NIGERIAN PEOPLES AND CULTURES

(GST 113)
PART ONE
CHAPTER 1: Nigeria:Geography and Pre-historic Times

CHAPTER 2: Pre-Colonial Nigeria

CHAPTER 3: Cultural Characteristics of Peoples in Nigeria

CHAPTER4: Concepts of Trade from Ancient Times

CHAPTER 5: The Evolution of Nigeria as a Political Unit

CHAPTER 6: The Indigene/Settler Phenomenon

CHAPTER7: The Nigerian’s Perception of His World

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 CHAPTER 1

NIGERIA:GEOGRAPHY AND PRE-HISTORIC TIMES

The geographical area that has become known as the Federal Republic of Nigeria
hasbeen inhabited by its various peoples from very ancient times, like other parts
of the African continent.Such ancient times have been termed pre-historic times
by European and American scholars,implying the period before the
documentation of history in written form.
In all parts of Africa as in the area that became known as Nigeria, only a few
people-groups invented some form of writing or markings by which they
indicated one information or the other. The insibidi, a pictogram style of
writinginvented by the Ibibio, Efikand Ekoi people in the Cross River area of
south-southNigeria, and by some Igbo people in eastern Nigeria,from about 2000
BC, is an example of attempts by the earliest people who lived in Nigeria at
writing. Then there was the Yoruba Arokosemionic devise which has been
described as Yoruba hieroglyphics or African symbolic letters.
However, such writingsas the Insibidiand the Arokowere not sufficiently
developed and utilised as widespread or popular means of recording history, that
is the events of the past and the eras in which they occurred.Hence, the societies
that invented them and their near and distant neighbours remained pre-historic
societies by western standards for a long time.
Albeit, unbeknownst to the foreign scholars, most societies in Africa and in
Nigeria actually documentedtheir histories in oral form by transmitting
significant information of the causes and consequences of events and
occurrences as they unfold in the present and transit into the past.But they were
actually still pre-historic by western standards that classifiedtheir ethnographic
materials (that is their cultures, customs, costumes, tools) and livelihoods as pre-
historic.
Besides the material and non-material or abstract forms of recording history
amongst the early Nigerian peoples stated above, the reality of the existence of
people and cultures in Nigeria before the European era of writing history, (that is
the pre-historic era), has been recorded or preserved. And that ismainly in plant
and animalremains or impressions generally known as fossils.
Moreso, several places where early cultures and civilisationsevolved in Nigeria
have been identified by theirnatural and physical features such as rocks,
riversand other geographical characteristics. In modern times, archeological
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excavations have been conducted in such places and the artefacts identified and
dated. Such sites include the village of Nok near Jos in present day Plateau State,
where terracotta crafted figurines were unearthed by tin miners. The
figurineswhich included stylised human heads and animals are believed to have
been crafted 2,500 years ago. There were also iron tools and stone implements
like axes, tools and ornaments excavated in the Nok area. Other early centers of
sophisticated cultural evolution where bronze and brass objects were forged into
tools, utensils and weapons in northern Nigeria are Jebba, Tada and Giragi areas.
In western Nigeria, the ancient town of Ile-Ife is regarded as the cradle or
source of theYoruba people and a prime example of their pre-historic existence
and of the early civilization that they evolved. Ife is home to many sacred
grooveslocated in its forest. There is the Ore groove where there are ancient
stone monoliths and human and animal figures; the Iwinringroove which is the
location of terra-cotta human heads and life-size figurines.
The Ife Bronze head was excavated accidentally in 1938 in the Wunmonije
Compound in Ife. It was one of the sixteen brass and copper artefacts unearthed
in the compound and neighbouring areas. The Ife Bronze headwhich has long
become renowned as representative of the sophistication of the Yoruba and by
extension, the African civilization, is believed to have been crafted in a period of
Yoruba prosperity and the blossoming of its civilization between the fourteenth
and fifteenth century.
Also in western Nigeria, theIwo Eleru(actually Iho Eleru) rockshelternear
Akure in Ondo State has been confirmed as one of the earliest sites where pre-
historic Nigerians lived. A fossil skull was discovered by renowned British
Archeologist, Thurstan Shawand his team in 1965.The skull which was studied
and identified as belonging to the Later Stone Age was amongst five hundred
thousand other artefacts of the same periodalso found in the area, thus
buttressingIwo Eleru’sreputation as one of the pre-historic centers of civilization
in Nigeria.Theskull was analysed to be 13,000 years old at the time that it was
found in the earth’s crust of Iwo Eleru in 1965.
Other identified centers of early civilization have been found inCentral
Nigeria.TheItakparockshelter formerly located in Kwara State, but now in Kogi
State,has been reckoned as one of the major centers of early civilization in
Nigeria.Obviously suitable geographically for habitation, the Itakparockshelter
became reputed for being amongst the earliest locations of the ancient iron
smelting industry in the area that is now central Nigeria.Artefacts found there

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were human maxilla and mandibles (jaw bones) that revealed early human
existence.
In the geo-political zone that is now Eastern Nigeria, the town of Igbo Ukwuin the
contemporary Anambra State has long been identified as one of the centers of
early pre-historic civilizationin Nigeria.Its modern recognition as an ancient
center of civilization began after theaccidental digging up of bronze artefacts in
1939 by an indigeneof Igbo Ukwu, Isaiah Anozie, who was digging a well in his
compound.The bronze artefacts that were dug up in 1939 by Mr. Anozie,and the
ones that were dug subsequently, date back to the9th century AD.
British Archaeologist Thurstan Shaw, carried out exhibitions in Igbo Ukwu in
1959 and 1964. Artefacts found in the three sites that he excavatedconfirmed
Igbo Ukwuas a place where a highly sophisticated bronze metal-working culture
evolved in pre-historic times in the eastern flank of the area now designated
Nigeria.Igbo Ukwu was indeed the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Nri, which
was a medieval era political entity, that wielded both religious and political
influence over a third of Igboland in eastern Nigeria. Artefacts discovered at Igbo
Ukwu included ritual vessels, pendants, swords, breastplates, staff ornaments
and crowns etc.
In South-South Nigeria, theBenin people emerged as urbane personalities that
advanced into a cultural polity with a rare sophistication in works of bronze,
brass and wood.The same shall be said of the Nembe, an ethnic group of the
greater Ijaw Ethnic Nationality, and their kits and kin in the western, central and
eastern delta of the River Niger (or the Niger Delta), being the Izon, the Kalabari,
Okrika and the Bonny, Opobo and Andoni people, all of whom have been in
existence since medieval times or earlier, dating back to about ten thousand
years ago. This assertion of the ancient existence of all the Ijaw people, is proven
by the discovery of several sites with artefacts dating back to the times stated.
Archeological excavations carried out in the ancient settlements of Onyoama in
the Nembe area;Saikiripogu near Okpoamaon the Brass River;Okochiri, in the
Okrika area; and Ogobiri in the central Izon and Niger Delta heartland for
instances, yielded many artefacts indicative of the earlypre-historic civilization of
the Ijaw as an ancientmaritime people. Also, in the Ebela forest where the ancient
town of Opume sprang up in the Ogbia Kingdom of central Niger Delta (in
contemporary Bayelsa State), are ancient Bronze heads of mysterious origins, but
however suggestive of a bronze casting age in Ogbialand or an old era of
extensive trade links between the Ogbia and their distant neighbours, during

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which such Bronze artefacts, procured perhaps for religious uses, were possibly
exchanged for forest produce.
Indeed, beyond all that have been stated above, it is necessary to note that the
prehistoric cultures in Nigeriawere renowned for theremarkable civilisations
that they created. Beginning from primordial settlements as hunter-gatherers,
they evolved settled communities as farmers, fishermen and craftsmen, and by
these skills and the security and prosperity that followed, advanced into
sophisticated civilisations transiting from wholly village cultures tobuilding
towns, cities, states, kingdoms and empires with sophisticated socio-cultural,
political, economic and architectural systems.
The ancient peoples of Nigeriainvented sophisticated tools, implements and
equipment, which they utilized for their daily and long-time sustenance.
Theyforged the theaters of play, complete with drama, drums and songs. They
survived for several centuries before the arrival of Europeans at their coasts,
with whom they traded on an equal basis, until the introduction of imperialistic
policies by the Europeans, whereupon they were colonised by the British under
the administrative name of Nigeria, thus losing their sovereignty which they
would eventually regain, at least politically, when Nigeria gained her
independence on the 1st of October, 1960.

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 CHAPTER 2

PRE-COLONIAL NIGERIA

Nigeria is located in West Africa. It is made up of various peoples who

areclassified into ethnic groups that had existed for thousands of years before it
was visited by the European explorers, traders and missionaries.
The first Europeans to visit the area now called Nigeria were the Portuguese.
They arrived in the mid-fifteenth century (that is from about 1450 onwards).
They were followed byother Europeans,namely the Dutch from Holland and the
Spaniards from Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and by the
French from France,and the British from Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries.
On arrival at the coast of what is now Nigeria, the main interest of the British was
to trade and to make profits. Initially, the trade was in slaves, because the slave
trade which was characterised by trading in human beings had been going on for
centuries. This was because slaves were in high demand inthe fertile lands of
North and South Americaand in the West Indies where plantations were
cultivated by the British after Christopher Columbus discovered America in the
16th century.
Eventually, however, the British abandoned the slave trade by abolishing it in the
late 18th century. This was because they, and later, other Europeans, had started
inventing machines that manufactured goods in large quantities, thereby
reducing the dependence on manual labour in the production process that had
been manned by slaves. The change from manual labour to the use of machines
led to a great increase in the establishment of industries which resulted in the
mass production of goods and services that became known as the Industrial
Revolution.
As the industries kept springing up in Englandand in Europe as a whole, the need
for raw materials to produce finished products such as pomades and soaps, as
well as lubricants to grease the machines of the growing industriesarose. And the
most demanded of such raw materials were palm and kernel oil derived from the
fruit of the oil palm tree. Incidentally, the interior of the geographical area that
became Nigeria was rich in oil palm trees growing wild in the forests just behind
the coast.
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Thus, the British became even more attracted to the areas beyond the Nigerian
coast and made frantic efforts to get into the interior.Their main objective was to
derive palm oil, kernel and other agricultural produce directly, for the growing
industries back home in England, and for the equally expanding markets at home
and abroad. However, they knew very little about the interior areas which
together with the coastal areas, have been the home of various indigenous
ethnic groups that would later become classified as Nigeria.
To get to the interior of the area called Nigeria and to exploit its resources
therefore, the British commissioned variousgeographical explorations. Amongst
explorers engaged on the early expeditions into the Nigerian interior at different
times were Mungo Park, Hugh Clapperton, Macgregor Laird and Richard and John
Lander. These exploratory expeditions eventually yielded result when the Lander
brothers travelled through the Niger Delta and got to the Atlantic coast at
Akassa,and thereby discovered that the River Niger and its tributary, the River
Benue, were the two rivers that flowed into the interior of Nigeria, and by which
any adventurer could get into the Nigerian heartland.
Following that discovery, the British and other Europeans continued to trade
with the various ethnic groups of the Atlantic coast until the 19th century, when
they began to attempt to move into the interior of the Niger Delta and the River
Niger itself, to trade directly with the peoples of the interior. The British began to
sign treaties of protection by which they would eventually governthe people at
the coast, in the Niger Delta and along the rivers Niger and the Benue and
beyond, all of which now constitute Nigeria. They set up the Oil Rivers
Protectorate in 1885 to govern the areas that is now Nigeria instead of its natural
kings and rulers.
By 1886, the Royal Niger Company which was formerly called the National Africa
Company, took over the governance of the landsalong the River Niger. Only the
towns of the coastand the Niger Delta were left to the Oil Rivers
Protectorate.However, in 1893, the British government expanded the boundaries
to cover all the inland areas behind the coast towns and renamed the entire
territory the Niger Coast Protectorate. It was thus during this time that the rulers
of the various ethnic groups began to resist the British incursions into their
territories and the taking over of their trading rights. Indeed, they had made
them sign treaties that they hardly understood, and those who resisted the
British had their towns bombarded and were either dethroned and deported or
even killed.

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Among the kings so subdued were the rulers of virtually all the over two hundred
and fifty ethnic groups in Nigeria. In the Hausa/Fulani north, the Sultan
Muhammadu Attahiru I of Sokotowas conquered and deposed in 1903.In the
Yoruba west, the Alafin of Oyo, Adeyemi Iwas conquered and subdued in 1888;
andin the Igbo East, ObiAnazonwu of Onitshawas conquered, fled and was
deposed in 1899. In the Mid-west, the Oba OvonramwenNogbaisi of Beninwas
conquered, deposed and deported in 1897. Also, in the Mid-west, Nana Olomu of
Itsekiriwas conquered and deported in 1894.
In the South-South, King Koko of Nembewas conquered and deposed in
1896.King William Dappa Pepple of Bonny kingdom was deported in 1883,
though restored after being thoroughly weakened in 1887;and King Ibanichuka
of Okrika kingdomwas deposed and deported in 1896.Therefore, all the Niger
Delta monarchs and the kings mentioned earlier, lost their thrones after they
were subdued, deported or killed by the British.
Thus, by 1900, the British Government became the effective rulerof Nigeria
having colonised the entire country from north to south and from east to west.It
had annexed Lagos and pronounced it a colony in 1862. Subsequently, it united
the areas ruled by the Oil Rivers Protectorate and the Niger Coast Protectorate
that replaced it, to form the Southern Nigeria Protectorate in 1900. The Southern
Nigeria Protectoratealso came to include the Colony of Lagos in 1906, with Lagos
becoming the capital of the Southern Protectorate from then on. Then, the
Northern Nigerian Protectorate was also created in 1900, and was eventually
amalgamated with the Southern Nigerian Protectorate in 1914 to form the
country called Nigeria.
The name Nigeria itself was derived from the words “Niger Area” after the River
Niger which runs through the country. The name was coined by the British
Journalist and author, Miss Flora Louise Shaw, who later married Lord Lugard,
the first Governor-General of Nigeria. The new country called Nigeria was later
divided into regions in 1936. Before it was divided into regions, the country had
been systematicallyclassified into Provinces and the Provinces into Divisions, the
Divisions into Districts and Subdistricts, by which the British administered all the
ethnic groups in Nigeria.
From time immemorial, long before the British or any Europeans came to the
area that they called Nigeria, the area has had about two hundred and fifty ethnic
groups. The ethnic group is a social division in a traditional society.It consists of
people related by social, economic and religious ties, with a common descent,
culture, language and leader who may or may not be living in the same town.
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The following are the major ethnic groups in Nigeria, and thepercentage of their
population as partof the total Nigerian population oftwo hundred and eleven
million, four hundred thousand, seven hundred and eight (211, 400, 708) people,
in 2021. TheHausa/Fulani has 29% of the total population; the Yoruba – 21%;
Igbo – 18%; Ijaw – 10%; Kanuri – 4%; Ibibio – 3.5%; and the Tiv – 2.5%.
The above groups and all others not stated here, have been existing as distinct
entities, as has already been stated, from time immemorial and they each have
their histories or historical heritages beginning with their origins. They also have
their respective perceptions of the world, their cultural characteristicsand art
forms as we shall observe subsequently.

