maybe the problems lay w the opening structures, as you suggest. but aren't all states comprised more or less of heterogeneous populations? if it isn't ethnicity or region, it is clan. consider somalia. what are the determining factors that guarantee a people's acceptance of peaceful coexistence? what enables us to buy into the social contract? you seem to be implying more homogeneity would help, or am i reading you incorrectly?
ken
ken:
Even with external pressure, Nigerians can still engage in necessary reconstruction to provide themselves with the appropriate governance architecture. Nevertheless, they must first understand what the relevant issues are and they cannot do that without fully understanding how colonialism created a dysfunctional system. Doing so is not the same thing as blaming colonialism. No one is advocating that Nigerians simply blame their problems on colonialism or external forces and do nothing else. But, in order for there to be effective state reconstruction, there must be a full understanding of the history of the evolution of what is today called Nigeria. Please, reread what I wrote earlier. The Nigerian state, as currently constituted, is not capable of effectively managing diversity and providing for peaceful coexistence. This is not due to lack of political will or honesty on the part of the country's ruling elites. The only way to manage an ethnically and religiously diverse country is to build a common citizenship based on "ideas" and not identity.--
On Mon, Dec 7, 2015 at 5:47 PM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
where geschiere would point in a different direction than you, john, is in the shift of priorities and powers following independence.
i don't believe colonialism continues to guide the structures and deficiencies in africa. the period following independence was one in which powerful trends to create and develop national identities were generated. there was also a neocolonial enterprise that was very strong, particularly in francophone states, but that enterprise wanted strong national identities and states so that the home countries' interests could be carried out. for instance, to control and benefit from crop production you needed those national boards that ran all the cacao and peanut and tea and coffee production and exportation.
that ended in the 80s with SAPs; and the world bank loans were conditioned so that state enterprises were ended, as much as possible
the argument continues, and i don't want to take any time to repeat what most people know, but the result was what i said in my last email: greater local autonomy and power, which was courted by the state which had, up to them, actually quashed the local structures.
the role of colonialism and its heritage is secondary to this. we are missing the ball if we keep returning to how they screwed things up from the start. the external pressures on nigeria, on africa , now, are radically different from those of 1960, and are largely determining much of the show.
anyway, my 2 cents.
i just read books, and email
ken
On 12/8/15 4:39 PM, John Mbaku wrote:
What is today called the Federal Republic of Nigeria, like many other countries on the continent, is a collection of identity groups involuntarily brought together by colonialism to form a single political and economic unit. What was created through colonialism was a "multilayered and group-based citizenship" in which loyalty to an individual's ethnic or identity group is more important than respect for the nation and its institutions. What should have taken place during the decolonization and post-independence periods is a total transformation of the critical domains to create a common (Nigerian) citizenship or identity for all groups--under such an arrangement, the foundation for the polity would be the ideas of peaceful coexistence, democracy, economic freedom and respect for each other, and not group identity. These ideas, of course, would have been transformed into a set of rules (i.e., the constitution) to regulate socio-political interaction in the post-independence society. This is the source of the majority of problems that now plague the country, including the desire by various identity groups to exit the existing arrangement. If someone is really serious about understanding the "national question" in Nigeria (and indeed, other African countries), they should start by reading the following book:
Douglass C. North, John Joseph Wallis and Barry R. Weingast, Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009). Note that this book is not specifically about Nigeria, but it provides important tools can be used to analyze and understand countries such as Nigeria, which are confronted with significant ethnic and religious diversity and which must find a way to provide for these diverse groups to coexist peacefully.
On Tue, Dec 8, 2015 at 8:18 AM, Rex Marinus <rexmarinus@hotmail.com> wrote:
--Dear Nimi, may I just ask a question: what do you suggest to be the model that should make "coexistence" of all groups in Nigeria possible and less antagonistic? You talk about giving her citizens a "sense of equal belonging," and I totally agree with you. But what is equal belonging if we have built into that worldview, at the highest level of policy, the notion that people are "alien" in their own country? A governor stages the "deportation" of citizens of the same country, and it goes without consequence; another sacks all "non-indigenes" from state service, and there is little protection by the federal government, and Lagos state imposes selective taxation on its Igbo residents, and it is called justice; people burn shops belonging to Nigerians in Kano, or Kano state destroys trailer loads of alcoholic beverage belonging businessmen from other parts of Nigeria, and nothing happen; a child from one part of the country is prevented from attaining his/her dream because s/he comes from the wrong end of the geography, and it is called "quota." In actual fact, the federal government of Nigeria has routinely failed to protect people from the excesses of people who have been "goaded" on to acts great injustice by "public intellectuals" who justify these , and have managed to turn infamy into polite culture, or at least some pretense of that. Not too long ago, FAS put the OPC on the list of terrorist groups. Once, OPC had declared Yoruba secession, and its willingness to use violent means to accomplish it. Dr. Aluko led a loud protestation to FAS and caused it o remove OPC from that list. But today, he wants Nnamdi Kanu tried and hanged, just on the strength of statements attributed to him in a meeting in the USA, and for which those in the meeting put him to task. Social justice never happens when we keep convenient silence in order not to be seen as offensive. We need always to hold each other accountable otherwise we shall keeping going to well, as the poet Okigbo says, until we smash all our calabashes.
Obi Nwakanma
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Nimi Wariboko <nimiwari@msn.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 8, 2015 12:28 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Moderator's CautionDear All:
I join Professor Falola to urge caution. I have followed the debates with keen interest and I want to say that the issues at stake are too important for us not to treat with caution. Let us try to understand where people are coming from and seek ways of resolving the tension. The country Nigeria belongs to all of us and we must all endeavor to give all her citizens a sense of equal belonging, even as we urge the government to protect its sovereignty. Many of us, not all, need to rise above deeply rooted ethnic rivalry and antagonism to search for a better model of coexistence of all groups and a robust framework of social justice in the country. In such a time as this, we cannot afford to let down our beloved country. Thanks.
Nimi Wariboko
Walter G. Muelder Professor of Social Ethics
Boston University
On 12/7/15, 7:09 PM, "Toyin Falola" <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
The debate on Biafra may by sliding out of control, yet it is a debate worth having at this historic juncture. As I have said before, any debate that leads to the loss of innocent lives is irresponsible. I cannot close an open debate that moves a nation forward, but at the same time, I don't want to be insensitive to the consequences on the lives of people. Our country is very fragile and I want all parties to carefully weigh their words and utterances, even as we all commit ourselves to justice for all citizens, living in peace and harmony with one another, and also to protect the country we inherited from our fathers and mothers. Exercise caution. You and I must seek ways to diffuse the growing tension and not exacerbate it. When mobs arise, there is nothing you can do in your locations, and you will go to work and eat your food, while others carry corpses.--
Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
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USA
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http://sites.utexas.edu/yoruba-studies-review/
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JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
J.D. (Law), Ph.D. (Economics)
Graduate Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law
Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Attorney & Counselor at Law (Licensed in Utah)
Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics & John S. Hinckley Fellow
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Weber State University
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Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
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-- kenneth w. harrow professor of english michigan state university department of english 619 red cedar road room C-614 wells hall east lansing, mi 48824 ph. 517 803 8839 harrow@msu.edu--
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JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
J.D. (Law), Ph.D. (Economics)
Graduate Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law
Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Attorney & Counselor at Law (Licensed in Utah)
Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics & John S. Hinckley Fellow
Department of Economics
Weber State University
1337 Edvalson Street, Dept. 3807
Ogden, UT 84408-3807, USA
(801) 626-7442 Phone
(801) 626-7423 Fax
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
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