export revenues, 76 percent of government

revenues, and about a third of gross domestic product (GDP)???. In spite of the

country's comparative oil wealth, poverty is rife and Nigeria's fundamental social

indicators place it among the twenty poorest countries in the world. The GNP per

capita, at about US$320, is lower than the level at independence forty four years ago

and below the US$370 that it gained in 1985. Around 66 percent of the population

live below the poverty line of approximately one U.S. dollar per day, in comparison to

43 percent in 1985. Economic negligence, corruption, and disproportionate reliance

on oil have been the key causes of the poor economic performance and ever

increasing poverty.

In May of 1999, the democratically elected government of President Olusegun Obasanjo assumed power, and was re-elected to a second term in May 2003. The World Bank ranks Nigeria as the thirteenth poorest country in the world??? The UNDP Development Index rates it as

The politicians who introduced the Sharia penal code with severe punishments such

as stoning and amputation for crimes like stealing, prostitution or so-called adultery,

argue that these type of law and punishments are necessary to curb the increasing

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wave of crime in the society. Even some sections of the working masses both within

and outside the Sharia states, perturbed by the violent crimes and social decadence

which pervade society, genuinely support the penal code in the belief that it is the

solution to these problems.

About 10,000 lives have been reportedly been lost in ethnic and religious violence

since military rule ended in May 1999.

The critical question is whether religion & ethnicity are the main causes of violence in

Nigeria, or just one among many factors. As you might expect, scholars differ. Paul

Collier argues, for example, that conflicts in our world are caused more by economic

competition and the chance to be rich than any religious differences. Low incomes,

and a slow rate of economic growth lead to conflicts and dependence on primary

commodities, be they diamonds, timber or oil as in this case, lead to internal and

bloody civil wars.

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Chapter 3

“All those whofight when oppressed incur no guilt, but Allah shall punish the oppressor.”, Sura 42,

verse 41, Holy Qur’an

Following the recent embrace of democracy which saw an ex-military dictator elected

as a civilian President, Nigeria12 looked forward to unending promises of a better

future sooner than envisioned under the previous military reign. The disappointment

of democratisation and modernisation to transform the conditions of life as promised

maintains a negative impact on the lives of millions. Introspective of the impact are

the loss of hope in development, and the rising of insidious cynicism among the

marginalised. The turn of events has given rise to widespread frustration. Neo liberal

economic development has recently worsened an already bad situation as its

debilitating impacts continue to menace the lives of ordinary peoples.13

Even though Section 10 of the federal constitution requires that Nigeria remain a

secular country, the state of Xamfara adopted Sharia (Muslim law) in October 1999.

Since then, seven additional states started the process of adopting Sharia; these were

12 1999 Election which saw Olusegun Obasanjo elected as President Of Nigeria13 David E. Apter, ed. “Political Violence in Analytical Perspective”, The Legitimization of Violence(Basingstoke: Palgrave, 1997), pp.1-27.

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Bauchi, Niger, Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, and Yobe. All are in the northern

section of the country. Some of the practical effects of Sharia are that it:

prohibits the consumption of alcohol, 

allows caning, amputation of limbs, and beheading as punishment for certain

crimes, 

requires girls and boys to be educated separately, requires separate public

transportation for men and women. 

Riots broke out in Kaduna state on 21st February 2000 . Mulsims had completed

several days of joyous demonstrations in favor of Sharia. Later, Christian

demonstrators had completed a peaceful demonstration at the Kaduna government

house, in which they protested the imposition of Sharia. But when the Christians were

returning home, they were stopped at a barricade installed by some Muslim youths. A

fight broke out which expanded to a full scale riot. Churches, mosques and

commercial establishments were incinerated. The army and police were able to restore

order. But killings continued at a slower pace. The supreme head of Muslims in

Nigeria, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Maccido, issued a statement on FEB-21

warning that violence could spread elsewhere in the country. By the 24th Febuary

2000, 50 deaths had been reported; the estimate appears to have been low1.

Though some argue that there is no correlation between violence and religion, the

analysis of the roles of ethnicity and religion within conflict brings up differences of

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its own: scholars differ widely in their opinions. A range of perceptions exists,

though the two ends of this range can be simplified as:

1) ‘Primordial identities’ based on religion and/or ethnicities are a major cause of

conflict. This may be seen as the lay-person’s point of view and is celebrated by

media attention on areas of conflict such as Rwanda, Sudan, Northern Nigeria etc.

where intricate conditions are automatically simplified into religious or ethnic

differences. Mary Kaldor, suggests that ‘New Wars’ are based on claims to power on

the basis of identity, giving religion and ‘tribe’ (ethnicity?) as two examples14

Following the events on 11th September 2001 such stereotypical classifications are

even greater than before. Basically, this matches the idea of ‘Grievance’ as the key

cause of conflicts.