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 CHAPTER 3

CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PEOPLES IN NIGERIA

NIGERIAN ORIGINAL ETHNIC GROUPS

There are at least 250 Ethnic groups in Nigeria. Before the coming of the British
in the nineteenth century, the various ethnic groups lived as separate states,
kingdoms and empires. The various peoples who became classified as Nigeria by
the British colonisers of their territories between 1900 and 1960, had evolved
their respective original cultures by which they had lived for thousands of years.
They however interacted with themselves in what has become known as inter-
group relations.
Of these ethnic groups are the Hausa and Fulani ethnic groups which have been
the closest together for centuries, the Yoruba and the Igbo. Others are the Ijaw,
the fourth largest, and the Edo, Itsekiri, Urhobo, Isoko, Efik, Ekoi, Yako, Ijagam,
Tiv, Igala, Edoma, Gbagi, Egun, Bornu, etc. In this chapter however, we shall
examine the histories and cultural characteristics of only a few of these groups.

1. THE HAUSA ETHNIC GROUP (Introduction)

The Hausa occupy a large part of Northern Nigeria and have the dominant
population in the present-day states of Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Sokoto, Jigawa,
Bauchi, and parts of Niger Republic. Not much is known about the early history of
the Hausa. But what is known is that small states have existed in Hausaland from
as far back as 900 BC. That is nine hundred years before the birth of Christ.
Right from the beginning, the Hausa had established large fenced villages and
small towns each known as gari. Each gari was fenced by a defensive wall to keep
out invading tribes. They were each ruled by a sarki gari and was made up
members of the same family or lineage. Within the fenced walls of the gari were
portions of land that could be farmed when the village was under siege. In peace
time however, the villagers farmed beyond the walls of the gari.
With the passing of time, each gari (walled village or town), grew to become
fenced cities each called birni (or birane in the plural). Each of these birni became
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the centers or capitals for the Hausa states such as Kano, Katsina, Zaria, Rano etc.
Each of these capitals controlled its surrounding villages and towns, which makes
them states. Each of these birni(states) were ruled by a Sarkin Birni/Kasar to
whom all the people of the surrounding villages and towns swore allegiance
because of the protection the Sarkin Birni offered them from invaders.
Unlike the sarki of the gari who rules over members of his lineage or family
alone, the Sarkin Birni/Kasar rules over the entire land and everyone in it
whether relative or strangers were ruled him. Indeed, his title
SarkinKarsarliterally means ruler of the land, which means the entire land and
not of the city alone. The Sarkin of each state was supported in his daily
administrative duties by a number of officials both at the city and village or town
levels.
The rise of the Hausa states is told in the legend (story) of one of the founding
heroes called Bayagidda. According to Hausa oral tradition, Bayajidda who was
the son of Abdullahi the King of Baghdad in the Middle East, travelled long and
far to Daura due to a quarrel he had with his father. He first arrived at Borno with
his followers. There he tried to overthrow the Mai, the ruler of Borno but
couldn’t. Thus, on failing to do so, he fled westwards until he arrived at Biram
near Kano, and from there he moved to Daura. At Daura he was said to have
killed a snake that had inhabited the well that was the people’s source of water
and had been terrorising them by preventing them from fetching water, thereby
threatening their very existence. After the feat of killing the snake, the Queen of
Daura was so grateful that she married Bayajidda and gave birth to a son called
Bawo. Bawo in turn gave birth to six sons who became the kings of the original
seven Hausa states which are also known as Bakwaistates. They were, and still
are Daura, Kano, Zaria, Gobir, Katsina, Rano and Biram. Apart from the last two
being Rano and Biram, the others became centers of trade and wealth and were
well known throughout the central and western Sudan.
Besides these seven original Hausa states, were seven other states where
although Hausa is spoken, it was not their original language. Those states were
Zamfara, Kebbi, Nupe, Gwari, Yauri, Ilorin, Kwararafa. The Hausa states grew to
become centers of commerce and craft. Such` craft included works in leather,
ivory, metal and clay. When the Berber Andalusi diplomat and author Joannes
Leo Africanus visited Hausaland between 1509 and 1513, he noted the fact that
Gobir was prosperous for its weaving and cattle trade.
The administrative system of the Hausa states resembled that of European states
in the feudal age. The ordinary Hausa farmers needed protection from the rulers
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of the states due to continuous raids from certain tribes. They thus became
subjects of the kings (emirs) and citizens of the states. In turn, they, the farmers,
paid taxes to the kings. Such taxes were used to maintain the state, especially in
paying for the services of the army that protected the territory and maintained
law, order and peace.

Culture (Language, Social Organisation and Religion)

The Hausa language: The Hausa speak the Hausa language which has been
classified as belonging to the Chadic group of the Afro-Asiatic family by its
charateristics. After the introduction of Islam into Hausaland, the Hausa language
has had many Arabic words infused into it since Arabic is the operative language
of Islam.

Hausa Social Organisation: Although many Hausa people live in cities, towns
and hamlets, the majority of the population are rural and are mostly farmers. A
typical household comprises two or more men and their families grouped in a
mud-walled or stalk-walled enclosure of about 93 Square meters. The enclosure
usually contains small round or rectangular huts with thatched roofs, and a
larger rectangular hut in the center housing the headman of the compound.
In the Hausa social structure, decent is patrilineal, and marriage is conducted
within the extended family system in which marriage amongst cousins is
encouraged. Generally, the Hausa society is very hierarchical. There is an
elaborate ranking of the people in the society. Individuals are ranked according
to their status and functions in society. Thus, there are commoners,
administrators and chiefs of varying degrees and levels of affluence. Slaves were
numerous in ancient times and could rise to occupy prominent administrative
positions, that were usually dominated by nobles.

Hausa Religion: The Hausa were initially animist and adherent to such cults as
the Bori or Iskoki cults which believe that every physical thing has a spiritual
force residing in it. Indeed, the word booriiis an Hausa noun that refers to that
spiritual force. The word is closely related to two other Hausa words, namely the
words borassawhich means locally distilled alcohol and bokawhich implies the
practice of medicine.

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The Bori religion as part of the original Hausa culture then, had two abilities.
First, it served as an institution to control the spiritual forces that the religion
believed to be residing in all physical things, and second, the Bori priests and
priestesses performed a spiritual process adorcism which takes the form of the
performing of rituals, music and dance by which the spirit in any physical thing,
including the human body, is controlled and illness is healed.
Indeed, the Bori became the state religion and was led by priestesses drawn from
the ruling class. The priestesses communed with spirits through dance rituals
that were ecstatic, and by that endeavoured not only to heal those that were ill,
but to also guide and maintain the ruling houses of the state. A corps of Bori
priestessesand their assistants were led by the royal priestess called Inna, or
“mother of us all.” The Inna superintended over the network of Bori priestesses
which was responsible both for protecting the society from malevolent spirit and
for providing healing and divination throughout the kingdom.
With the introduction of Islam to Hausaland in the 14th century, certain aspects
of the Bori religion was suppressed. Then, after the Islamic Jihad of Usman Dan
Fodio which took place between 1804 and 1815, and led to the overthrow of the
sultanates that had been existing in the land, and consequently, to the institution
of the Sokoto Caliphate.
In modern IslamisedHausaland, the Bori ritual survives in some places where it
has been assimilated into practices of syncretism, that the incidence of combining
Islamic practices with the traditional religion such as the Bori rituals.

Hausa Art: Hausa Art could be viewed from two perspectives. There are the
material arts and the non-material arts but perceivable arts. The material arts
comprise the indigo-dyed-cloth produced in Kano and Rano, and the general
leatherworks and more. The pre-colonial Hausa were adept at blacksmithing,
sculpting, woodworking, weaving, tailoring, embroidery, etc. The non-material
but perceivable arts include Hausa calligraphy, music, poems, proverbs, folklore,
folktales, etc.
An example of Hausa folktales is the legend of Bayagidda revered as the founding
father of the Hausa States. Since the introduction of Islam however, the religion
has had a profound impact on the original Hausa art and general culture.
Nevertheless, some of the precolonial arts that characterised the original Hausa
cultural heritage remain.

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Hausa Dress: The fashion of the Hausa is depicted by beauty and modesty. For
men, the Babban Riga large robe is commonly won with the jallabia and juanni
robes. These robes are usually elaborately embroidered and won with trousers of
the same material with the characteristic Hausa hat called fula or huluna. Men
also wear what is called grand Boubou shirt and short trousers both of which are
stripped and come in different colours. Hausa women wear a wrap-around robe
called Abaya, with a matching blouse, head tie (turban) and shawl or veil, and
they usually have henna designs in their hands and feet.

Hausa Food: The Hausa grow an array of cereals and grains. There is Tuwo
Masara (tuwon means cooked corn meal; while masara means maize). It is eaten
with various soup varieties such as Miyar Tauche (vegetable soup); Miyar Kuka
(baobab soup); Miyar Kubewa (Okro soup); Miyar Agushi (Melon soup). Then
there is TuwoShinkafa (Rice meal), and Tuwo Dawa (grounded guinea corn
meal), both of which are also eaten with the soups stated above. Other Hausa
foods include Dan Wake (Beans Dumplings), Suya and Kilishi (Beaf-based
barbeque meal), Fanke, Kulikuli, Koko, Kwakumeti, Kwaruru, Nama, Nono, Pate,
Rama, Zogala etc.

2. THE FULANI ETHNIC GROUP (Introduction)

The Fulani people speak the language called Fulfulde. It is classified as a language
that belongs to the Senegambian branch of the Niger-Congo language family.
Although the origin of the Fulani is not quite clear, they are believed to have
come from North Africa and from the Middle East, and the light skin of majority
of them actually seems to support this assertion.
Though their origin is debatable, they constitute the largest migrant population
in West Africa.Located in an area that stretches from Quadai, a city east of Lake
Chad, to Senegal’s Atlantic coast, they are also found in large numbers as far east
as the border of Ethiopia. The Fulani are known globally due to their very
migrant nature. They are known to the Manding as Fula, to the Hausa as Fulani,
to the Portuguese as Fula or Wolof, to the French as Peul, and to the English as
Fulani.
Within the West African sub-region into which they had migrated before the 14th
century, some scholars refer to the Futa-Toro hills in Lower Senegal as their
earliest home. It is from there that they are believed to have migrated eastward
to Macina in the upstream of the Niger bend (around the present-day Niger

14
Republic), from which they further migrated into Hausaland, settling mainly at
Gobir and at other locations from about the 14th century.
While the Fulani were mainly pastoralist (herdsmen), some of them gave up their
nomadic pastoral life especially in Hausaland and settled in established Hausa
urban communities where they eventually took over rulership from the
traditional Hausa leaders after the Usman Dan Fodio Jihad that lasted from 1804
to 1810. The rulers of the Fulani empire that emerged after the jihad of Usman
Dan Fodio was eventually overthrown by the British when they forcefully took
over Nigeria by the force and colonised its peoples.

Culture (Language, Social Organisation, Religion, Art, Dress, Food)

Fulani Language: As has already been stated, the Fulani speak the language
known as Fulfulde. It belongs to the Senegambian branch of the Niger-Congo
group of language families. Through the centuries, the Fulani have evolved in
three forms, thus giving rise to what could be termed three types of Fulani people
defined by their culture of settlement and occupation.

Fulani Social Organisation: LifeinFulani Society is guided by a code of conduct

known as pulaaku. The pulaakupromotes such virtues as patience, self-control,
discipline, hard-work, prudence,hospitality and courage amongst Fulani people.
In Fulani Society, the men are mainly herders while the women engage in making
various handi-craft for private use and for sale. Fulani women make various
types of woven implements and other crafts for personal use and for sale. One of
the significant implements of the Fulani is the calabash. There are different sizes
of calabashes and they are used for various purposes. The same goes for the
basket. It comes in different sizes for various uses and is usually borne on the
head by the women.
Regarding marriage, the Fulani practice endogamy, the marriage custom by
which persons only marry within their local community, clans or tribe. Fulani
marriages are meant to produce many children. Thus, they marry young and
birth control is not customary, and virginity is not a necessary prerequisite for
marriage as is the case with many other African cultures. Therefore, though
women are supposed to bring sexual experience to the marriage, they are
expected to exhibit modesty when the subject of marriage arises.
When the marriage is contracted, the father of the bride transfers one of his
herds to the groom and that signifies the legalization of the marriage. Afterwards,

15
a second stage of the marriage is called Kabbai during which neither the bride
nor the groom shall be present is contracted. Then the bride is expected to be
fertile in bearing children as her status increases with the birth, especially of
male children.

Fulani Religion: Although there is a certain degree of traditional beliefs exist in

many Fulani societies, there is no significant trace of a traditional Fulani religious
form outside Islam. At least ninety-five percent of Fulani are Muslims.

Fulani Art: Fulani arts features the making of colourful textiles with
geometrically designedmotifs and painstaking details. The Fulani are also known
for their artistic intricately plated hairstyles for women and for their decorated
gourds.

Fulani Dress: About dressing, Fulani dress culture varies according to region in
which they settle. In Nigeria, Niger and Cameroun, both Fulani men and women
wear a mostly black or white cotton material sown into a gown and embellished
with blue, red and green embroidery. Men usually wear a hat called noppiire,
which tappers at three Angular tips. They wear compact coloured shirts and long
trousers that go down to their lower calves, and carry walking sticks across their
shoulders with their arms resting on the stick. Fulani women usually decorate
their hair with beads and cowrie shells. They also decorate their hands, arms and
feet with henna which they call Lali. Both male and female Fulani are usually
adorned with scarifications from childhood. Thus, a typical Fulani is identified by
the marks on his or her face.

