How social inequality begets social instability in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

In the north of Nigeria, the traditional hegemony has built an enduring multifaceted system of oppression that the local politicians maintain and benefit from. In this context, social exclusion and institutional stratification corelate to each other in describing a system of hegemony that is especially designed to deprive millions of people the basic needs in life, conditioning a large army of youths to a hapless and hopeless social underclass. Social instability herein vividly depicts break down of social order, separatist movements in all the three main regions of the country, terrorism, extrajudicial killings, human kidnapping for ransoms, broad day atrocities, most of which are all too familiar even to the outside world. Additionally, the conditions of living in northern Nigeria, best described as gro- tesque poverty and inequality has attracted a lot of research work in different fields of social sciences both within and outside the country. It has been observed that the theories and explanations proffered on the issue have not provided any significant solution, therefore there is a need for interdisciplinary approach. To achieve this objective, the authors have taken the perspectives of economic sociology for a critical and analytical approach by employing novel tools to detect asymmetries of systems of social institutions and their concrete relationship with a range of social outcomes. Thus, it has become possible to detect those asymmetries and the concrete ways they influence the extant institutions. Further still, this work explores the inequality problems by making a careful appraisal of the intrinsic relationships inherent of structures and agents, their contributions to social instabilities in the north of the country. The authors used combined methods of primary observation and secondary data to allow a cursory look into how social inequality underlies social instability now too ubiquitous in northern Nigeria. 

Key words: poverty, social inequality, instability, northern Nigeria.