So much has been said and written by scholars; social critics and politicians on the ethnic minority question and development but this question or agitation remain largely unanswered. The minorities in Nigeria are usually defined in ethnic terms and all ethnic groups that fall outside the Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo ethnic groups are considered as minorities. Therefore, groups such as the Ijaw, Kanuri and the Tiv though with a considerably large number of members are categorised as minorities.

It will also be worth noting that the definition of minorities can also be extended to encompass the religious minorities in the various parts of the country, for instance, the Christian minority in the far North or the Muslim minorities in the Middle-Belt and the South, however, this discourse will be restricted to ethnic minorities.

The minority question or agitations by these groups are centred on the continued dissatisfaction by the ethnic minorities with the distribution of power and resources in the nation. This can be linked to development in the sense that lack of equitable distribution of resources has affected the development of their respective regions, such as, the question of even and balanced development. Although, there appear to be similarities in the demands of these ethnic groups, in the North or South, these agitations seem to be in agreement on the point that the minorities want a sense of fairness in the way our vast resources are distributed and that state power should not be the monopoly of any group, no matter its size.

However, dissimilarities exist in these agitations when one takes a look at what these people are seeking, for instance, the groups in the North i.e. the Middle-Belt Region in particular, seem to be agitating for greater participation in the central government and the equitable distribution of resources as a means of bringing about significant development to their people, but not the direct control of their resources.

The minorities in the South on the other hand appear to be seeking the direct control of their resources as a means of achieving meaningful development of their region. This is illustrated by the recent "resource control" suit as orchestrated by the minorities within the Niger-Delta Region and although other regions or states participated in the suit, they have not been as vocal as their counterparts from the Niger-Delta.

The history of the minority question or minority agitations date back to the period of our Colonial history when these agitations were carried out at regional bases as a result of the regionalisation policy of the then colonial government. For example, in Northern Nigeria, minority grievances were centred around the imposition of Hausa-Fulani rulers on the indigenous ethnic populations. This meant the exclusion of the indigenes from political and economic opportunities including the control of markets.

The quest for independence in the 1950’s further strengthened the fears of the minorities as to their future when the colonial government left the country. These complaints of oppression and exploitation were not exclusively experienced by the minorities in the North but were also experienced by their counterparts from other parts of the country and therefore based their agitations or demands to pressurising the authorities to put in place measures to guarantee the autonomy (e.g. the creation of the Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers state in the East, the Mid-West state in the West and the Middle-Belt state in the North) of the ethnic minorities. The Willink Commission of 1957 was established to look into the authenticity of these fears and agitations and to find means of allaying their fears. To their disappointment, their demands were dismissed as frivolous and unfounded. It was the opinion of the commission that the creation of states would not answer the fear of the minorities, but would rather lead to an endless brake up of the country.

The problems of the minorities and their agitations still remained pronounced even after independence till date and the attempts or devices by the successive regimes in the country to permanently ameliorate these problems have not been entirely successful. These attempts or devices include, the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) which only seemed to exist in form and appearance but not in substance and therefore not able to achieve anything meaningful. Furthermore, the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) was also another device but it was accused of being selective in carrying out its projects and now the Niger Delta Development Cooperation (NDDC) which was recently established by the present regime in the country, although, its still early to judge the impact. It is worthy to note, that these bodies were established as a result of agitations of the minorities in the Niger Delta Region. There have also been calls by some Governors within the Middle- Belt Region to set up a similar Cooperation to assist in developing areas in the Middle-Belt Region that have suffered from the exploration of solid minerals, but these calls or agitations appear not to have succeeded probably because they were done half-heartedly.

The most notable devices or attempts to solve the minority question include, the Federal Character or quota system which was first provided for by the 1979 and now the 1999 Constitutions of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to guide the allocation of development projects and provision of amenities, as well as appointment into key political offices.

However, these provisions have a major shortcoming as they remain non-justiciable rights, therefore, if these provisions are not followed in the making of appointments or the citing of projects, as usually the case, aggrieved parties can do nothing to enforce these rights.

The creation of states, by successive regimes in the country, was also as a result of minority agitations and has brought the number of states in Nigeria to 36. It has to some extent temporarily solved the problem as it has to some extent allayed the fears of some of these small ethnic groups, but it has brought about states that are too small to function economically, therefore, without the statutory allocations from the central government, these states would hardly be able to exist.

One notable feature of the creation of states is that a new minority question or agitation of an entirely different perspective has arisen. That is, the larger ethnic minorities pitched together with the smaller groups are accused of the same crimes of domination and marginalization that are usually committed by the ethnic majorities. Thus, "the minorities within minority" question. A classical example of this is found in Benue state of Nigeria, where the Tiv ethnic group who constitute the majority over the Idoma’s are accused by the Idoma of using their numerical strength to dominate and relegate the Idoma’s to the background in terms of political appointments, civil service jobs and the lack of development of their areas i.e. light, water, roads, schools and government projects. These agitations reached it’s climax in 1995 when they sought a state of their own alongside the Alago ethnic minority of neighbouring Nasarawa state who share the same ancestry with the Idoma’s, but this request was turned down by the then Federal Military Government.

"Minority within minority" situations are not exclusive to Benue state but exist in other states with certain dissimilarities, they exist in some Middle- Belt states, like Taraba, Nasarawa, Plateau, Kogi states and states within the Niger - Delta Region of the country. Unlike the case of Benue state, these other agitations have resulted in serious ethnic conflicts that can be likened to the sad "ethnic cleansing" incidents that occurred in Ruwanda and Bosnia at a point in time.

It is therefore instructive to observe that irrespective of the fact that a group may be majority or minority, these groups all have tendencies of manipulating smaller groups. This is why you find ethnic groups that fall within the larger national definition of ethnic majorities but now pitched with ethnic minorities accuse the minorities of discrimination. For instance, the Hausa settlers in Plateau state accuse the indigenes of discriminatory practices; the indigenes on the other hand justify their actions by accusing the Hausa of trying to impose their aristocratic practices of the colonial days. The Yoruba in Kwara state has made similar accusations against the ruling Fulani dynasty. I could go on and on to give instances about conflicts from different parts of the country that have been precipitated by similar reasons but it will be more relevant in a discourse on "Citizen Rights and National Integration".

I would like to conclude by suggesting that the focus of the minority agitations should be centred on stronger constitutional provisions that will protect the rights of minorities, it’s a better option than the creation of more states, as it will just bring about economically unviable states.

The federal character principle should be made justiciable. Furthermore, minorities should push for the inclusion of provisions dealing with the rotation of offices inserted in our constitution. The minorities should seize this opportunity as the present government has laid the foundation for the amendment of the constitution through the on-going constitutional debates towards the amendment of the 1999 constitution. Although many of us are sceptical of will of the present government in solving the numerous national problems, it is still a better option than was offered under military rule. The people of the Middle- Belt can testify to this as it produced three out the nations eight military leaders but nothing significant came out of it.

Those seeking greater control of their resources have the opportunity to do so with the on-going constitutional debates, it does not end with the Supreme Court verdict. I would like to ask them what would become of states without any resources to control or states whose resources were used to build Nigeria before oil was discovered? I am of the opinion that if they push for stronger means of distributing the resources of this country equitably, the country has enough to go round everybody.

June 2002