Fulani Food: The Fulani diet boast of a variety of milk products such as Fresh
milk which is called Kossamand Yoghurt called Pendidan. Then there is Nyiri, a
heavy grease made of flour and eaten with soup made from tomatoes, peppers
and other vegetables. There is also a well-known meal composed of couscous
made from corn referred to as Latchiri. Also called Dakkere, it resembles the fluid
made of flour cereals called Gari. Meat is eaten on certain occasions, and milk,
goat cheese and millet are pounded together with dates to produce a thick
beverage.

3. THE YORUBA ETHNIC GROUP (Introduction)

16
The Yoruba occupy the most of the landmass west of the River Niger. They form
the most of the population of the area that became classified as southwestern
Nigeria in the wake of the British colonisation. Although the Yoruba have many
towns and villages the towns of Ile Ife, Oyo, Ibadan, Abeokuta, Akure, Ilorin,
Ijebu-Ode, Lagos, Ogbomosho, Ondo, Ado-Ekiti, Osogbo, Ilesa, Owo, Kabba, Offa,
Ede, etc, have all been important centers of population and development from
ancient times.
However, the Yoruba regard the town of Ile Ife as their cradle or first home.
Traditionally, they regard Ile Ife as the sacred town in which God first created
mankind. Although, this claim has not been proven historically, it simply shows
the regards the Yoruba have for Ile Ife, their ancestral home. While Ile Ife
remained the original town and religious capital of the Yoruba, Oyo grew to
become a major center of political power from about the 14th century to become
and empire that reached the height of its power and influence in the 17th and
18th centuries.
According to Yoruba traditional history, the first hero and king of the Yoruba was
Oduduwa. Revered as the hero, warrior and father of the Yoruba ethnic
nationality, he is said to have been the eldest son of Lamurudum, King of Mecca,
who migrated away from Mecca after his father was killed in battle. On leaving
Mecca, he travelled until he arrived in the present-day Nigeria where he settled
in Ile Ife. There he had seven sons who were said to have founded the different
states of Yorubaland. Of the seven sons, the youngest son being Oranyan is
believed to have founded Oyo which became a great empire and seat of the
Alafin. At the height of its power, it extended westward to Dahomey, which is the
contemporary Republic of Benin, and northwards to Niger Republic.

Culture (Language, Social Life, Religion, Art, Dress, Food)

Yoruba Language: The Yoruba language is spoken mostly in South-western
Nigeria. It is also spoken by Ethnic speakers in the West African countries called
the Republics of Benin and Togo. There are also Yoruba speakers in Sierra Leone,
Liberia, other parts of Africa, and in the Americas and in Europe. In the
Caribbean, Lucumi is the language of worship for Santeria, an African-American
religion of Yoruba origin, which is the practiced in the Caribbean, especially in
Cuba where the religion was first developed by descendants of slaves taken to
the Caribbean from Yorubaland. The Santeria religionis also practiced in the
Dominican Republic and in Puerto Rico.

17
The Yoruba language belongs to the Defoid subbranch of the Benue-Congo
branch of the Niger-Congo language family. It is spoken by more than thirty
million people in Southwestern Nigeria. The languages of Igala and Itsekiri are
calledYoruboidlanguages, that is Yoruba-based languages. A standard written
Yoruba language was developed with the translation of the Bible to Yoruba by
Bishop Ajayi Crowther in 1884.
Yoruba Social Organisation: From ancient times, monarchies have been the
form of government in Yorubaland. In pre-colonial times, and as is the case today,
an Oba was responsible for the administration of major towns, while small towns
were administered by chiefs, who may be senior chiefs or lesser chiefs called
Baales. The Oba was responsible for the governing of the capital city of the
kingdom. He made laws in consultation with his chiefs, waged war or sued for
peace where necessary, as well as tried criminal cases such as matters related to
murder within the kingdom.
In the Oyo empire for instance, the Oba is selected by historical procedures and
installed by seven hereditary kingmakers called theOyomesi. The Oyomesi is
headed by the Bashorun who is like the Prime Minister of the empire. And there
is the Are-Ona-Kakanfo who is the head of the Army. Both the institutions of the
Bashorun who heads the Oyomesi and the Are-Ona-Kakanfo, head of the army,
served as checks to the Alaafin to avoid the Alaafin from becoming dictatorial or
incompetent. If found guilty of any misdeed, the Alaafin was presented with an
empty calabash or a parrot’s egg as a mark of his impeachment by which he could
be deposed.
The Oba is assisted by some senior chiefs who assist him in solving the political
and economic problems, making laws and trying minor matters. The Baales assist
the Oba in organising the payment of stipulated revenues from their various
villages to the kingdom. They tried minor cases in their domain and made laws
on the Oba’s behalf.
Kinship relationships based on marriage and blood-related affinities is very
significant in Yorubaland. The Yoruba also give regards to friendships especially
amongst agemates and best friends. Thus, the age-grade (Elegbe) associations
which are clubs formed by persons within the same age brackets constitutes an
integral part of all Yoruba societies. The members of especially the male age
grades provide security in the village or town, brought accused persons to the
Oba’s court, and perform public physical works within the villages and towns of
the kingdom.

18
The concept of “best friend” is also widely existent in Yorubaland. Thus, best
friends refer to themselves as “friend not-see-no-sleep, which means a friend that
is so dear that must be seen each day before dusk or bedtime, without which the
day is incomplete.
Besides the foregoing affinities, Yoruba society is also noted for its elaborate
Rites of Passage. The first rite of passage is birth of a child. The child is welcomed
with joy and cold water is sprinkled on it soon after birth to make it cry, prior to
which no word is uttered by anyone present. It is also taboo for anyone younger
than the mother to be present during the birth process. The newborn child is
usually taken to the back of the house where the umbilical cord is tied, severed
and buried. Then the baby is given a ceremonial birth at the spot where the
umbilical cord is buried, and rubbed with palm oil. Thereafter, the baby is named
in a designated naming ceremony attended by relatives bearing gifts. Thereafter,
the baby is circumcised. In ancient times, and even in contemporary times,
circumcision of female children is still practiced.
Growing up, the baby, whether it was a boy or a girl reaches puberty and a few
years afterwards, becomes a full-grown adult fit for marriage. Marriage
ceremony in Yorubaland is well organised. Parental consent is first sought by the
bride and if the proposal is approved, the prospective groom is required to bring
a sum of money called a bride wealth. It is paid in three installments. Then there
is the wedding ceremony which is conducted after nightfall in the home of the
bride. As part of the ceremony, the groom is expected to contribute some tubers
of yam.
At the end of the ceremony, the bride is escorted to the groom’s house. There she
is welcomed with a ritual of washing her feet in which she is washed from her
feet to her knees with a herbal mixture to enhance her fertility. In the first eight
days after her marriage, the bride traverses her home and her husband’s home.
But from the ninth day onwards, she moves into her husband’s home.
In the event of death as the final rite of passage, burials are performed by the
adult men that are not immediate relatives but belong to the clan of the dead
person. The grave is, in some places, dug in the floor of the room where the
deceased lived and the person is buried there. That is after the performing of
some rituals meant to aid the person return to the world, which reflects the
Yoruba belief of reincarnation. And after the burial, a reception of feasting is held.

Yoruba Religion: About twenty percent of Yoruba are adherents of what has
been termed the Traditional African Religion. The liturgy or manner of worship
19
varies from clan to clan amongst the Yoruba people. In the Yoruba traditional
religious belief, a deity may be regarded as a male in one village, and a female in
another. Generally, however, the Yoruba as a whole, hold the view that there is
one Supreme Being, Olorun, whose name means “Sky God” or “God in the Sky.”
Olorun is regarded as the Creator. Eshu in Yoruba religious belief is regarded as
the messenger who mediates between Olorun and the worshippers and delivers
their sacrifices to him. Other deities are Ifa, the deity of divination in times of
uncertainties and troubles; Ogun, the deity of war, hunting and metalworking;
Shango, the deity of thunder.
In recent times, there has been a resurgence of the African traditional religious
worship by adherents of the Ifa cult especially Oyo and Osun states. Orumila is
identified as the Grand Priest of Ifa; Babalawos or Iyanifas are also ministers of
the Ifa religious practice. The divining chain is called Opele, the sacred palms or
kolanuts are called Ikin, and the wooden divination tray, OponIfa. With its
worship dating back to about the beginning of the 15th century, Ifa worship is
practiced in South America, the Caribbean, theCanary Islands etc.
From the eighteenth century, through the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first
centuries however, Christianity has made tremendous impact on the Yoruba
people. The historic Methodist, Anglican, Catholic, and Baptist churches had
significant spiritual and educational impact on the Yoruba people. The works of
Christian clergy such as Bishop Ajayi Crowther, Reverend Henry Townsend and
others reflect how impactful the early Christian missionary work was on the
Yoruba people. The Africanised churches such as the Cherubim and Seraphim,
the Celestial Church, the Christ Church Aladura, etc, have also had their impact on
the Yoruba religious and social life through the years.
Then, the great Pentecostal churches that emanated first in Yorubaland before
spreading throughout Nigeria to many countries of the world, have also had
profound impact of Yoruba religious life, culture and standard of living. The
Redeemed Christian Church of God; the Deeper Christian Life Ministry and the
Living Faith Church – Worldwide, are a few but major examples of the
Pentecostal churches of tremendous impact in Yorubaland and beyond.
Apart from the foregoing religious adherence, the Islamic religion also has a large
following in Yorubaland. Muslims constitute a substantial part of the Yoruba
religious community in Nigeria and beyond.

Yoruba Art: Yoruba Art crisscrosses various artistic forms such as weaving,
embroidery, pottery, woodcarving, leatherworking, beadworking, metalworking,
20
tailoring, etc. Both men and women engage in weaving cloths using locally
fabricated looms, wild silk and locally cultivated cotton. Primarily, men do
embroidery on men’s dresses and caps. They also engage in sewing cloths as
tailors and in making floor mats and mat storage bags. Men also work at
woodcarving, carving of figurines, masks, morters, pestles and bowls. They as
well craft artworks with bones, ivory and stones. Women engage in pottery,
making as many as twenty different types of pots and dishes for cooking, eating,
freighting and storing food and liquid items. They also engage in basketry and in
weaving canes and mats.

Yoruba Dress: The Yoruba have an elaborate dress culture. They make dresses
out of locally made fabric such as Ofi – pure white yarned cloths used as cover
cloths which could be sewn or won. Other fabrics are Aran – a velvet clothing
material sown into Agbada and Kembe; Adire – acloth with various patterns and
designs, dyed in indigo ink called Aro or Elu; and Aso oke– a traditionally
handwoven wool that is woven into a variety of very colourful patterns sown into
mem and women clothings. Yoruba men wear clothing styles called Kembe,
Agbada, Buba, Sokoto, with caps to match such as Eleti-Aja, or the dog-shaped cap
called File-etu. Men also wear the Dansiki, which derives its name from Hausa,
but has long been won by Yoruba men as a traditional attire. Women dress in
wrapper (Iro) and the blouse (Buba), with the head gear (gele) to match.

Yoruba Food: The Yoruba have a number of cuisines or foods that have become
national delicacies in Nigeria. They are Amala (yam flour), Iyan (pounded yam),
Eba (Cassava flour), EwaAgayin (meal made from beans); Ewa (beans); Moi-moi
(pudding beans); Akara (bean cake); Ikokore (a pottage meal made from water
yam). There are Yoruba soups such as Ewedu(Jute leave soup eaten with Amala);
Gbegiri(beans soup); Eforiro(vegetable soup).

4. THE IGBO ETHNIC GROUP (Introduction)

The Igbo ethnic group live in most of the south-eastern part of the area now
identified as Nigeria. The Igbo homeland is divided into two unequal sections, the
eastern region which is the largest section, and the midwestern region. Pre-
historians, that is those who study the existence of people in society before
written history came into being, hold the view that very early in their existence,
the Igbo people must have migrated down the River Niger from a more northern

21
area in the Savannah and first settled near the delta. This theory of the Igbo
origin holds the view that it was from around the delta region that the early Igbo
moved northwards towards Awka in the present-day Anambra State, from which
they dispersed to various parts of Igboland.
Another tradition holds that there was a core area of Igboland and that waves of
immigrant communities from the north and west settled at the borders of this
core area as early as the ninth century. This core area which comprises the towns
of Owerri, Orlu and Okigwe constitute a belt and its people do not have a memory
of coming from anywhere else. In the more recent times, being the fourteenth
and fifteenth century however, more migrations from all sides into Igboland took
place and the Igbo culture became fully homogenous with slight variations from
place to place within Igboland.
At present, the Igbo homeland which constituted the Eastern Region in the early
history of the British-created Nigeria, occupies six states in the Federal Republic
of Nigeria. These are Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States. The Igbo are
also aboriginal to the Anioma and Ukwuani areas of Delta and Edo States.
Just like most Igbo people, the Nri and Aguleri people who are part of the Umueri
clan, the clan being a cluster of village groups that share a common ancestry,
trace their origin to a being in the sky called Eri. According to their tradition, the
first king of the Nri people was called Ifikuanim. He is said to have reigned from
about 1043 AD, after the rule of Eri, the sky being.

Igbo Culture (Language, Social Life, Religion, Art, Dress and Food)

Igbo Language: The Igbo speak the Igbo language which has been classified as
belonging to the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. Its
dialects include, Waawa, Enuani, Ngwa, Ohuhu, Olu, Owerre, Oyigbo, Ikwerre,
Ekpeye, Ika, etc.

Igbo Social Organisation: The traditional Igbo social life is based on the kinship
group and men and women social organisations, associations or societies. They
take several forms such as age-grades associations, men’s societies, women’s
societies and title-holders societies such as Nze or Ozo for men and Omu, Ekwe
or Lolo for women. With regards to traditional government the various Igbo
people had a complex system of governing themselves in pre-colonial times.
Traditional Igbo political organisation was based on a quasi-democratic
republican system of government. It was originally based in villages in a sought

22
of village-democracy where the administrative system guaranteed its citizens
equality, as opposed to a feudalist system where a king ruled over his subjects.
There was no central authority, but what existed was a diffusion of political
authority into the different groups already mentioned such as the Ozo or Ofo title
holders, the age grades and diviners.
When the earliest Europeans, the Portuguese, arrived in Igboland in the mid-15th
century, they witnessed that village system of democratic governance. Except for
a few notable Igbo towns such as Onitsha which had kings called Obi, and places
like the Nri Kingdom and Arochukwu which had priest-kings, Igbo communities
were ruled solely by a republican consultative assembly of the common people,
governed and administered by a council of elders, amongst whom the most
senior male, the Okpara, called for and adjourns meetings, as well as give
judgements.
Within families, there is the Umunna, a male line of descent from a founding
ancestor after who the family line is sometimes named, with groups of
compounds which contains families that are closely related and headed by the
eldest male member of the compound, sometimes called kindred or clan.

