Ethnic Nationalities And The Language Of Fascism
By Shuaib I. Shuaib
In 1998, almost immediately after General Abdulsalami Abubakar became head of state, he moved to put Nigeria back on a democratic footing. He had an idea of what kind of democracy Nigeria should be. There would be only two political parties. The idea was that parties would be formed not on regional or ethnic basis, but on social and ideological principles. It was an opportunity for Nigeria to turn a new leaf from the politics of the first and second republics. It also offered the opportunity to put behind us, the heritage of military rule. Resistance came from the most unexpected place, southwest Nigeria; the bastion and advocate of democratic rule. That was how the Abdulsalami government registered three political parties.
The People’s Democratic Party, the All People’s Party and the Alliance for Democracy. The AD was modeled after the Action Group of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, an opposition leader in the first and second republics. In the election that followed, the PDP won governorship seats in all regions of the country except the southwest. APP won only in the north, while AD won all the six governorship seats in the southwest. But the singular act of allowing the region to form a political party on the basis of ethnic identity was what made Bola Tinubu president in 2023. The platform allowed him to bargain for power as a collective group from the region during the formation of the All Progressives Congress. Unlike Awolowo, Tinubu saw the embrace of ethnic identity in politics as a means to an end. But to what end? Nigerians may have to wait until the end of his presidency to find out. What is certain is that a new Tinubu is emerging, different from the one who fought against military dictatorship and advocated for the return of democracy.
His presidency has brought new ideas and maybe ideologies into the country’s political and democratic space. For the first time, there are suggestions of Nigeria sliding into a one party state or a civilian dictatorship. A one party state is reflective of governments in China, North Korea or Cuba. What dictatorships bring to mind is military rule, a type of government Nigerians are all too familiar with. But there is a different kind of dictatorship which Nigeria has not really been exposed to. Yet, many of its characteristic are popping in the our politics, our lexicon, the language used to describe the present state of affairs and ideological aspirations that set one region of the country from another. They are words and ideas that would fit the description of fascism. First and foremost, fascism is authoritarianism led by a father- like leader. It is also in its very nature nationalism, militarism, hierarchical government, repression of dissent and a centralized government built on a deep relationship with business.
Fascism as a ideology was founded by Benito Mussolini and he formed the first fascist government ruling Italy from 1922 to 1943. He had a very unique title, Il Duce meaning the leader. It is hard to pinpoint when the title of national leader first emerged in the politics of Nigeria. But today no other political figure wears it like President Bola Tinubu. He was the national leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria, formerly the AD and when the party merged with CPC to form the All Progressive Congress, Tinubu, at least to his followers remained national leader even though Muhammadu Buhari had been elected president under the party’s platform.
White supremacy or white nationalism is a form of fascism taking shape in the United States of America. In some ways, it has been embraced by President Donald Trump and has arguably played a role in why he was elected President first in 2016 and again in 2020. At the same time, Trump has embraced political violence, militarization of law enforcement, bombed other countries, gone after dissenters and centralized power. It is an ideology that aims to keep America a racially white-majority country and maintain its political and economic dominance over other racial groups and immigrant population. It is an ideology that has been expressed in different term and slogans including Christian nationalism, Make America Great Again and largely driven by a policy of putting ‘America First’.
While identity politics is not new to Nigeria, it has become less prominent from the place it held in the first republic when there were three regions with each electing its own premier. In fact, it played a role in causing the civil war. There is a short video clip of an interview between a British journalist and the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, that has been circulating on social media in recent years. In it, Ahmadu Bello, who was premier of the northern region was asked whether measures taken by the region’s administration to to put northerners in key positions within the northern civil service and shutting out easterners in particular, was temporary or a permanent policy. Expressing a fear of dominance, the Sardauna’s response was that his government’s employment policy was a ‘northerner first’. Defending the policy in the two minute clip, Sardauna, almost like he could see the 2020s, said leaving northern youths unemployed could lead to bloodshed.