2) Religion or ethnicity is often a pretext for the real issues of conflict - political

and/or economic. Paul Collier15 argues that raw ethnic or religious hatred given as an

example of a source of grievance may be given as a reason for a conflict by warring

parties but that economic reasons are much more influential in fact16. This end of the

spectrum matches the ‘Greed’ perspective. Here, religion and ethnicity are again

treated as a sole relatively ineffective concept. Arguably, each of these two extremes

is based on a modernist view of the world. Whilst the first concept regards religion or

ethnicity as dangerous, the second bring them into disrepute as not powerful enough

to be a motivating force on their own.

14 Kaldor; 1999, Chapter 415 Doing Well Out of War: An Economic Perspective” [Collier; 2000]16 Ibid p95

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Certainly in recent years the realism is that religion has been used to justify killing,

perhaps because there are issues of ultimate meaning and significance at stake. This

has been ongoing in parts of Nigeria between Christians and Muslims; as well as

conflicts in Israel, Palestine, India and Pakistan etc. These struggles are exacerbated

by concerned fellow citizens living abroad who support from a distance, but who do

not suffer the direct consequences of the violence, and by countries, who for

ideological or other political reasons, are antagonistic towards the indigenous

government. For Collier then, the main motivation behind civil wars is greed; “civil

wars create economic opportunities for a minority to get rich quick, and so the main

motivation is greed, even though they will talk of grievances” REFERENCE. The

complexity lies in how motives judged? Does the chance to seize resources motivate

rebellion or simply give the finances to facilitate other objectives?

On the other hand, looking at the foundation documents of Judaism, Christianity and

Islam, we find provocation to war and violence. In the Hebrew Scriptures, there is one

strand which sees God as an omnipotent, coercive, punishing and threatening God.

Particularly in their conquest of Canaan, the Israelites are commanded to defeat, and

even to destroy, the inhabitants of the land. Later in the days of the Kingdom, they are

urged to show no mercy, but to annihilate their enemies. These Scriptures were in

time adopted by Christians as the first part of their Bible; the Old Testament and were

used to justify actions that would not be justified in the second part of the Bible; the

New Testament.

In the same way in the Qu’ran, the Sacred Book of Islam, violence is legitimised “slay

the pagans wherever you find them and seize them and beleaguer them” 9:5 “fight

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those who believe not in Allah” 9:29. Muslims are to worship no one but Allah and

ordered not to be associated with unbelievers. “Take not your intimacy with those

outside your ranks. They will not fail to corrupt you” 3:11 and 18. War is to be waged

against unbelievers. “Those who fight and die for Allah are promised paradise “say

not of those who are slain in the way of Allah, they are dead nay they are living for

we perceive it not”” 2:154 “and if they are slain or die in the day of Allah forgiveness

and mercy from Allah are far better than all they could amass. And if they die, lo it is

unto Allah that they are brought together” 3: 157-158. Whereas some Islamic scholars

condemn suicide bombings and say that this has nothing to do with Jihad, Sheik

Ahmed Iassim of Hamas says they are very relevant to Jihad: “everyone who dies in

war, or is killed by the enemy, is considered a martyr”.

As reiterated earlier, Sharia law conflicts with national secular principles, especially

in relation to women’s rights, on which Nigeria is formally based. It places a lot of

restrictions on the rights of women. The major victims of this political Sharia are

women. Examples that readily come to mind are the cases of Safiya Hussein

Tungartudu and Hafsat in Sokoto state and Aminat Lawal in Katsina state who were

sentenced to death by stoning because of their alleged commitment of adultery while

their male "accomplices" are taken as innocents. While Safiya and Hafsat has been

left off the hook as a result of the local and international campaign, the fate of

Aminat Lawal still hangs in the balance.

In spite of the anomaly of Sharia in relation to Nigeria’s secular constitution

President Obasanjo has made no note to correct this perhaps for fear of rocking the

boat. Obasanjo recently in an interview with the BBC stated that Sharia is legal.

This was done obviously because of the need to sustain the political support of the

northern elite particularly for his re-election bid, more so when the candidate of the

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other major big business party, ANPP, General Buhari has openly declared his

support for the Islamic legal code. While there is provision for Sharia in the 1999

constitution of Nigeria this is limited by the secularity of the country, which is

equally provided for in the constitution.

Generally religion is used as an instrument in defence of class society and

patriarchy. It discriminates against women. As a result of the theocratic character of

the governance of the northern part of Nigeria before the advent of the British

colonialists Islam has been institutionalised as a culture - the way of life - of the

majority of the people of the region. Islam like most religious beliefs gives hope of

fantastic heaven – the paradise - to the adherents.

Knowing fully well the emotional attachment of the northern Nigerian Muslims to

religion and the psychological equanimity they derive from it, politicians ruling the

northern Nigerian states introduced Sharia law in order to enhance their political

prospects and divert attention away from their own looting and failure to improve

living standards. Of course, Sharia as religious law gives central place to

paternalistic interpretation to women’s appropriate roles and socio-political

arrangement of the society. The penal code is also informed by the belief that the

harsher the punishment the lesser the crime rate. But these are erroneous views.