Igbo Religion: The Igbo traditional pre-colonial religion was based on a set of
religious practices known collectively as Odinani. The original religion was
monotheistic, that is the believe in one supreme being whom the Igbo call
Chukwu or Chineke. Although there was only one supreme being, there were, and
still are many spirits associated with that supreme being. Such spirits were, and
are called Alusi.
Chukwu the supreme being is also regarded as the creator. As supreme being,
Chukwu could be approached through numerous deities and spirits, some of
whom are in form natural objects. Popular amongst these deities is Amadioha,
the deity of thunder. The Igbo also believe in the religious concepts of the deities
of the land, water and sky. They believe in the after-life and in the ancestors as
living beings who protect their living descendants from natural and human-
instigated calamities. The ancestors are believed to be responsible for rain,
fruitful harvest, good health, fertility and general prosperity. Thus, shrines were
built to house and venerate the sprits of the ancestors. Other shrines generally
called Mbari are set up in veration of the spirit of the earth. Designated priests
usually preside over the religious ceremonies and the performance of rituals and
sacrifices.

23
The introduction of Christianity in the 19th century has enabled the rapid
weathering of the traditional Igbo religious worship. Various Christian
denominations have long established their respective missions in Igboland.
Amongst such denominations are the Catholics, the Anglicans, the Methodists,
Presbyterians, Baptists and the Pentecostals.

Igbo Art: From very ancient times of their existence, the Igbo have been very
adept at crafting or creating various art forms. Such art forms include
composition of music, carving of masks and other ritual, industrial and household
utensils, weaving of cloths and raffia, bronze and iron working, etc. The Awka are
for instance, world renown Iron and other metal working, while the Akwete are
good at weaving the world-famous Akwete Cloth. The Igbo are also credited
alongside the Efik and Ekoi people to have invented the Nsibidi system of written
symbols. The Igbo ary also include body scarification and other forms of body
and wall paintings. They are also experts in proverbs, folktales, folklores, dance,
masquerading and theater.

Igbo Dress: The Igbo are clearly very fashionable in dressing. Men’s outfit began
with a calico or loin cloth around the waist to cover the vital organs. With the
passing of time, it consists of an elongated tunic that is straightly tailored with
short sleeves. Often, the tunic is sewn from a black, red or burgundy coloured
fabric with an elaborate golden or silvery pattern most times of the image of a
lion’s head called Iseagu, or a horse head. Sometimes though, male fashion could
comprise a shirt-like long-sleeved tunic with cuffs and a collar, upon a George or
other wrapper or a pair of trousers.
Female dress for the Igbo began as a colourful loin cloth around the waist down
to the lap region, and another similar or other cloth tied around the breast. A well
plaited hair and body scarifications and paintings with the ink derived from
certain plants complemented the cloth around the waist and the breast. As time
progressed and women became more protective of their bodies, Igbo women
wear a generous assortment of wrappers upon well designed blouses. The
wrapper is tied from the waist down to the feet especially for women and down
to the knees for girls. Sometimes though, the wrapper is tied by women and girls
alike, like a skirt from the waist to the upper knee region.

24
Pendants and ornaments were also widely won by men, women and children
alike in the olden days. Such pendants have long been largely replaced with
trinkets of modern manufacture.

Igbo Food: The Igbo grow an array of food stuff in the designated season each
year. Perhaps the most important food crop cultivated by the Igbo is yam, which
is called Iji. For food, yam is chopped and boiled and eaten in solid state or in
pounded form with various types of soup for which the Igbo are renown. Such
soup variety include ukazi etc. Yam is also roasted and eaten with soup or palm
oil. Also cultivated in Igboland are cocoyam, cassava which is processed into
tapioca and garri, as well as a wide assortment of vegetables, seeds and fruits
such as the palm fruit and kernel, the coconut, the oil bean seed, the bush pear
(obe), etc. Maize is also cultivated extensively. Indeed, while the leaves are used
to prepare various soup meals amidst other condiments, the seeds are utilised in
preparing such delicacies as ukpa and ukwa.

5. THE IJAW ETHNIC GROUP (Introduction)

The Ijaw are the major aborigines of the riverine and maritime Niger Delta of
Nigeria. They do not remember where they originally came from, but are only
certain about the fact that they have always lived in the Niger Delta, migrating
from its central parts to its western and eastern flanks at different times over
hundreds of years. From time immemorial, the Ijaw have been aboriginal to the
riverine and maritime areas across the six Nigerian states of Akwa Ibom, Rivers,
Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Ondo. They have been located in a virtually unbroken
geographical link that transcends the coastline from the River Mahin in the
Arogbo country in Ondo State, to the Kwa Ibo River in the Ibeno area in Akwa
Ibom State.
The first Europeans to travel across the Atlantic Ocean to visit Ijawland were the
Portuguese. They arrived the coastal section of Ijawland in the mid-15th century
to trade and to introduce the Catholic Christian Faith. On their arrival, the
Portuguese author, Duarte Pacheco Pereira whose book, the Esmeraldo de Situ
Orbis, published in 1508, recorded that the European explorers and traders who
visited the Niger Delta in that age were aware of the people called the Jos, who
live between in the delta between the Rivers Escravos in the western Niger Delta

25
and the Rio Real, the River Bonny in the Eastern Niger Delta. They called the Ijo
or Ijaw people Jos since they could not pronounce Ijo or Ijaw properly.
Besides the Portuguese, the early British colonial official, Major Arthur Glyn
Leonard, recorded in his book, The Lower Niger and Its Tribes, published in 1906,
stated that the Europeans who visited and traded along the coastal areas of the
Niger Delta knew the Ijaw. According to Major Leonard, in the triangle formed by
the River Nun and the River Gana-Gana, or the River Forcados, and a little beyond
the triangle, that triangle being the Niger Delta, dwell the Ijo, who are the most
important tribe in the lower Delta, and indeed, after the Ibo or Igbo, in the whole
of the Southern Nigeria as the area became known after it was colonized by the
British.
But perhaps the most profound introduction of the Ijaw people by a foreigner is
that rendered by another British colonial author, Percy Amaury Talbot in his
book, Tribes of the Niger Delta published in 1932. He stated that the Ijaw people
inhabit about two hundred and fifty miles of the coast beginning from the Ibibio
country in the east to the Yoruba country in the west. The Niger Delta he says, is
except for a few small tribes, entirely occupied by the Ijo (Ijaw), a strange people,
as he called them, who have come from a dim past, beyond the dawn of history,
whose language and custom, he notes, are different from those of their
neighbours. Percy Talbot further noted that these people, the Ijo, did not have an
idea of any other place of origin, before they found themselves in the mangrove
forested Niger Delta.

Ijaw Culture (Language, Social Organisation, Religion, Art, Dress and Food)
The cultural and social institutions of the Ijaw are largely consistent amongst the
Ijaw people in the central, eastern and western Niger Delta, with if any at all, only
minimal differences.

Ijaw Language: From the perspective of historical-linguistics, the people

referred to as Izon, Ijo or Ijaw, imply all the original speakers of the Ijaw
language which has been classified by linguists as a branch of the Niger-Congo
family of African indigenous languages. For instance, all the Ijaw people say ‘bo’
for the word ‘come’; ‘mu’ for ‘go’, and a variant of similar words such as ‘tubra’,
‘tubara’, ‘tebra’ or ‘itoro’, for exchanging the pleasantry – ‘how are you faring? or
how are things getting on?’. Of body parts, all the variants of the Ijaw language
say ‘bibi’ for mouth;'toru’ for eye; ‘nini’ for nose; and beri for ear. And no other
people use these terms other than the Ijaw people.
26
Ijaw Social Organisation (Administration): In virtually all parts of Ijawland,
traditional administration emerged from gerontocracy, (rulership by the oldest
man), to leadership by descent, and afterward, to leadership by social and
economic status. The basic unit of the Ijaw traditional administration was the Ibe
or clan. Although, there are certain differences between the clan of the western,
central and eastern Niger delta Ijaw people, the structure is primarily the same.
Amongst the Ijaw people of the western and central Niger delta, the
members of the clan identify themselves as one people who descended from a
common founding ancestor who is usually a male. The claim of the clan to the
common ancestor is further strengthened by the common language they speak
and the other identical cultural traits that they share. The clan usually bears the
name of the common founding ancestor. That ancestor is generally
acknowledged to have founded one town out of which each of his sons went out
to found the towns and villages of which the clan is composed.
The singular institution of central control in the clan (Ibe) of the western
and central Niger Delta, was the cult of a national god (Ibe-nana oru). The high
priest of the national god was the Pere. The Pere was the only one wielding
authority over the clan. It was his prerogative to determine the date of the annual
festival of the national god (Ibe-nana oru). He also presided over the festival. The
Pere was therefore a priest-king, albeit without administrative or political
authority. His authority was essentially religious, although in the twentieth
century, the seat of the Pere has been changed into a political leadership in which
the Pere is king over the entire clan.
Back in the ancient times and even up to the nineteenth and early
twentieth century, the clan of the western and central Niger Delta had no central
administrative or political authority that bound the towns and villages that
constitute the clan together. Their being together was only because of their
presumed blood relationship and their religious and cultural affiliation. There
was no central administrative control. Albeit, the Mein clan had the Mein
Okosowei (Mein elder), being the eldest son of their founding ancestor, and the
Apoi and Arogbo clans had the kalashuweand the Agadagba respectively, all of
whom had some administrative authority over their respective clans. And in
some clans also, some important officials that were functional in the
organisational system existed. They were the deputy-president, messenger,
town-crier, hangman and others.

27
 Accordingly, given the non-political nature of the authority of the Pere,each
village of the respective clans was politically autonomous, and this gave room for
an elaborate political and administrative organisation at the village level, in
which a kind of democracy peculiar to the Niger Delta Ijaw civilisation evolved.
There, the main administrative authority was the Amagula which was the village
or town assembly. It was presided over by the oldest man in the village called the
Amaokosowei(town elder), but executive leadership was vested in a younger
man, Ogulasowei (the Spokesman), chosen by the village assembly. Then there
was also the priest of the village’s deity, the Orukariowei, who was the village
equivalent of the Pere and carried out the religious duties of the village as does
the Pere at the clan level.
The eastern delta is composed of states that are each approximately as
large as the clan (Ibe) that exists in the other parts of the delta. And each of the
states are regarded as clans by their neighbours. Hence, the Bonny, Kalabari,
Nembe and Okrika states are each known as Ibe or clan. Thus, as in the western
and central delta, the people of each clan feel that they belong together but not by
a common descent which is either very weak or absent in these states. Rather,
their being members of the clan is based on the common language that they
speak or on common institutions to which they belong. But even the criteria of a
common language and culture tended to fade with time. This became the
situation as state institutions developed and their territorial influence increased,
and they began to include people of different languages and cultures.
For instance, the Nembe became associated with the Ogbia and Mini people
as well as with the Akassa people; the Kalabari, with the Udekama and the
Bukuma, and the Okrika, with the Abuloma. The impact of the assimilation of the
forgoing dissimilar language and culture groups into the Ijaw states of the
eastern delta, was that the presence of these groups which remain as small
minorities in the eastern delta, added an element that differentiates the eastern
delta states from the clans or Ibe of the western and central delta where the
various clans didn’t have non-Ijaw speaking people as part of their clan.
The eastern delta states also had the cult of a national god that became
characteristic of the states as they developed. But since the states do not
necessarily accept the tradition of common descent as the basis on which the
members of the clan are related, their reason for being members of one clan is
then founded on the spiritual kinship of the village god to the national deity,
whose shrine is sited at the metropolitan city.

28
 To strengthen the communal unity of the metropolitan city upon which the
developing states of the eastern delta were based, they evolved the idea of the
Amakiri (God of the settled earth) and the Amatemesuo(the spirit of the city), as a
historical and unifying being. Indeed, the Amatemesou had a drum praise poem
rendered by the beating of a specialised tune, and that became the national
anthem of the state. It also had a totem or symbol that became regarded as the
flag and coat-of-arms of the state.
Prior to the development of the state institutions, the eastern Ijaw clans
had the same basic village structure as the western and central Ijaw clans. People
of the same descent group were constituted into the Wari (House), which in turn
made up the Polo (Compound or Ward). However, a visible contrast between the
administrative structure of the eastern delta village administrative system and
the western and central delta village administration was the rejection of age as
the criteria for who becomes the head or president of the Village Assembly. The
president of the Village Assembly becomes, no longer the oldest man (the
Amaokosowei), but the Amanyanabo (owner of the town).
The Amanyanabo is chosen based on his descent from the ancestor of his
particular Wari or Polo that is believed to have discovered and first settled the
village location which would gradually assume the status of a town. The
Amanyanabo then was an elementary form of monarchy even though he was
more of a ritual head like the Pere of the western and central Ijaw clans.
However, it is glaring from the above, that the eastern delta Ijaw fishing village
had a lot of common features with the western and central delta Ijaw villages,
that could easily be integrated into the emerging city or trading state form of
administration.

Social Structure
Primarily, the basic social structure of most traditional Ijaw societies is the
nuclear family composed of a man, his wife or wives and their children. Then
there is the extended family which is a combination of between three to eight
nuclear families that have descended from a common ancestor. And there is the
lineage ward which is composed of four to six extended families.
Generally, clans and communities in Ijawland are either patrilineal,
matrilineal or unilineal. This means that descent and inheritance are organised
based on relationship to the father’s line or house (dauwari), mother’s line or
house (yin wari) or both lines, in matters of inheritance and residential location.

29
 Besides social organisation along family lines, most Ijaw clans or
communities classify their people across kinship lines into as many as ten age
sets. These age sets identify and categorise all the people of the village according
to their respective ages. Thus, there are the ayapetediama: children between the
ages of 0 to 3 years old; kalawomo: small boys of 3 to 7 years old; kalasiama:
small boys of 7 to 16 years old; kalapesi: young men of 16 to 40 years old;
asiaiotu: middle-aged men of between 40 to 60 years old; okosotu: old man of 60
years and above. Then on the female side there are the kalaerewomo: small girls
of 0 to 3 years old; iyoroawomo: small girls of between 3 to 11 years old;
erewomo: young girls of 11 to 16 years old; ere: young women of 16 to 45 years
old; okusoere: middle-aged women of 45 to 60 years old; owadere: old women of
60 years old and above.

