Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Friday, September 14, 2012

Another cleavage

Nomadic people have never fit into societies that expect people to have a home address. It was true in prehistoric times, Roman times, Han times, and 19th century America.

A helpful way of seeing the issues is to be clear about the cleavages in the political culture that separate settled folk from their mobile neighbors. It's not just ethnic, religious, and wealth cleavages. Culture can also be a politically relevant cleavage.

Nigeria offers one contemporary case study. It's also important to note which cleavages coincide and which ones cut across others. Is it more than identity politics?

And the political resolution will be?

12 Million Fulani Herdsmen Demand Land Rights in 36 States

from Leadership (Abuja)

Apparently fed up with the incessant clashes involving them and farmers over grazing areas, some 12 million Fulani cattlemen have stated that their right to fend for themselves and their livestock as citizens of Nigeria are being infringed upon across many states because of their age-long nomadic way of life.

Primary Fulani populations within dotted line

Consequently, they have now formed themselves into social groups to demand that the federal government address the issue of food security and grazing rights in the country, with a view to securing grazing land rights for the Fulani nationwide…

The association lamented that 12 million Fulani herdsmen were currently living under the fear of losing their means of livelihood, as clashes between them and farmers continue to escalate…

[T]he executive director, Pastoral Resolve, Sale Momale, stated that… "The fact is that they are in remote rural areas and their high level of illiteracy makes it hard for them make formal complaints under the modern system of government."…

"Discrimination against the pastoralists cuts across all tiers of government, even at the village and district levels. The modern system introduced since the colonial times gives priority to a formalised system for laying out grievances, which favours the educated elite.

"In 1990, only 0.02 percent of the pastoralists were literate. By 2005, after 15 years of nomadic education, their literacy level stood at 2 per cent. Right now, according to the Federal Ministry of Education, the Fulani pastoralists have three million children that are out school.

"With this level of illiteracy and the complexity of governance, they have nowhere to lay their complaint. The only government they know is the village head and the village head cannot influence policy. He has no say in the affairs of government. And with a government that is not concerned with reaching out to its citizens, you can understand why the problems of the Fulani have gone unresolved."