A comparative survey of the impact of ethnicity and religious affiliation on the alienation of staff from their work environment in Nigerian universities

In Nigeria, there are conflicts that are purely religious or ethnic, but in most cases the two factors of religion and ethnicity usually reinforce each other and cannot be separated from each other. Ethnicity and religious affiliation are both very strong factors in social interaction in Nigeria. This assertion seems valid at all societal levels and in all works of life in formal institutions to various degrees (Nnoli, 1978; Otite, 1983). Children in Nigeria get socialised into ethnicity early in life (Ugwuegbu, 1980), while they also imbibe religious affiliation at a tender age through the society. Kasfir (1976), Patterson (1975) and Otite (1975) assert that what is crucial about ethnicity is the way people from various common identifiable socio-cultural groups use the interactions and relationships among them as weapons to struggle and manoeuvre themselves in the search for greater power control over the nation's scarce resources. With the interaction of religion in ethnic conflicts in Nigeria and the greater frequency of religious and ethnic conflicts one is bound to conclude that religion is increasingly becoming an agent of conflict just like ethnicity. While Nzimiro (1975), Otite (1983) and Nnoli (1978) in their observations noted the presence of ethnicity in the Nigerian university system, Otite (1990) in his assertion pointed out that the more educated Nigerians are the higher the sophistry of the ethnic tendencies they exhibit. Young (1981) also noted that the basic values which form the informal charter of the African university with the exclusion of South Africa were purely anti-ethnic. On a moral level Young (1981) also pointed out that ethnicity was a demon to be exorcised from African universities so that the principle of merit would govern critical decisions and the promotion of staff among other things. Religion is one of the determinants of alignment of staff in African universities, as also noted by Young (1981). With the frequency of religious conflicts between Christians and Muslims in some Nigerian universities, particularly in the north and south-west, where appreciable numbers of Christians and Muslims coexist, it is evident that religion is playing a prominent part in the internal human interactions of the university communities. As rightly pointed out by Nnoli (1978) and Otite (1990) ethnicity does not exist in a pure form but is always associated with other social views such as religion. Considering the recent escalation of religious fanaticism in Nigeria, university staff alignments on a religious affiliation basis in the quest for scarce resources in terms of appointments, promotions, award of research grants and welfare benefits cannot be unexpected.

In some universities in the north non-indigenes and Christians have complained of not being given opportunities as much as their Muslim or indigenous counterparts because of their religious affiliation and ethnicity. Some have alleged that they were being discriminated against in terms of appointments to higher political positions within the system because of their religious affiliations or their ethnic origins, which were usually non-indigenous.

In some universities in the south some non-indigenes and Muslims have also complained of marginalisation because of their minority status regarding ethnicity and religious affiliation. All these were claimed to have contributed to staff alienation from the work environment. This work was intended to compare the impact of ethnicity and religious affiliation on the alienation of Nigerian university staff from their work environment. A secondary intent of the author was then to compare the organisation behaviour-shaping potencies of ethnicity and religion in the early 1990s with their influence in the early 2000s if they still exerted any on university staff behaviour. From all indications even today the situation seems to have persisted into the 2000s!

The problem

Nigerian society has been grappling with the menace of ethnicity and dysfunctional religious affiliation, which has infiltrated formal institutions like the universities. Most often ethnic crises metamorphose into religious crises and vice versa, which makes it difficult to separate one from the other. It is possible to strictly find out which of the two plays a major role in the institutions or in the society so that it would be easier to isolate it on time and deal with it before it is reinforced by the other.

This study therefore intended to find out which of the two variables ethnicity and religious affiliation played the stronger part in alienating staff from their work environment to enable university management take early decisions and deal decisively with the situation. In attempting to investigate these problems, answers to the following questions were sought:

1 To what extent do ethnic and religious affiliation variables contribute to the explanation of staff alienation from (a) co-workers, (b) friends at work, (c) the job, in Nigerian universities?