ABSTRACT
The study examines federalism and civic nationalism in Nigeria in relation to Ijaws in the Niger Delta region. Thus, it interrogates Nigeria’s fractured, distorted and unstable federal system and the arising Ijaw civic nationalism agitations in the Niger Delta region. The study of the Niger Delta region agitations from the perspective civic nationalism is novel because most studies on the regions crises focused on the petro-insurgent dimensions rather than civic-nationalist approach over the decades. The study’s theme is dynamic, diverse and complex, which has attracted the attention of several scholars to explicate the causes of Ijaw civic nationalism from various perspectives such as ‘resource curse’, youth violence/criminality, petro-violence, crude oil exploration and exploitation, self-determination and resource control, environmental pollution and degradation, ethnic-uprising, failure of traditional institutions, paradox of poverty amidst abundant natural resources and the lack of good/responsive governance amongst others. The study examines these interpretations and argues that they are layers and complications arising from Ijaw age-long demand for civic nationalism in Nigeria; the need to rethink the constitution, the legal framework for revenues allocation in the federation, ethnic minority rights, political and economic autonomy and land rights (undemocratic laws) – these are purely political and legitimate demands. The fundamental question then is whether Ijaw agitations and struggles over the years are propelled by civic nationalism? Again, to what extend has the discovery and exploitation of hydrocarbons complicated Ijaw civic nationalism and how did these complications and the logic of the Nigeria petro-State re-construct Ijaw civic agitation? The aim here to espouse how the insertion of hydrocarbon capitalism has intricately transformed and recalibrated Ijaw civic nationalism – the role of political economy of oil in new character and dimensions of civic nationalism in the Niger Delta. To navigate this study therefore, the broad objective is aimed at investigating the relationship between Nigerian federalism and civic nationalism in the Niger Delta with a special focus on the Ijaws. While the specific objectives is to: examine the mode of operationalization of Nigerian federalism as a secular state, explore whether the civic nationalism of the Ijaws is a pursuit for proper placement in the Nigerian federalism, investigate whether the establishment of NDDC has curbed the Ijaw civic nationalist agitation in Niger Delta, analyse whether the creation of MND has halted civic nationalism of the Ijaws in the Niger Delta, scrutinize whether the creation PAP has been an effective mechanism to curb civic nationalism of the Ijaws in the oil rich Niger Delta region, and finally to verify whether the federal government military repression on the Ijaws was able to curb the civic nationalism of the Ijaws in Niger Delta region. Also, six research questions and hypotheses were raised and formulated respectively to guide the study. The study adopted elite theory, structural functionalism theory and Hans Kohn theory of civic nationalism to provide an understanding of the subject matter in relation to the practice of federalism, state hegemony, nature and character of the Nigerian state towards the federating units. A survey research design was adopted which enabled the researcher to use both primary and secondary sources of data generation. The research instrument for the study was the questionnaire which was administered systematically to elicit responses from the selected sampled population of 2,400 respondents fromthree states which included Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers States out of nine states in the Niger Delta using Taro Yameni formula to derive the sample size for the study. The data collected from the survey was used to test the formulated research hypotheses using SPSS 22 version. The statistical instruments of simple percentage, pie-chart and Pearson correlation was used in the data analysis and presentation. The study reveals how the distorted Nigerian federalism application has generated agitation, evidenced from its centralized and asymmetric realities in the Nigerian question and the chronic resurgence of Ijaw civic nationalism agitation in the Niger Delta. Moreso, the findings revealed that there is a significant relationship between mode of federalism in Nigeria and civic nationalism of the Ijaws in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The study recommends that the tenets of federalism should be upheld to enhance national unity and accommodate diversity that will be devoid of civic agitation in Nigeria.