Today, there isn’t a single state in northern Nigeria that is not made up of more than one ethnic group. The same can be said about the south south region. It is different story in the southeast, where there are still separatist agitations and in the southwest, there are some aspirations for Oduduwa. The political aspirations of the region have been spelt out vividly over the last two decades and a half, especially in the years of opposition. Olusegun Obasanjo did not represent those aspirations. Rather, they were articulated by groups like the Yoruba Council of Elders, Afenifere and even Gani Adam’s Oodia People’s Congress. In terms of intellectual discourse, it was presented to the country as the aspirations of ethnic nationalities and true federalism. In other words, regional nationalism is no different from the nationalism under Mussolini or the White nationalism in Donald Trump’s America.
Mussolini had a nationalist movement in the guise of a political party, the National Fascist Party, which governed Italy. It was how he was able to divide the government and Italian society into hierarchies. An argument can be made the same kind of hierarchy is taking shape within the APC government today. At the very top of the hierarchy is the president himself. Business leaders, state governors, the leadership of the party, members of the judiciary and lawmakers are being co-opted into the movement. Through the use of party structures, pressure and policy instruments, the governors, judicial officers and lawmakers are losing their autonomy. They are being forced to conform or lose their place. And at the very bottom of the hierarchy, are voters, the general public who are increasingly losing and conceding their constitutional rights. On a different level, government policies and seemingly minor changes in fiscal laws, are accelerating and exacerbating the wealth inequality between the rich and poor on one hand and then between the north and the south on another. In this instance, Tinubu appears to have taken a page out of Sardauna’s playbook, but on a much broader scale, and in a play for money, power and influence.
Militarism comes in different forms. With elections only months away, we’ve seen it surface in Edo, Rivers and other parts of the country in the last few months. We can even go back to the early years of the fourth republic for traces of it for political gains and in the collection of taxes. That form of militarism however pales in comparison to the violence perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram. In 2019, Olusegun Obasanjo even linked the herdsmen attacks and those carried out by Boko Haram to a Fulanisation and Islamization agenda in all of West Africa. He just about insinuated that Buhari, who president at the time, was driving the regional agenda.
It’s possible Obasanjo had privileged information that Buhari covertly intervened in the democratic processes in some West African states to bring Fulani presidents to power. A number of them got elected president across West Africa during the Buhari presidency. In that sense, militarism originating from ethnic nationalism isn’t necessarily confined to the borders of a country. So, the focus here is a type of militarism relatively new and alien to Nigeria. And that is towards our neighbors. What is unique is that there is no historic precedent for a Nigerian president, either military or civilian using force to meet a political, ideological or even security objective against any of its neighbors, within West Africa or on the African continent outside of peacekeeping.
Yet, the Tinubu led APC government, barely in power for two months in July 2023 was faced with a military junta seizing power in Niger Republic. Tinubu’s response was to gather ECOWAS leaders and plot a restoration of democratic rule in the neighboring country through the use of force. The National Assembly didn’t approve a request for military intervention. Just over two years later when there was an attempted coup in Benin Republic, he didn’t wait for the National Assembly. The president, in coordination with a colonial power, sent war plans and Nigerian soldiers across the border to stop the coup plotters in their track. Together, the threat and the actual intervention in Niger and Benin Republic have changed West Africa. They could also be a sign of what is to come.
Mussolini had an anthem, Giovinezza, meaning youth. It celebrated the country’s youths, Mussolini himself and his party. For 20 years, it was played alongside the country’s national anthem. Today, majority of Nigeria’s population is under the age of 25. A majority of Nigerian are also not familiar with the present national anthem: Nigeria, We Hail Thee; which is a legacy of colonial rule. In fact, you would have to be 60 and older to know and still remember that anthem which was dropped in 1978 for one written and composed by a Nigerian and for Nigerians. One year into the Tinubu presidency, his government sent and later signed a bill into law reverting to the colonial anthem. But along side the anthem, renditioned in public events and on the streets of London, England is the Tinubu and APC anthem; On Your Mandate We Shall Stand. A fitting tribute for the leader.