Ijaw Architectural
The Ijaw people developed architectural structures that are congruent with the
geographical and historical experience of the Niger Delta. The earliest known
houses are generally called thatch houses (Akain wari).
The houses usually had one sitting room and one or two bedrooms
depending on the size of a household. The sitting room usually contains the
fireplace where the cooking, fish-drying and storage were done. There were
usually no bathrooms and toilets attached to houses for the most part especially
in pre-European times and in the colonial era. People usually relieved themselves
aboard canoes anchored at the river bank or in the surrounding bushes
especially in the olden days.
Regarding town-planning, the Ijaw settlement pattern is linear being
parallel to the river along which the town lies. Within the town however, houses
are largely random with narrow walkways between. There is in effect no
deliberate planning of the outlay of the town. Each indigene built a house on the
land that his or her ancestor first settled. However, there has been efforts in
modern times towards deliberate planning especially with the construction of
concrete roads within the town.

Ijaw Religion: Here, we shall experience the philosophy, religion and rites of
passage of the Ijaw. The Ijaw worldview centers around two immense orders of
existence which defines what the universe and existence means to them. There is
thus the metaphysical world of the spirits (temeakpo) and the physical world
(kiriakpo) of human beings. The spiritual world is the abode of two spiritual
30
orders namely, beniotu(literally meaning people of the waters which refers to
water spirits), and the bouotu (literally meaning the people of the forest, which
refers to forest spirits). The beniotu or water-spirit-beings are believed to inhabit
organised humanly invisible underwater communities in lakes, canals, streams,
rivulets, rivers and seas, with a hierarchical structure ranging from the king of
the waters (beni-pere) to other lesser spirits called owu(oru).
On the other hand,the bouoturefers to forest spirits because the Ijaw and
general Ijaw cosmology conceive of the forest as being occupied by unseen
personalities. Such deities, according to some witnesses, have sometimes been
seen in the form of an apparition by hunters, traditional medical practitioners
and others considered purified from the polluting influences of the world. The
image is usually 2.5 meters tall wearing a kilt. It has been described as appearing
only for a short while and is generally believed to portend good fortune to the
person to whom it appears as long as the person keeps the encounter secret.
To the Ijaw, death is not the end of life, but is rather the beginning of the
afterlife in the land of the ancestors. It is a transition from the present world to a
spiritual one. When a person dies, the spirit of the person is believed to have
departed from the physical body and the person becomes a spiritual entity
capable of disappearing and reappearing, as well as maintaining a continual
existence in the afterworld.
Funeral ceremonies are usually conducted to honour the dead. It is usually
a mournful period for the immediate family. The corpse is embalmed with
ethanol distilled into a local rum known as wuru, atuwo or kaikai until the set
period of the burial obsequies. In some parts of Ijawland, there was distinction in
the manner of burying certain ranking persons in society, while some other Ijaw
people had no distinctions. Thus, apart from the burial of aged members of the
town such as the amaokosowei (the oldest man in the town), or other very old
persons whose funerals are usually heavily attended by the entire community
and its neighbours, burial of men and women are usually conducted in the same
way, with only minor differences in some areas. For instance, variations exist in
the days of mourning which culminates in the shaving-of-the-hair (tebesei) ritual.
If the dead was a man, the ritual is performed three days after interment, and
four days after, if the deceased was a woman.
Those who died of whatever causes in faraway places and whose corpses
could not be brought back home to be buried, usually had their hair or nails
brought back home for interment after the necessary ceremonies. In some
instances, however, the soil of the town or area in which the person resided
31
before death was bought in place of the person’s hair or nails and buried as a
symbol, as was the belief, of the dead person’s presence. This method of burying
the dead which has been practised in virtually all parts of Ijawland, has however
started fading away due western civilization and its influences.
Generally, the dead are buried in the communal cemetery or in some cases,
in a piece of land in front of the family house or adjacent to it. Persons that died
violently or by drowning, suicide or other means, or by certain ailments like
dropsy, elephantiasis or with sores in their bodies and so on, are buried in the
evil forest. Again, of those that died by drowning, the corpses are not brought to
the town but are buried immediately in the outskirts of town or are taken to the
evil forest. Also, those accused of witchcraft or other vices regarded as taboo,
were usually buried in the evil forest.
In the case of witchcraft, the divination ritual was usually performed by the
carrying of the divination raft (obobo) which is a ladder-like bamboo instrument,
by two or four men on the shoulders. After certain incantations by the priest, the
persons carrying the ritual raft will be moved in different directions by an unseen
(spiritual) force until they arrive at a destination by which the accusation of
whether the dead person was a witch or not is ascertained. If the person is
divined to have been a witch, the corpse was buried in the evil forest.
The obobo was also used for divination to determine the cause of a person’s
death. That was especially if the person was suspected to have died of unnatural
causes resulting from wizardry and other mysterious circumstances that may not
be visible to the physical eyes.

Ijaw Dress: The costumes of the Ijaw people are consistent across the various
sections of the Niger Delta where they live. The Ijaw have known the use of
various cloths and clothing from ancient times. The earliest Ijaw clothing was
evidently the loin cloth which was a strip cloth mixed with raffia fibre. Such
textile was also used by ancient personalities such as Onyo, priest-king of the
ancient Nembe metropolis of Onyoama (which was founded in about 1330 AD) in
the Eastern Niger Delta. Evidence abound that such cloth was handmade by
skilled – mostly female weavers using the techniques of weaving raphia products,
as well as baskets and other household implements made of cane. Ancient men
wore hats made of raphia, while women plaited or shaved their hair. The scarf
and head tie were later innovations.
In modern times, men, women and older youths tie different types of
wrappers such as george(injiri), hollandis (wax), blangidi, india, ikagi,
32
popoo/kenteand others sometimes imported from Europe. The wrappers are
complemented atop the body with shirts and blouses of different shapes and
sizes. The most popular of the shirts for men especially during ceremonies is the
big Elizabethan free-flowing tailed long and short sleeve shirts called ‘etibo’
(which is a corruption of the creole quay-side price of eighty ‘bobs’ or eight
shillings per shirt). Then there is the woko or angapu bigger short-sleeved big-
shirts for men. It is made by tailors from a variety of satin or velvet materials
won with studs as buttons and with trousers to match. There is also the longer
floor-length big shirt variant called doni or donathat is usually won by Chiefs.
Women wear lace and other plane or designed textile blouses upon wrappers.
Younger women also wear gowns. Shoes, locally called agbaka,is won by all in
modern times, whereas in olden days, people went bare-footed as human beings
everywhere in the world.
Indeed, British historian and expert in Nigerian history, Elizabeth Isichei,
tells us that the Ijaw and other Niger Delta groups wore many items of European
dress, reflecting their long centuries of contact with European traders. And in her
words about an observation of the British explorer, R.W. Baikie, who visited the
Niger Delta Ijaw towns in 1854, she informs us that Baikie noted back then, that
almost all the people wore clothes of European manufacture. Writing in 1983,
she herself observes that the dignified and attractive dress of the modern Ijo – a
wrapper of high-quality Nigerian cloth, with a Western shirt and hat exactly
symbolizes the cosmopolitan past of some parts of Ijawland.
Through various historical times to the present, coral beads have been won
as necklaces and bangles. Precious metals fashioned into earrings, rings and
jewelry of various descriptions have also been won by all sexes and ages of
people. Pendants were, and are still won by men, women and children for
ceremonial and aesthetic purposes. They come in different shapes and sizes and
are tied on the waists, wrists or necks of individuals. Usually perforated,
pendants could be leopard teeth, marine shells, small mammalian bones, and
later manilas and cowries.

Ijaw Food: The Ijaw people have an array of cuisines that they have enjoyed in
the course of their existence through the years. Such cuisines include various
soups as vegetable (several types – leaves and seeds); melon
(Cucumeropsismannii), ogbono (Irivingia seeds); okra (Abelmoschus esculentus)
soups served with one of the varieties of processed cassava meal such as garri

33
(mostly hot-water-baked, but sometimes soaked in cold water); kpokpogarri or
farina, and foofoo or loiloi.
Starch processed from cassava; and tapioca also processed from cassava
are also popular staples. Then, there are the plantain meals, derived from the
plantain, which has long been the most significant of Ijaw food culture, for its
culinary diversity and medicinal value.The plantain is the only major food crop
that could be prepared for meals in more than five ways. It could be roasted,
boiled, fried,or cooked into porridge,or eaten raw if ripe. And each of these
varieties are cooked or eaten with proteins such as fish, chicken, mutton, beef,
pork and other ingredients such as palm oil.
Lentils such as beans (cooked or ground and fried as akara) also constitute
a staple for many Ijaw people. Yam, cocoyam and rice is also consumed copiously.
European cuisine like bread and tea, cocoa or coffee, as well as cereals such as
pap (Akamu or ogi)etc, are also usual on the menu, especially in modern times
Indeed, a 1932 colonial record of commodities sold in a pre-colonial Ijaw
market gives what could be regarded as a comprehensive list of items that made
the menu of a typical Ijaw meal table. There were cocoyams, coconuts, farina,
fish, garri, groundnuts, palm oil, palmnuts, palmwine, plantain etc.

CHAPTER 4

THE CONCEPTS OF TRADE IN PRE-COLONIAL NIGERIA

Trade is defined simply, the exchange of particular products or goods for other
products, or for money or services, and vice versa. It is also any commercial
(buying and selling) transaction that takes place between one individual and
another, or between one business enterprise and another.
In Nigeria, trade transactions have been taking place from very ancient times
before history was formally recorded. This is so because each of the various

34
peoples who lived in the villages, towns, states, kingdoms, and empires that were
eventually forged together by the British and called Nigeria, traded in different
forms at various places both far and near.
In this chapter therefore, we shall examine the concept of trade in Nigeria in
its various forms, before the British colonisation of its lands and peoples,
otherwise known as the pre-colonial period, which of course continued into
colonial period and beyond.

Types of Trade Transactions in Pre-colonial Nigeria

There were basically three types of trade transactions in Nigeria in precolonial
times. There were: (1) The Internal Short-Distance Trade; (2) The Internal Long-
Distance Trade; (3) The External Short-Distance Trade; (4) The External Long-
Distance Trade.

(1) The Internal Short-Distance Trade: All over pre-colonial Nigeria, people
have traded in produce from time immemorial. The earliest form of trade was by
barter, in what became popularly known as “trade-by-barter.” It began first as
internal short-distance trade transactions within localities amongst neighbours.
In it, persons from within small localities like villages and hamlets, bartered or
exchanged products for products, or products and vice versa, or service for
service. Initially, persons exchanged what they produced for what they needed
on an individual or person to person basis.
With the passing of time, neighbours within the village converged in the
village square or under a large tree within the village to trade off the things that
they had produced for products that they needed. Those small-village square
transaction meetings became the first markets at the village level.
Subsequently, as time progressed, the exchange of produce began to take
place between neighbouring villages at places within any of the participating
villages or midway between two villages. People from each participating village
came to the market with their wares for exchange.
In riverine parts of Nigeria, such as among the Ijaw in the Niger Delta,
people began to gather on specific days in certain nearby neighbouring villages,
especially those that were strategically located, to exchange produce or wares.

(2) The Internal Long-Distance Trade:Another kind of trade that evolved in

various parts of Nigeria before the British colonisation has been described as

35
long-distance trade. That was trade transactions that took place over relatively
long distances outside the immediate vicinity or locality of the various persons
that had produce for sale, but not beyond their respective regions, such as the
Cross-River Basin; the Imo-Anambra River Basin; the Delta River Basin; the
Owena River Basin; and the Ogun River Basin; the Osun River Basin; the Benue
River Basin; the Hadeija-Chad River Basin; the Sokoto-Rima River Basin; the
Niger River Basin, etc. From an undated period in history, a steady increase in
village populations caused by increased productivity and forced or voluntary
migrations into such villages, clearly explains the emergence of bigger villages
that later became towns, as centers of population and of further increase in
productivity and commerce. Thus, there emerged village markets and eventually,
town markets, albeit within specific regions, where sellers and buyers of produce
converged to sell or buy produce for use.

(3) The External Short-Distance Trade: This term describes trade transactions
carried out by persons over distances beyond the regions covered by the internal
long-distance trade described above. Such distances are usually characterised by
people travelling across regions which may be overland or over river basins such
as the Cross-River; Imo-Anambra; Delta; Owena; Ogun; Osun; Benue; Hadeija-
Chad; Sokoto-Rima; and Niger River Basins,already mentioned.

(4) The External Long-Distance Trade:This trade transaction refers to the

trade that was carried on by our forefathers over seas and oceans with the
Europeans who visited the Atlantic Coasts or inland ports at Badagry, Lagos,
Benin, Warri, Forcados, Bonny, Brass etc.

Products of the Trade

The products of trade were mostly agricultural produce, most of which were
indigenous to the various places where they were produced. For instance, the
rain forests of the area that became the Eastern Region in the colonial era, and
later the South-East Zone and the South-South Zone of Nigeria, were very rich in
natural and later, cultivated Palm trees from which palm oil and kernel were
produced.
Then, the area that became known as the Western Region were notable for
extensive growing of cocoa and other agricultural produce which were sold
locally and exported to Britain and other parts of the world. This was just as the

36
Northern part of Nigeria became the dominant producer of groundnuts and
various cereal and seed crops for local consumption and for export.
Indeed, a typical market in Ijawland, for instance, in the pre-colonial era in
Nigeria would sell fish, shell fishes, periwinkle, crayfish, deer, antelopes, other
animals, and products such as firewood and salt. These would be exchanged for
yams, cocoyams, cassava, and other edible vines, and seed crops such as maize,
beans and other cereals, as well as fluted pumpkin, bitter leaf and other
vegetables originally not produced at all (or in large quantities), in the Delta.
There were also livestock such as cows, goats and ships, as well as handicrafts
and manufactured goods from Europe, especially in the period just before
colonialism took hold. All such exchanges were done first within and between
persons of various Ijaw villages, and later between the Ijaw people and their near
and distant neighbours within and beyond their natural home—the Niger Delta.

