Violence and identity in modern Nigeria

Inchoate feudalization in a failing polity

Authors

  • Dr. Adam Mayer Professor at Apáczai Csere János Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Széchenyi István University Győr, Hungary; Doctoral School for Safety and Security Sciences, Africa Research Institute, Óbuda University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59569/jceeas.2021.1.1-2.3

Keywords:

Nigeria, terrorism, civil war, intersectionality, indigeneity, feudalization

Abstract

Nigeria, a failing state with the second highest incidence of terrorist attacks worldwide and a simmering, low intensity civil conflict as well as protest and secessionist movements, is a place where intersectionality does not stop at class or at gender. Nigeria’s structural violence and atrocities happen at the intersection of ethnic, religious, sub-religious, linguistic, and occupational groups, as well as class and sex. It is a polity where indigeneity creates a kaleidoscope of state (provincial level) apartheids, where sharia is practiced in criminal law in all but one of the Northern states, and where the law of the land, including a bastardized version of juju as well as feudal law, all remain valid sources of law along with common law, allowing for rampant thuggery and voter intimidation, and abuse of tenants by feudatories, with government sanction. The country, ostensibly democratic, is ruled by former military heads of state, with the help of the army, which is deployed in the majority of the states. The federal polity is subject to many centrifugal forces that actively threaten to fuel an explosion in the 2020s.

Author Biography

Dr. Adam Mayer, Professor at Apáczai Csere János Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Széchenyi István University Győr, Hungary; Doctoral School for Safety and Security Sciences, Africa Research Institute, Óbuda University

Dr Adam Mayer is Assistant Professor of International Relations at Széchenyi István University, Győr, Hungary. His monograph, Naija Marxisms: Revolutionary Thought in Nigeria appeared with Pluto Press in London in
2016.

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Published

2021-07-04 — Updated on 2023-06-04

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How to Cite

Mayer, A. (2023). Violence and identity in modern Nigeria: Inchoate feudalization in a failing polity. Journal of Central and Eastern European African Studies, 1(1-2), 55–69. https://doi.org/10.59569/jceeas.2021.1.1-2.3 (Original work published July 4, 2021)