Federalism and Ethnic Conflict in Nigeria by Rotimi T. SuberuReview by: Axel Harneit-SieversAfrica Today, Vol. 49, No. 3 (Autumn, 2002), pp. 138-140Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4187525 .

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(p. 245) in their "work culture" (a concept Schumaker develops throughout her study) in explicit contrast to the haughty disdain of many colonial authorities-itself an "invention of tradition," as we have come to recog- nize thanks to Terence Ranger and other central Africanist writers. Despite his own elitist upbringing, Gluckman promoted a working-class ethos among his proteg6s, so that in 1954, Edith Turner might comment with characteristic 6lan that she would "rather see a blast furnace than a ballet" (p. 245). Such down-to-earth perspectives proved particularly well suited to the dynamic urban studies through which RLI researchers-African and "Africanized"-made such significant strides. Indeed, the most fascinating of Schumaker's eight chapters may be the one devoted to this research.

Those involved with central African history and ethnography will find Africanizing Anthropology of most direct interest, for its tales can be specific, especially when spiced by gossip, as with the story of Colson's "henchwoman." Schumaker deserves a wider readership, however, for her inversion of perspectives joins subaltern, politique-par-le-bas, and related efforts to respond to the rarely answered call for a holistic approach inte- grating the ethnography of observed and observer, a call that Bronislaw Malinowski (1938) made generations ago, after visiting Audrey Richards at her Zambian field site.

REFERENCES CITED

Fabian, Johannes. 2000. Out of Our Minds: Reason and Madness in the Exploration of Central Africa.

Berkeley: University of California Press.

Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1938. The Dynamics of Culture Contact. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Trinh, Minh-ha T. 1990. Cotton and Iron. In Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures,

edited by Russell Ferguson, Martha Gever, and Trinh T. Mihn-ha. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT

Press.

Allen F. Roberts UCLA

Suberu, Rotimi T. 2001. FEDERALISM AND ETHNIC CONFLICT IN NIGERIA. Washington, D.C: United States Institute of Peace Press. xxvi +247 pp.

Less than four years after the reestablishment of a democratically elected civilian government ("Fourth Republic") in Nigeria in May 1999, the coun- try's federal political order once again appears to be in distress. President Olusegun Obasanjo and state governors spend much of their time battling about the budget and "revenue allocation," the mode of sharing Nigeria's oil income. Core political institutions, especially the presidency and the National Assembly, tend to block each other, employing mechanisms of

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parliamentary democracy (such as the timing of elections, or the instru- ment of impeachment) in a highly manipulative way. At the same time, the realities of party politics remain much the same as in earlier periods of civilian rule: "politics" in Nigeria continues to be largely a competition among personalities, rather than programs and visions; it continues to be a playground for numerous big men (and a few big women), many of whom regard political engagement primarily as an investment that will pay off after electoral success. In effect, political competition in Nigeria's Fourth Republic has exacerbated the numerous lines of regional, ethnic, and reli- gious conflict, and more political violence threatens to arise during the 2003 elections. Nigeria installed a federal political system to contain and manage this variety of conflicts, but by 2002, the federal order once again is barely working.

Addressing these seemingly perennial problems of the Nigerian polity, numerous excellent books have been published in recent years. Rotimi T. Suberu's Federalism and Ethnic Conflict in Nigeria adds a new high score to this list.

The pivotal point of Suberu's analysis is that Nigeria combines a federal system, designed to manage regional-ethnic and other cleavages, with an economy in which most government revenue derives from a single source: royalties from petroleum extraction. An "intensively dysfunctional system of centralized 'ethno-distributive' federalism" (p. xix) has emerged: First, federalism in Nigeria is subverted by de facto hypercentralization, as resource distribution devolves top-down from the center. Second, politics within Nigeria's federal order focuses on access to and distribution of the centrally distributed wealth, rather than on its production. In effect, the Nigerian state has become a pseudofederal central arena, where struggles for shares of the "national cake" dominate all other considerations and actions.

Of course, this analysis of Nigeria's rent-based political system is not entirely new. But few authors have made the argument in such a compre- hensive, clear, and fair manner as Suberu has done.

After providing an overview history of federalism in Nigeria, Suberu addresses four core issues of concern in Nigeria's federal order, in four similarly organized chapters. These issues are: the mechanisms of revenue sharing and distribution; the struggles for new states and local government areas; the role and operation of the "federal character" principle; and the politics of population counts. Each of the chapters starts with a historical section, analyzing the emergence of the issues and the changes they have undergone since independence; this is followed by a systematic section, which discusses advantages and disadvantages of policies that have been undertaken or proposed.

Proceeding in this manner, Suberu's book provides two valuable services to readers. First, it gives comprehensive background information on issues that rise to prominence virtually every day in Nigeria's political debates, but are often handled in a highly partisan manner. Anybody inter-

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ested in these debates, but without extensive knowledge of Nigerian politi- cal history, will profit from Suberu's lucid account. Second, by systemati- cally confronting arguments for and against particular institutional aspects of Nigeria's federal order, Suberu invites readers to form the well-informed opinions that would desperately be needed in everyday Nigerian political discourse. One is inclined to give a sigh: if only Nigerian politicians would read this book!

Suberu goes a long way to present a well-balanced analysis, while his own proposals remain rather careful. One of them is a call for "retrenching the hypercentralized state" (p. 173) by devolving greater power, indepen- dence, and resources to the lower tiers of the federal system: the states and local governments. This call, frequently made, is justified, even though the everyday practice of politics in the Fourth Republic provokes doubts as to the capacity of the lower tiers to handle resources and exert policies in an efficient and responsible manner. Furthermore, Suberu acknowledges the necessity of reducing the number of states and local government areas into fewer, larger, more viable units, but he remains skeptical about common proposals for a wholesale territorial reconfiguration of the country. Even more, he argues against calls for a "sovereign national conference" and a "confederal solution," because of the risk of endless and violent conflict they may provoke. Suberu is a convinced federalist, but instead of formal changes to the federal order (changes that are debated every day in Nigeria), he seems to advocate policies that aim at strengthening institutions and their capacity to operate effectively-beyond private or regional-ethnic interests, and beyond the zero-sum-game distributive struggles that domi- nate Nigerian politics.

Suberu remains at a loss to explain how such a strengthening of truly federal political institutions could be achieved, as long as the oil revenue flows and continues to provide the resources for ethno-distributive strug- gles. Some readers may find it frustrating that he refuses to present definite proposals for reform; however, I believe he is all-too-well aware that struc- tural and institutional changes are insufficient, as long as the "contents" of Nigeria's politics and its political culture remain unchanged. Therefore, his book not only addresses, in a comprehensive and well-balanced way, the problems of Nigerian federalism, but also outlines the limits of any federal solutions to Nigeria's problems.

Axel Harneit- Sievers Director, Nigeria Office, Heinrich B611 Foundation

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