Transportationinthe Pre-colonial Trade

The trade transactions that took place in the pre-colonial era relied first on the
feet of buyers and sellers alike who usually carried their wares or purchases by
the hand or on their heads in baskets. In the places that are desert and highland
areas, animals such as camels, donkeys and horses have been used as beasts of
burden carrying men and material from place to place even in trade transactions.
For those in riverine areas, they travelled across rivers or creeks by wading
across shallow rivers or streams or swimming across deep water bodies or
rivers. Then in very early in their existence, they manufactured the canoe and its
propeller the—paddle. Made from large selected trees like the Iroko and Abura, it
was crafted by local canoe carvers who perfected their art over hundreds of
years, to the extent that they developed different sizes of canoes conveying
various number of persons, over varying sizes of rivers.
Thus, while people moved on foot or on the back of domesticated-
transport-beasts or by canoes to markets in all places in the pre-colonial era, the
colonial era saw the advent of palanquins, carts, hand-trucks, wheel barrows and
cars in Nigeria, brought in by the British colonisers and other Europeans.

Currenciesin thePre-colonial Trade

Payment for trade transactions in pre-colonial Nigeria began by the seller and
buyer exchanging produce for produce, or produce for service and vice versa.
That system of trade transaction and payment became known, as we have stated
earlier in this lecture, as trade-by-barter. Then with the passing of time, cowrie
37
shells of the shell Cypraeamoneta or Monetariamoneta, from which the word
money may have evolved, were used as legal tender. And the Central Bank of
Nigeria accounts that in the ancient days when cowries were accepted as money,
40 cowries constituted a “String;” 50 Strings comprised a “Head;” and 10 Heads
comprised a “Bag.” The Central Bank reckons that as at 1865, one bag of 20,000
cowry shells were exchanged for one or two English pounds. Subsequently
manilla, which are semi-circular or wholly circular metal objects made from
copper or bronze became the currency used in trading and other commercial
payments. The use of manillas which came in different sizes, shapes and weights,
representing different monetary values, dates back to the mid-fifteenth century
when the Portuguese arrived what is now the Nigerian coast and began to trade
with the native people. From that early beginning, manillas continued to be used
as money in Nigeria until about the 1940s. According to the African Bank, twelve
to fifteen manillas were used to purchase on agile slave in ancient Nigeria.
Beyond the pre-colonial period, the British pound sterling was introduced
in the colonial period by the Bank of British West African Currency Board which
was established in 1912. Its mandate was to issue and circulate the British Pound
and Shilling to British West African colonies of Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and
the Gambia. The pound and shilling remained the medium of exchange till 1973
when the naira and kobo was introduced as the Nigerian currency for trade and
other economic transactions.

Routes in thePre-colonial Trade

Both on land and by river, traders and buyers in pre-colonial Nigeria travelled
through regular trade routes to get to their destinations. Although, overland
trade routes in which people travelled over long distances on foot to trade
existed in all parts of Nigeria in pre-colonial times, two great rivers provided the
most extensive trade routes.
The Rivers Niger and the Benue, have constituted the highways of trade by
which people from virtually all tribes in Nigeria. The River Niger for instance
runs through the country from north to south. It is fed by a vast network of
streams, creeks, rivulets and smaller rivers of which the River Benue is major.
Other rivers that form part of the River Niger system as it flows into the Atlantic
Ocean are the Katsina Ala, Qua Iboe River, Imo River, Rio Real (Royal or Bonny
River); the Sombriero, Rio Bento (River Brass), the Nun, Forcados, and the Niger
into which all these rivers run, have constituted a highway or route of trade for

38
the people of the region from ancient times dating back to more than five
thousand years.

CHAPTER 5

THE EVOLUTION OF NIGERIA AS A POLITICAL UNIT OR COUNTRY

Introduction
The Federal Republic of Nigeria as we know it today, is an amalgamation of the
various kingdoms and states. Originally, the various peoples of Nigeria had
existed as separate geographical and political entities. They had forged and
39
sustained their distinct civilizations with their respective cultural characteristics.
Thus, we have the Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, Igbo, Ijaw, Tiv, Efik, etc. all of whom had
existed and interacted with themselves for hundreds, if not thousands of years,
before the evolution of Nigeria as:(I) A British Suppressed and Colonised
Country; (II) An Amalgamated Country; (III) An Independent Country; (IV)
A Successful or Failed Country or State?

(I) Nigeria as a British Suppressed and Colonised Country (1849 - 1900)

The year 1849 marked a watershed in the history of the evolution of Nigeria as a
state or country. This is because it was in that year that the British appointed
their first Consul, John Beecroft to come and oversee the affairs of the British
Government in the lands now known as the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The
British, as we have already known, had arrived the Nigerian coast in 18th
century, and their explorers, Mungo Park, Macgregor Laird and the Lander
brothers, John and Richard Lander, had explored its interior and understood
that the River Niger and its major tributary, the River Benue, runs through
the country and empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Akassa. Thus, they began to
make plans on how they would gain access into the interior of Nigeria, beyond
the coastal areas that they then knew to trade and eventually to govern.
However, since the British did not want to spend resources to govern the area at
that time, they gave a charter or license to the British-owned National Africa
Company which then became the Royal Niger Company.
The National Africa Company was the major trading company on the
whole of the Niger from 1879 when it was founded,to 1886 when it became
the Royal Niger Company, and onwards to 1899, the year before 1900 when
the British took over the governing of the lands that they eventually named
Nigeria. The National Africa Company came into being when Sir George Goldie
came to the area that became known as Southern Nigeria in 1877. He
persuaded the various British companies that were competing against
themselves and against the French and other European companies to become
one united company or conglomerate. This was so that the National Africa
Company could solely control the trade on the River Niger and the coast
adjourning it.
As a result of the above objective, Sir George Goldie persuaded the British
government, which lacked the resources to rule all the landmass of Nigeria, to
grant the National Africa Company a charter (license) or right to collect custom
40
duties from the local traders to enable the British Government pay its expenses.
The charter was granted in 1886, and the National Africa Company became the
Royal Niger Company.
On receiving its charter, the Royal Niger Company was given the right to
govern only the lands along the River Niger. Meanwhile, the British
Government had set up a government or administrative authority called the Oil
Rivers Protectorate in 1885, but since the Protectorate could not govern
everywhere alone, and had given a charter to the Royal Niger Company to govern
the lands along the Niger, the Oil Rivers Protectorate then governed only the
towns of the Niger Delta and its coast. Then in 1893, the British Government
took over the inland areas behind the Niger Delta and its coastal towns and
renamed the protectorate the Niger Coast Protectorate.
The attempt by the British to boycott the merchant princes of the Niger
Delta trading states and their people, who had been the middlemen in the trade
between the people at the coast and the people in the interior, did not go
unchallenged.

Virtually all the merchant princes were either deported or killed for
resisting the British attempt to take control of the trade along the River Niger, the
Niger Delta and the coast. King William Dappa Pepple of Bonny, King Jaja of
Opobo, King Ibanichuka of Okrika, King Koko of Nembe, Prince Nana of Itsekeri,
were, apart from King Koko, all deported. King Koko was not deported, but had,
in 1895, waged war on the British Protectorate government and Royal Niger
Company for attempting to usurp the trade and take over the markets he and his
people had established. After his revolutionary battle of attacking the Royal Niger
Company base at Akassa, which the British called the Akassa Raid, the British
carried out a punitive expedition against all the Kingdoms of Nembe heritage and
King Koko escaped to a small but significant Nembe town of Etiema.
Besides the experience in the Niger Delta which led to the King Koko
episode in Nembe, the British policy of taking over the lands along the Niger, the
Niger Delta and its coast, an area which practically covers all of Nigeria as we
know it today, was by diplomacy and conquest. Those who resisted the British
attempt to take over trade and politics (or administration) of their areas had
their king dethroned and their towns bombarded, and puppet kings or chiefs that
would do the British bidding enthroned.
This trend was to the extent that by 1900, the British had taken over all the
kingdoms and states in all of the areas they collectively called Nigeria. Thus,
41
those kingdoms and states (Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, Igbo, Ijaw, Tiv, Efik, etc),
lost their independence and the entire land was effectively colonised by the
British who called it Nigeria.

(II)Nigeria as an Amalgamated Country divided into Protectorates and

Regions(1914 and 1946)
When the British had succeeded in conquering and colonising all the ancient
kingdoms and states in the area they named Nigeria, they classified the entire
area into two major administrative units. These were what they called the
Southern Nigeria Protectorate and the Northern Nigeria Protectorate. Formed in
1900, the Southern and Northern Protectorates became the basis for governing
all of Nigeria. The places under each of the two Protectorates was divided into
Provinces, and each province was divided into Divisions or Districts, which were
divided into Tribes, which were further divided into Sub-Tribes, and into Clans,
Sub-Clans and Native Court Areas.
By 1914, the British amalgamated the Southern and Northern
Protectorates thus forging Nigeria into a single country under one
administration. The protectorates continued to exist until 1946 when the country
was divided into another set of administrative units called Regions by a provision
in the constitution of the Governor-General of Nigeria, Sir Arthur Richards.
Accordingly, the Southern Nigerian Protectorate was divided into the
Eastern and Western Regions, while the Northern Nigerian Protectorate was left
as a single political unit and named the Northern Region of Nigeria.

(III) Nigeria as an Independent Country(1960)

The three Regions of Nigeria, that is the Northern, Eastern and Western Regions
continued to be the political units by which the Nigeria that the British had
forged continued to be governed until 1960. By 1st of October, 1960, the British
granted Nigeria its independence. That independence meant that Nigeria was
free to govern herself. It implied that Nigeria was no longer going to be governed
by Britain which had conquered, colonised and administered its various peoples
from the 19th to the 20th century.
Certain personalitieshad helped the struggle for independence and they
became the leaders of the country. The first system of government by which
Nigeria was then ruled was the Parliamentary system of government. Thus, there

42
was a Prime Minister and a President. The Prime Minister was Sir Abubakar
Tafawa Belewa, leader of the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC); the President
was Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, leader of the National Council of Nigerian Citizens
(NCNC); Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the Action Group (AG) became leader of the
opposition in parliament.
At independence, the Regions were largely self-governing,thus they all had
their premiers. The Premier of the Northern Region was Sir Ahmadu Bello; the
Western Region, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola; the Eastern Region, Chief Michael
Iheonukara Okpara; and the Mid-Western Region, Chief Dennis Osadebay. And
there were also other leaders of that era. Mr. Ernest Ikoli, Chief Harold Dappa-
Biriye, Professor Eyo Ita, Mr Joseph Tarka, Malam Aminu Kano, Amina Sawaba,
Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, etc.
In 1963, the Mid Western Region was created out of the Western Region. It
covered the present-day Edo and Delta States. As a result, Nigeria had four
regions that became the political units by which it was governed until 1967.
when, at the beginning of the Nigerian Civil War, the then Head of State of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria, General Yakubu Gowon created the four Regions
into twelve states.
Also called the Biafran War, the war was fought mainly between the Igbo of
the Eastern Region who formed their region into the Republic of Biafra and the
Hausa of the Northern Region who remained as the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Millions of people lost their lives, livelihoods and properties in the various parts
of Nigeria where the war was fought from 1967 to 1970. In the end Biafra was
defeated and declared illegal and Nigeria remained as a single political entity.

Creation of Regions into States

In course of the Nigerian Civil War on the 27th of May, 1967, the Administration
of General Yakubu Gowon created twelve states from the existing Regions at the
time:

Northern Region: North-Central State with Kaduna as its capital, North-Eastern

State with its capital at Maiduguri, North-Western State with its capital at Sokoto,
Benue-Plateau with its capital at Jos, North Central State with Ilorin as its capital,
and Kano with its capital at Kano City.

Eastern Region: East-Central State with its capital at Enugu, South-Eastern State
with its capital at Calabar, and Rivers State with its capital in Port Harcourt.
43
Western Region: Western State with Ibadan as its capital, and Lagos State with
Lagos as its capital.

Mid-Western Region: The Mid-Western Region which was the last region to be
created, having been created in 1976, remained as it is, but became known as the
Mid-Western State.

Creation of More States

On the 3rd of February, 1976, the General Murtala Muhammed Administration
created seven more states out of the existing twelve states, thus bringing the
number of states to nineteen states. The seven states his administration created
in 1976 were Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Imo, Niger, Ogun and Ondo states. When
these are added to the twelve states that had been in existence since 1967, it
brought the number of states to nineteen.Those twelve states that existed before
General Murtala Mohammed ordered the creation of the more states mentioned
previouslywere North-Western, North-Eastern, Kano, Kaduna, Benue-Plateau,
Kwara, Western, Lagos, Bendel, East-Central, Cross River and Rivers states.
Then, on the 23rd of September, 1987, the General Babangida
Administration created two more states. They were Akwa Ibom and Katsina
states.
On the 27th of August, 1991, the General Babangida Administration
created nine states in addition to the existing twenty-one states, thus bringing
the number to thirty states. The nine states were Adamawa, Taraba, Enugu, Edo,
Delta, Yobe, Jigawa, Kebbi and Osun states.
Of the nine states, Adamawa and Taraba states were created from Gongola
State, Enugu State was carved out of Anambra State, Edo and Delta states from
Bendel State, Yobe from Borno State, Jigawa from Kano State, Kebbi from Sokoto,
and Osun from Oyo State.
On the 1st of October, 1996, the General Sani Abacha Administration
created six states in addition to the existing thirty states, thus bringing the
number to thirty-six states. The six states that were created at this time were
Ebonyi, Bayelsa, Nasarawa, Zamfara, Gombe, and Ekiti states.
The creation of states in 1996 was the last effort at state creation in
Nigeria. Since then and before and after, what is the popular opinion about how
Nigeria has fared as a country? Is it a successful or failed country?

44
(IV) Nigeria: A Successful or Failed Country or State?(IV) Nigeria: A
Successful or Failed Nation or Nation?
Introduction
Nigeria, as it is today, is a creation of the British who came across the Atlantic
Ocean in the nineteenth century. After their arrival, they conquered and
colonised the ancient states, kingdoms and empires that existed along the rivers
and lands adjourning the River Niger, its tributary the Benue, its delta (the Niger
Delta), and the coast of the Atlantic Ocean bordering that delta.
Since its creation into what has become a modern African nation or state,
Nigeria, many would agree, has made tremendous progress in various areas as
we shall now see below.