Crimes, violence and other social vices are products of worsening mass poverty and

unemployment, which are engendered by the Nigeria’s crisis-ridden neo-colonial

capitalist economy.

The hypocrisy of the ruling elite as regards application was shown for instance in

Dutse in Jigawa State, where on 27th of January 2003, a 20 year old prince was

arrested by a local committee and caned for an offence of drunkenness. It was the

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second time he was being flogged for the same crime as he was convicted for the sin

of drunkenness on December 11, 2002. The emirate council embarrassed by the

publicity the committee gave the incident, consequently declared war on the Sharia

police. The council’s action has led to the partial suspension of the activities of the

Sharia implementation group. (The Guardian, Lagos, February 7 2003). In contrast,

in the same Dutse a man was arrested for drinking alcohol and was given 100

strokes of cane at the market place. This is a typical example of the class

discrimination in Sharia implementation.

In a related development, the Kaduna mayhem that broke out around the Miss

World Contest was not unconnected with the Islamic view on women. Albeit, itt was

the Isioma Daniel’s article in This Day that ignited the violence and the attendant

senseless killing and destruction of property, but the country had been sitting on the

gun powder since some Islamic fundamentalists raised religious objections against

Nigeria playing host to this beauty pageant.

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Chapter 3

With the rise of the modern world, a distinctly modern faith – faith in progress – arose tomake sense of, and give ultimate meaning to the new notions and institutions that were now dominant.

Our deep reverence for science and technology was inextricably linked up withthis faith in progress.” Jose Maria Sbert,

The onset of colonial rule in the early 20th century resulted in the balkanisation of the

Ogoni ethnos; an event which segmented Ogonis as minorities under the Native

Authorities of other dominant ethnoses.1727 After over two decades of agitation, the

British colonialists, in 1946, granted the Ogoni people their separate Native Authority,

under the colonial government.The discovery of oil in Ogoni land in 1958 was a

wellspring of hope for the Ogoni because they consider that oil wealth would translate

into Ogoni development, free from the predation of the dominant Igbo ethnos. In line

with that reasoning, the Ogoni allied with the federal government against the Igbo-led

secessionist Biafra in 196618.28 As the war progressed, oil production increased, and

so did oil rents. Rivers state, of which Ogoni is a constituent unit, gained reputation as

the oil Mecca of Nigeria. With huge oil wealth at its disposal, the state embarked on

massive infrastructural development. Also, the State bureaucracy became a significant

employer of labour, and civil servants in the state earned almost double what their

colleagues earned in other states of the federation. What

17 Vincent Amanyie, The Agony of the Ogonis in the Niger Delta (Bori: Fredsbary Printers and Publishers,(2001), p. 9.18 “Pouring Oil on Troubled Waters”, http://www.accord.org.za/web.nsf/Pub%5ConflictTrends2000-3!OpenPage

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CONCLUSION

The penal code is also informed by the belief that the harsher the punishment the

lesser the crime rate. But these are erroneous views. Crimes, violence and other

social vices are products of worsening mass poverty and unemployment, which are

engendered by the Nigeria’s crisis-ridden neo-colonial capitalist economy. Only the

abolition of the causes of endemic poverty, the provision of decent living, full

employment with a living wage, free and qualitative education and medical care,

plus adequate housing for all can lead to the reduction, if not eradication, of crime.

On the contrary, amputations, stoning and other harsh sentences being used in the

Sharia states will on the long run fail to reduce or eliminate crime. Since the early

1970s armed robbery has been punished by execution in Nigeria. But this has failed

to reduce armed robbery. On the contrary, violent robberies have continued to

escalate due to worsening economic crisis and huge youth unemployment.

In reality, the introduction of Sharia by the capitalist politicians in some of the

northern states was a deliberate strategy to seek cheap popularity using religion to

divert the masses’ attention away from their failure to provide the basic necessities

of life, jobs and social security for the populace. In the same manner, the capitalist

elites in the southern part of the country are hypocritically pretending to be

championing the interests of their people, through agitation for resource control.

Most importantly, the Sharia penal code as presently enacted and practised in

these states discriminates against the poor working people in general and poor,

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marginalized women in particular. Since the introduction of the code, several

poverty-stricken peasant farmers and traders have had their limbs amputated and

been incapacitated for life for allegedly stealing items like cattle, goats or hens.

Many ordinary workers and traders have been flogged and humiliated in public for

consumption or sale of alcoholic drinks. All those who have been sentenced under

the code have been poor working masses, women and men. In contrast, the capitalist

politicians and top civil servants who enacted this degrading and inhuman penal

code continue to get away with brazen acts of fraud and looting of several millions

of naira from the public treasury. In addition, these rich elements have relationships

outside marriage without having to suffer the indignity of being dragged to court or

sentenced to death by stoning. Surely, if anybody deserves to be sentenced to death,

it is these corrupt and rich elites who embezzle public funds which ought to have

been used to provide jobs, education, food and medical care for the populace but

doing otherwise.

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