Nigeria’s Milestones of Excellence

An article presented at the World Economic Forum of 2019 stated the strengths
of Nigeria especially by its economic potentials. It states the following:

First, that Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy. Quoting the World Bank, the
author says Nigeria’s economy surpassed that of South Africa ten years ago. As of
2018, Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was $397 billion, when compared
to the Republic of South Africa’s GDP of $366 billion.Nigeria is Africa’s biggest
crude oil producer producing about two million barrels a day.
Second, besides crude oil, the article observed that in 2009, UNESCO reported
that the Nigerian film industry called Nollywood had overtaken the United States
of America’s Hollywood and is second only to the Republic of India’s Bollywood.
From 2009 to 2019, PricewaterhouseCoopers states that the output of
Nollywood more than doubled to 2,500 films a year. The Nigerian film industry
employs over one million persons and generates about $7 billion for the nation’s
economy, accounting for about 1.4% of the entire GDP. The industry keeps
growing and hopes to generate $22 billion in 2021.

Third, Nigeria’s music industry is growing rapidly and will be worth $73 million
by 2021. Musicians of every genre have had millions of views on television,
Youtude and other media. Legendary music labels like Sony and Universal have
established offices in Nigeria. The country’s music industry is poised to be worth
$73 million by 2021 according to a forecast by PwC.

45
Fourth, Nigeria is the home of some of the world’s greatest authors. Wole
Soyinka won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall
Apart has sold twenty million copies in the sixty years since it was written and
published. Ben Okri’sThe Famished Road won the Man Booker Prize in 1991.
Contemporary Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has written award winning novels.
The foregoing success stories revealed in the milestones highlighted above
notwithstanding, Nigeria has had many challenges that has informed the
conclusion by reputable local and global assessors that it is a fragile or failing or
even failed nation. Below therefore, we shall examine the universal indices of a
successful nation, and the signs of a failed one, drawing examples in relation to
Nigeria.

Indicators of Successful or Progressive Nations

A recent report indicates that the following features are the characteristics of a
successful or progressive nation.
First, a successful nation must be secure and safe. Its government must be
able to ensure the security and safety of its citizens with the full cooperation of
the citizenry. It is a nation in which people can travel through the length and
breadth of the country without fear of being attacked or restricted in any way.
Second, a successful nation or country is one in which the universally
recognised rights of citizens are respected and protected. These rights
sometimes called the fundamental human rights are in Nigeria, for instance,
contained in Chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria. They are the Right to Life; the Right to Dignity; Right to Personal Liberty;
Right to Fair Hearing; Right to Privacy; Right to Freedom of Thought, Conscience
and Religion; Right to Freedom of Expression; Right to Freedom of Assembly and
Association; Right to Freedom of Movement; Right to Freedom from
Discrimination; Right to Own Property.
Third, a successful nation is one in which the citizens could choose their
leaders in free and fair election processes devoid of coercion or duress. It is a
nation that is free from dictatorial tendencies by leaders, where decisions are
taken by the popular will of the rulers and citizens alike.
Fourth, a successful nation is one that has a steady and favourable
economic growth that is beneficial to its citizens. It is a nation with a rising Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) that reflects economic growth and a resultant decline in
the poverty index of individual citizens and the nation as an entity.

46
 Fifth, a successful nation is one in which the citizens have an acceptable
quality of life characterized by availability of the basic human needs such as food,
shelter, clean drinkable water, good medical care, effective communication
technologies, etc. It is a nation with a high life expectancy rating and a conversely
low mortality rate.
Sixth, a successful nation is free from negative tendencies such as
nepotism, tribalism, classism, favouritism and other such negative
characteristics.
Seventh, a nation is successful when there is patriotism, nationalism and a
drive to enhance the growth of the nation in all ramifications by its leaders and
citizens alike.
Indicators of Fragile or Failed Nations
If the foregoing are features of a successful nation, the opposite of the above
features are the traits of a failed nation. Is Nigeria then a successful or a failed
nation? The answer can be derived from available evidence in various media.
As recent as 2019, a study in the online Encyclopedia – Wikipedia – listed
several nations under various categories of strength or fragility or failure. In
doing so, the following indices were used to identify the extent to which the listed
nations should be aware of their wellbeing or otherwise: Very High Alert; High
Alert; Alert; High Warning; Elevated Warning; Warning; Stable; More Stable; Very
Stable; Sustainable and Very Sustainable.
Consequently, Nigeria was classified as one of the nations that should be on
“Alert” for its shortfalls in a number of areas. What could be the reason for the
rather dismal classification of Nigeria and other countries such as Zimbabwe,
Guinea, Haiti, Iraq, Cameroon, Libya, Liberia, etc, in comparison to other nations
that were listed as Stable; More Stable; Very Stable; Sustainable and Very
Sustainable? The reason, not a few observing minds would agree, are manifest in
a number of factors.
To identify such factors, it is necessary to indicate the indices that point to
a nation as a fragile, failing or failed nation and also attempt to note if those
indices adequately describes the nation of Nigeria. Such indices or indicators
have been classified under the following headings being the social, economic and
political indicators. We shall examine the features of under each of these
headings.

Social Indicators of a fragile Nation are:

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 i. Mounting Demographic pressures and tribal, ethnic and/or
religious conflicts: This factor seem to aptly describe the Nigerian
situationof tribal, ethnic and religious agitators, agitations and conflicts
all over the country. It is rather common knowledge that there is the
Boko Haram crisis, the onslaught of forest-based marauders severally
described as armed Fulani Herdsmen mostly in Northern Nigeria; the
incidence of tribal-based agitators or freedom fighters such as the
Independent Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and its forerunner, the Movement
for the Survival of Biafra (MASSOB) in Eastern Nigeria; the OduaPeoples
Congress, and the state-sponsored vigilante, Omotekun, that draws most
of its members from it, all in Western Nigeria; and the legal Ijaw
National Congress (INC), the Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC), the Movement
for the Survival of the Niger Delta (MEND); the Movement for the
Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSSOP); and numerous others in
Southern Nigeria; and numerous other agitators agitating for certain
rights or as in many cases, outright cultists fermenting conflicts in
virtually all parts of Nigeria.

ii. MassiveInternal and External Displacement of Refugees, creating

severe humanitarian emergencies:The years 2018 and 2019 shall be
remembered for the huge numbers of migrants that moved out of
several countries of Africa and the Middle East to Europe. In Nigeria,the
number of internally displaced persons has been growing since the
early 2000s to the present.
Such internal displacements is caused by the attacks by Boko Haram
insurgents who have been fighting against the Nigerian state in order to
establish an independent enclave in the North East and other parts of
Northern Nigeria. People have also been displaced from their
communities by the attacks unleashed on local communities in virtually
all parts of Nigeria by armed bandits believed to be Fulani Herdsmen.
Thousands of people have been victims of forced migrations and the
consequent internal displacement as a result of these and other conflicts
in Nigeria.

iii. Widespread Vengeance-Seeking Group Grievances: Here too, as

mentioned above, there is at least one major and numerous other
vengeance-seeking groups in Nigeria. MEND and others in the south,

48
 and the Islamic State of West Africa (ISIS-backed) Boko Haram in
Northern Nigeria.

iv. Chronic and Sustained Human Flight: For several years, but especially
since 2014, many Nigerian towns and villages in North-Eastern and
North-Central Nigeria have been displaced. Worse affected have been
the North-Eastern states of Bornu, Bauchi Taraba, Adamawa, Yobe and
Gombe, as well as the North-Central state of Benue State.
As of August 2019, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) report revealed that there were two million,seven
hundred and seventy thousand, six hundred and thirty-six (2,770,636,)
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in North-Eastern Nigeria, and an
additional five hundred and fifty thousand persons (550,000) Nigerian
refugees in the Republics of Cameroon, Chad and Niger. The internally
displaced persons include those fleeing the Boko Haram Insurgency,
and other crisis in North-Eastern Nigeria.

Economic Indicators of a fragile Nation are:

I. Widespread Corruption: A 2015 survey by the online encyclopedia

Wikipedia states that by 2012, Nigeria was estimated to have lost over
four hundred billion dollars ($400 billion) since independence in 1960.
By 2018, Nigeria ranked 144th in the 180 countries listed by the
international anticorruption organization, Transparency International,
in its global corruption index. Somali was listed as the most corrupt, and
Denmark as the list corrupt, while Nigeria was listed as stated earlier, as
the 144th most corrupt nation in the world. That result is certainly
enough to call it a fragile but not a failed state.

II. High Economic Inequality: Oxfam International, a confederation of

nineteen independent charitable organisations, published a report in
2018, that economic inequality in Nigeria has risen to extreme and
alarming levels. This was despite its being the largest economy in Africa,
being an expanding economy with abundant human capital enormous
economic potentials to lift millions of its poor, and in some cases,
abjectly poor citizens, out of poverty.

49
 Nigeria used to have a vibrant and economically stable and
moderately prosperous middle class, but that class disappeared during
the era of military governance in Nigeria, especially under General
Ibrahim Babangida who ruled Nigeria for nine years between 1985 and
1993. In the 2000s, there had been an average economic growth of 7%
in Nigeria and yet it kept using a $1.90 extreme poverty line. On the
18th of July, 2017, The Guardian newspaper published an article about
what was, and is still widely known, that 86 million people in Nigeria
live in extreme poverty. The author of that article noted for instance,
that the richest man in Nigeria, Aliko Dangote, earns a daily income that
is eight thousand times more than a poor fellow Nigerian would spend
on his basic needs in one year.
This obviously frightening statistic which is widespread in Nigeria,
was what made a former leading expert of the intelligence community
of the United States of America on Africa’s biggest economy, Mathew
Page, to observe that it is the disparity between the rich and the poor,
more than the poverty itself, that generates anti-government sentiment
and consequently, fuels civil unrest. Mathew Page’s submission was
based on the then new global index produced by two internal economic
organisations namely, Oxfam and Development Finance International.

III. Uneven Economic Development along group lines:In 2012, News

Africa revealed that 61% of Nigerians were living in poverty. Since then
the situation has worsened due to the recession of 2015 and other
factors like the Boko Haram insurgency and other upheavals.
Then in 2017, Oxfarm International published a report on the state of
the Nigerian economy, and particularly on the inequalities that
characterize it. According to the report: “Poverty in Nigeria is
particularly outrageous, because it has been growing in the context of
an expanding economy where the benefits have been reaped by a
minority by people, and have bypassed the majority of the population.”
The same report as above also reckoned that: “Annual economic
growth averaged over 7% in the 2000s, and yet Nigeria is one of the few
African countries where the number of people living below poverty line
increased from 69 million in 2004 to 112 million in 2010, equivalent to
69% of the population. In the same period, the number of millionaires

50
 increased by approximately 44%. Income inequality as measured by the
Gini index grew from 40% in 2003 to 43% in 2009.
Speaking of regional economic inequality, the Oxfarm Report notes:
“Regional inequality is high in Nigeria, and it translates into higher rates
of poverty in the north-western states of the country. For example, in
Sokoto State, 81% of the population is poor, while poverty incidence is
much lower at 34% in Niger State.”
Regarding gender-based economic disparity, the Oxfarm reports: “…
majority of women are employed in in casual, low-skilled, low-paid
informal jobs; women are less likely than men to own land, and 75.8%
of the poorest women have never been to school, compared to 28% of
the richest men. In Jigawa State, 94% of women (against 42% of men)
are illiterate.
A 2018 report by the World Data Laboratory’s Poverty Clock states
that an estimated 90 million people, which is about half of Nigeria’s
population was living in extreme poverty. Although usually
controversial, extreme poverty is measured by World Bank benchmark
of $1.90 earnings-per-day.

IV. Severe Economic Decline:A 2020 Report by Quartz Africa confirms

that Nigeria’s economy fell short of the EGRP’s projected GDP growth
rate of 4.5% in 2019. In fact, most projections by EGRP have been off the
line of the projections. For example, the unemployment rate in Nigeria is
nearly double of the EGRP projected target of 12%.
Although the Nigerian economy has grown appreciably since the
reversal of the recession, the growth of the economy has been sluggish
at a growth rate 2.55%, and the situation may be severely hampered by
the impact of the Corona virus pandemic. To this end, the Nigerian
economy is fragile.

Political Indicators of a fragile Nation are:

I. Delegimization of the State: Many insurgency groups such as IPOB

and Boko Haram are threatening to establish nations within Nigeria.
Due to the incessant attacks by armed bandits across the country, the
governors of the western States of Nigeria have founded the Omotekun
security outfit to challenge the menace of the armed bandits harassing

51
 and murdering people in the western region and other parts of the
country. The Amotekun and other neighbourhood security outfits all
over the country clearly reveals the ineffectiveness of the Nigerian
Police and their sister security agencies to provide adequate internal
security within the country.

II. Deterioration of the Public Service: Many scholars and public policy
analyst in Nigeria have opined that the mass dismissal of top and middle
level civil servants by the General Murtala Mohammed Administration
at its inception, largely spelled the beginning of the depletion of expert
manpower in the Nigerian public service both at the federal and state
levels. It is a fact of history that at the onset of that administration in
July, 1985, many public servants were retired or dismissed, thus leaving
the service prematurely, thereby depriving the public service of the
much-needed expertise.
Besides that administration, the subsequent administrations after it,
were not different, thus inadequate and delayed funding and
remuneration bred corruption, truancy and other vices inimical to
sustenance and progress of the public service.

III. Suspension or Arbitrary Application of the Law; resulting in

widespread Human Rights Abuses:Nothing describes this index of a
fragile country more than the midnight raid of the homes of some
serving judges in Nigeria by Nigerian security operatives acting on
behalf of the state in 2016. Other examples such as the alleged arbitrary
removal (suspension) of a serving Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter
Onoghen, in 2019, twenty-four hours before he was due to swear-in
judges of the election petition tribunal. Yet other examples are the
sacking of the Head of Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Eyo-Ita,
the Director General of NIMASA, Dr. DakukuPeterside, etc, all of whom
were replaced either by persons of northern Nigeria extraction or
southern Nigerian favourites or stooges of an alleged ruling elite called
the ‘cabal’ that is believed to have been behind the appointment of key
functionaries into Federal Government posts, and influences strategic
policy directives at the federal level in the stated period.

52
 Each of these officers were removed in circumstances that were
widely controversial and criticized as largely or entirely nepotistic and
sectional.

IV. Security Forces operating a State within a State often with

Impunity: The invasion of the National Assembly complex by
operatives of the State Security Service in August, 2018, which led to the
termination of the appointment of Mr. Lawal Daura, the then Director
General of the Service by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as Acting
President then, is perhaps one of the most recent abuse of power by
security forces that readily comes to mind. Besides, the numerous cases
of police brutality against even innocent citizens, over the decades in
Nigeria, have also constituted the arbitrariness of security forces in
Nigeria, thus effectively branding the nation as a fragile one.

V. Rise of Factionalised Elites: Right from the First Republic, Nigeria has
been deeply divided along ethnic, political and religious lines. And this
divisiveness is pronounced not only amongst the masses, but amongst
the country’s elite as well.

VI. Intervention of External Political Agents and Foreign States:

Nigeria’s foreign policy is largely dictated by its erstwhile colonial
master, Britain, and the United States, both of whom have enormous
investments in Nigeria. Both countries also have a strong influence on
the Nigeria’s policies and internal affairs, and most times, either or both
countries have been criticized for meddling in the affairs of Nigeria.
Perhaps the most significant cases of the United States interference in
Nigerian affairs was their observed role in the annulment of the June,
1993 Presidential election in which Chief M.K.O. Abiola died in
controversial circumstances.

Conclusion
The foregoing has been an analysis of the indices that led to the
classification of Nigeria as a nation or state or country that should be on
the alert. Being on the alert means that Nigeria is at the brink of becoming a
failed state, somewhere between failure and success.

53
 Albeit, there is no gainsaying the fact that Nigeria is a country with
enormous potentials in natural, human and other resources much of which
are yet to be harnessed and harvested. If Nigeria eradicates corruption and
develops alternative sources of revenue beyond crude oil, the nation would
prosper. Conversely, if the nation remains a mono-product driven
economy, and permits all the vices inimical to the stability of any nation, it
will remain at the brink, undulating between fragility and failure in every
sphere.

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 CHAPTER 6

THE INDIGENE/SETTLER RELATIONSHIPS IN NIGERIA

Introduction
The occurrence of indigene/settler relationships is an ancient one even in
Nigeria. Thus, we shall examine this subject by citing both ancient and modern
examples. To do so however, it is necessary to subdivide the subject into relevant
subtopics for adequate understanding. Thus, we shall define the characteristics of
the indigene/settler relationships, the causes of the conflicts between indigenes
and settlers, the impact of such conflicts on relationships and other aspects of
life, and the solution to the conflicts and the benefits thereof.

Characteristics of the Indigene/Settler Relationships

All over the world and specifically in Nigeria, indigene/settler relationships are
synonymous with the existence of people. Such relationships occur because
people migrate or move from place to place for various reasons which shall be
highlighted below. And in doing so, they settle in certain places inhabited
permanently by other people who have identified such places as their
hometowns. Thus, an indigene is a person or thing that is indigenous or native
to a place. Conversely, a settler is a person that moves alone or with a group of
other persons to live in a new country to which that person or group of persons
are not native. The indigene/settler relationship in Nigeria therefore has the
following general characteristics or types, where the word relationship simply
implies contact and coexistence.

I. Traditional Occupational Type Indigene/Settler Relationships: There have

been various traditional migrant groups in Nigeria. The occupations of such
groups had necessitated their migration from one town to the other in search
of patronage. From ancient times such groups usually settle in certain places to
which they have migrated either perennially or permanently. The Fulani
herdsmen who settled all over Northern Nigeria, the Awka blacksmiths and the
Arochukwu (Igbo) traders who travelled and settled in many places in Eastern
Nigeria, and the Ijaw who occupy all parts of the vast Niger Delta and beyond,
are examples of occupational migrant settlers in Nigeria.

55
 II.Conflict Migration Type Indigene/Settler Relationships: The numerous
ancient battles amongst the Ijaw of the Niger Delta over fishing and hunting
grounds and afterwards, over the control of markets; the displacement of people
during the Fulani Jihad of the nineteenth century, the Yoruba wars of dominance
and control of trade routes also in the nineteenth century, and the various
forced migration of people out of the ancient Benin Empire especially during the
reign of Ewuare the Great (1430 – 1473), have all led to massive permanent
migrations of peoples for hundreds of years.

III.Natural Disasters Induced Type Indigene/Settler Relationships: People

migrate from their hometowns and settle elsewhere due to natural disasters
such as constant flooding and/or inundation of their homelands, erosion,
drought or other climatic conditions. There are many examples of this virtually
all parts of Nigeria. For instance, these natural disasters are common amongst
the Ijaw of the Niger Delta, the Benin of Midwestern Nigeria and the Igbo of
Eastern Nigeria where gully erosion has posed a threat to towns and villages.

IV.Disease and Deaths Induced Type Indigene/Settler Relationships:There are

a number of cases in which entire towns have moved away from their original
homes in Nigeria due to the outbreak of epidemics both in ancient and not so
ancient times.

V. Religious Induced Type ofIndigene/Settler Relationships:

Indigene/settler relationships has been fostered by religious reasons in different
parts of Nigeria. We shall however only cite a few examples here. The Toru Orua
town in Sagbama Local Government Area was founded as a religious settlement
for the worship of the deity traditionally venerated by Tarakiri Clan, called the
TarakiriEgbesu.
The island town of Okipiri in the BassambiriNembe Kingdom in Bayelsa
State was a bad bush or what some persons call evil-forest which was first
settled permanently settled by Ekitesaba, granddaughter of King Josiah
Constantine Ockiya, the king through whom Christianity was introduced to
Nembe. Ekitesaba was born a twin, and since giving birth to twin babies was a
taboo in many African societies in the olden days, Ekitesaba’s maternal uncle,
Chief Iwowari, asked that his sister and her twin babies being Ekitesaba and her
sister, be taken across to Okipiri, the only place where they could live without
offending the deities and the people. Thus, Ekitesaba and her twin sister and

56
their mother became the first permanent settlers of Okipiri. In time, members of
their family began to settle on the island which has grown to become a moderate
town at present.

Causes of Conflicts Between Indigenes and Settlers

Although indigene/settler relations in Nigeria have been characterised by
economic, political, natural, religious and cultural features, that usually define the
intergroup relations of peoples in Nigeria and the world over, nothing has
represented such relations all over Nigeria than conflicts. And such conflicts are
caused by a number of factors in Nigeria as elsewhere. The factors are:

A.Boundary Disputes: Disagreements over the encroachment of settlers on

land owned their landlord communities, that borders their settlement has
often bred conflicts.

B.DisputesoverGrazing, Farming and Fishing Grounds etc: The conflicts

arising from insufficient land for grazinganimals, farming and fishing
amongst forest-dwellers and riverine peoples have often bred conflicts.
Besides, there has been age-long conflicts between indigenous farmers and
migrant and settler-herders or cattle rearers. Innumerable clashes have
occurred when the herder’s cattle or other livestock tramples farmers
crops.

Cost of Conflicts between Indigenes and Settlers

The cost of conflicts between indigenes and settlers is not exactly known. This is
because the conflicts are usually longstanding and Nigeria does not have strong
statistical institutions and an adequate data preserving practise. However, what
is important to note at this level is that indigene/settler has:
(A) Led to thousands of deaths: It is a well-known fact that since the return of
democratic governance in Nigeria in 1999, thousands of persons have been killed
in indigene/settler conflicts. According to Human Rights Watch, inter-ethnic and
religious rivalries in Nigeria’s plateau state alone led to the death of about 4000
persons over a ten-year period. A single incident in Kaduna State in the post-
1999 era, claimed two thousand lives.
(B) Displacement of people and Destruction of livelihood: Between 2006 and
the present, several crises of which indigene/settler conflict is paramount, has

57
caused the displacement of over twelve million people. It has also destroyed their
livelihoods, being their resources and their ability to eke a living.

(C) The opening of space for organised crime: The chaos resulting from
indigene/settler conflict has greatly enhanced the space for organised crimes
such as kidnapping, smuggling and banditry. It is well known that some
notorious terrorists’ groups have targeted places with weak resistance as a result
of displacement of people caused by indigene/settler conflicts.

(C) Caused lasting disunity: Indigene/settler conflicts have left lasting disunity
between those who see themselves as indigenes and those who are settlers or
regarded as such.

Cure of Conflicts between Indigenes and Settlers

The incidence of indigene/settler conflicts cannot be insolvent. There are indeed
several solutions that have been prescribed by several commissions of enquiry
instituted by government to look into respective crises. Indeed, the essential
elements of the recommendations have been similar, except for some identifiable
peculiarities. The following are sundry solutions to indigene/settler crisis.
(A) Creation of distinct boundaries between acclaimed or real
indigenes and settlers.
(B) Institution of laws regarding the limits and excesses in the use of
land and its resources, between farmers and cattle rearers for
instance.
(C) Ensure that specific recommendations arising from the
investigation of specific conflicts by any Commission of Enquiry
empaneled by government or governments, such as the National
Boundary Commission or the International Boundary Commission
\
are adequately implemented as at when due.

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 CHAPTER 7

THE NIGERIAN’S PERCEPTION OF HIS WORLD

The Nigerian’s perception of his or her world implies the basic ideas or thoughts
that a Nigerian has about the world, which is otherwise called worldview.That
perception is manifested in the idea of the society and how it works based on
certain experiences, traditions and beliefs. The perception of every human being
about his or her world is thus based on: (a) What has happened in the past:
which gives rise to experience; (b) What has come to stay: which implies the
agelong traditions; (c) What a person believes at present and the ideas and
values he or she expresses, based on the existing experiences and traditions and
more.
As difficult as it is to identify a generally acceptable answer to the question
of a Nigerian’s perception, worldview or idea of his world, it is necessary to
mention that Nigerians have some largely and widely shared views about the
world in which they live, whether in the northern, southern, eastern or western
part of the country. The world-view of the average Nigerian could thus be based
on the seven values of consciousness, consequence, communalism, creativity,
contentment, consistency and continuity:

(i)Consciousness of the Past: The Nigerian is usually very conscious of his or

her past or history. That past bequeaths experience which constitutes the nature
of the society and the environment at present and the happenings around it. This
accounts for why virtually all Nigerian societies or ethnic nationalities have
traditional proverbs, poems, stories and sacred sites that speak of past
experiences and of societal norms, ethos and taboos that must be obeyed. Such
art forms bequeath lessons about the historic or recent past of a people from
which they could learn to emulate good examples and avoid mistakes, in order to
make adequate progress.

(ii) Consequence of Actions or Inactions:All Nigerians believe that there is a

consequence or cost for every action which is the result or outcome of that
action. They believe that everything a person does has consequences. That what
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happens at present is the consequence or result of the action or inaction of a
person or a people. And that the agelong traditions that have become part of the
community’s existence is a direct consequence of the original traditional or
cultural system.

(iii) Communalism of Society: The average Nigerian views the world more as a
communal place than an individual enclave. Thus, because of that belief that the
community has evolved together over the years or centuries, problems are
usually solved together even when such problems do not affect the entire
community. For instance, if a house in the community is on fire, the task of
putting it out is usually communal. Everyone or most people in the community
usually rise to the occasion to put out the fire. The same response applies to the
birth of a child which is greeted by communal joy, and the death of a person that
attracts the grieving of everyone. In every instance in the traditional Nigerian
society therefore, there is usually a great deal of community intervention and
participation at rejoicing, grieving or solving individual or collective problems or
meeting any need arising from any situation.
It is thus upon these three values of consciousness, consequence and
communalism and even more that the cultural experience and world-view of the
various peoples of Nigeria rests.

(iv) Creativity for Livelihood:AllNigerian societies are traditionally creative

and have as such evolved and developed a number of skills that have enabled
political, social, cultural and economic sustenance and survival for centuries. In
the political sphere, all Nigerian societies had, as we had noted previously in an
earlier lecture, evolved their respective unique systems of traditional
administration by which they governed themselves for centuries before the
advent of Europeans and the colonial system of government that they
(specifically the British) introduced.
In Northern Nigeria, the indigenous people, being the Hausa, evolved states
or kingdoms ruled by monarchs or kings, even before the Fulani conquest that
preceded European colonisation. In Southern Nigeria, kingdoms and city-states
ruled by kings assisted by chiefs representing respective families had evolved
before colonialism. In Eastern Nigeria, the Igbo evolved republican and
egalitarian societies ruled by the council of elders and title holders of each village
that constitutes the hamlet. The village democracy composed of elders and title
holders, as we had seen in a previous lecture, was originally the bases of
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administration in all of Igboland except in western Igboland such as the Onitsha
and Anioma areas that flourished west of the River Niger. There, monarchies led
by kings or paramount rulers called Obi had evolved. The Igwe stools that
evolved in the other parts of Igboland emerged to assume their present status in
the colonial era, during which monarchs emerged and has from then on ruled in
consultation with the council of elders and title holders. In Western Nigeria, the
Yoruba evolved kingdoms and empires ruled by kings called Oba.
Besides the original administrative system created by Nigerians in their
respective indigenous homes, precolonial Nigerian peoples, the forebears of the
present Nigerians created social and cultural systems and facilities by which they
lived interacted and lived peacefully and pleasurably in their various
communities. They created the theaters of play, drama and dance for relaxation.
They evolved festivals at designated periods and crafted instruments such as
drums, gongs, rafters and pots to meet the musical needs of their respective
societies. They made costumes and masquerades that depicted the creatures
around their environment and their worldview.
Early Nigerians also evolved economic skills and systems. They were
ingenuous in organising trade in goods and services. They were also creative in
fashioning implements, equipment, utensils and instruments which they utilised
in various economic activities and for sustaining themselves through the ages.

(v) Contentment with Position and Possession:The average Nigerian views

the world as a place where a person should be contented with what he or she
has. That is that a person should be happy and satisfied with what that person is
and has at each stage of life, according to the person’s effort and what fate has
thrusted on that person. This accounts for why in traditional and even modern
Nigerian societies, attitudes that portend greediness, covetousness and wanton
acquisition of material wealth were frowned at as depraved tendencies. And
persons who grabbed other people’s or the community’s possession for their
personal aggrandisement were viewed with disdain. Wealthy or influential as
they may be, they were usually disregarded and termed wicked and ignoble.

(vi) Consistency in Character:It is typically Nigerian for a person to be

consistent in character. Thus, persons, people and even tribes with inconsistent
behaviours and affiliations are generally viewed with suspicion and distrust.

(vii) Continuity of Tradition:Social and cultural continuity constitutes a major

aspect of the original Nigerian perception or worldview. Such continuity was

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manifested in the transmission of the original traditions and values of the land to
the next generation mediums by teaching, through observation on the part of the
younger generation, and by indigenous poems, proverbs, folklore, folktales,
folksongs and ethos.

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