APPOINTMENTS, AFFILIATION AND ALIENATION: THE PERIL OF INSIDER GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA_ BY PROFESSOR S. A. DOSUNMU

Nigeria is a nation stitched by diversity, sustained by delicacy and threatened by domination. It is a country where rivers differ, religions diverge and regions resonate with distinct histories. Yet, beneath these diversities lies a common aspiration: that the state should be fair, opportunities should be shared and public offices should be distributed without prejudice.

Unfortunately, the politics of appointments has increasingly become a source of anxiety, agitation and alienation. What ought to be a bridge of belonging is gradually becoming a barricade of bitterness. What should inspire confidence is breeding cynicism. What should deepen nationhood is dangerously diluting it.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari was frequently accused of concentrating sensitive appointments within a narrow northern and Fulani orbit. Whether entirely accurate or partially exaggerated, the perception gained sufficient traction to shape public opinion. Many Nigerians concluded that the state had become selective rather than national, sectional rather than federal, preferential rather than impartial.

Today, the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu faces similar criticisms. Voices from several quarters argue that strategic positions increasingly gravitate towards the South-West, particularly individuals of Yoruba extraction. Again, the debate is not merely statistical; it is sociological. Nations are not governed by figures alone; they are governed by feelings. Citizens respond not only to realities but also to representations. A government may defend its arithmetic, yet struggle against the sociology of perception.

The danger begins when citizens no longer see government as a national canopy but as an ethnic compound; not as a collective covenant but as a cultural cartel; not as a public trust but as a private territory.

The Sociology of Insiders and Outsiders

Every society produces circles of inclusion and zones of exclusion. Sociologists have long observed that groups create boundaries between "us" and "them," between those who belong and those who merely exist within the same geographical space.

When appointments repeatedly favour particular ethnic blocs, an insider syndrome emerges. Members of the favoured group begin to see state power as familiar, friendly and familial. Government becomes a relative rather than a referee. Public institutions become perceived extensions of ethnic influence.

Simultaneously, an outsider syndrome develops among others. Citizens begin to feel detached, displaced and discounted. They become spectators in a federation they helped to build. They carry the national passport but increasingly lose possession of the national promise.

The tragedy is profound. The outsider pays taxes but feels unrepresented. He obeys laws but feels unloved. He sings the national anthem but hears no echo of his identity in the corridors of power.

From Exclusion to Estrangement. 

When exclusion becomes persistent, estrangement follows.

First comes suspicion.

Then comes resentment.

Finally comes resistance.

This sequence has destabilized many multi-ethnic societies across history.

A citizen who feels excluded today may become indifferent tomorrow and antagonistic thereafter. Thus, the greatest casualty of skewed appointments is not merely fairness but faith—faith in institutions, faith in leadership and faith in nationhood itself.

The Triple Threat to National Cohesion

1. Fragmentation of National Identity

People retreat into ethnic shelters when national structures fail to provide psychological security. The Nigerian identity becomes weaker while primordial loyalties become stronger.

Citizens increasingly introduce themselves not as Nigerians but as Yoruba Nigerians, Igbo Nigerians, Hausa Nigerians, Ijaw Nigerians or Tiv Nigerians. The federation becomes a mosaic without mortar.

2. Institutional Distrust

Trust is the invisible infrastructure of governance.

Roads can crack.

Bridges can collapse.

Budgets can fluctuate.

Yet a nation may still survive.

But when trust evaporates, governance becomes a perpetual struggle.

Appointments perceived as ethnically skewed weaken confidence in recruitment, promotions, procurement and policy implementation.

3. Ethnic Entrepreneurship

Political opportunists thrive where grievances abound. Ethnic exclusion becomes electoral capital. Politicians become merchants of resentment, brokers of bitterness and vendors of victimhood.

Instead of debating development, citizens debate descent.

Instead of discussing competence, they discuss kinship.

Instead of pursuing progress, they pursue parity.

The Functional Folly of Familiarity.

There is a natural temptation for leaders to surround themselves with familiar faces. Trust often follows friendship. Confidence often follows cultural affinity. Comfort often follows common ancestry.

Yet statesmanship demands rising above familiarity.

A village can be governed by kinship.

A nation cannot.

A family may survive favouritism.

A federation rarely does.

The moment public office becomes a reward for proximity rather than proficiency, governance begins to lose legitimacy.

The Way Forward: Building a Republic of Belonging

Nigeria requires what may be called a Republic of Belonging—a polity where no citizen feels peripheral and no group feels permanent ownership of the state.

Appointments should reflect three principles:

Competence.

Character.

Coverage.

Competence ensures efficiency.

Character ensures integrity.

Coverage ensures legitimacy.

Remove competence and governance suffers.

Remove character and corruption flourishes.

Remove coverage and unity fractures.

Conclusion: The Nation Beyond the Tribe

The ultimate challenge before Nigeria is not economic; it is existential. It concerns whether over two hundred million people can continue to believe in a shared destiny despite their differences.

A nation is not sustained merely by constitutions, commissions or conferences. It is sustained by conviction—the conviction that every citizen counts, every community matters and every region belongs.

When appointments consistently suggest otherwise, the state may win loyalty from a section but lose legitimacy before the nation. Nigeria cannot become great through ethnic accumulation, regional monopolization or sectional consolidation. It can only become great through inclusion that is visible, justice that is tangible and fairness that is undeniable. For a federation survives not when one group triumphs, but when all groups trust.

Not when power is concentrated, but when belonging is cultivated. Not when appointments create insiders and outsiders, but when leadership convinces every citizen that the Nigerian project remains a common patrimony rather than a captured possession.

This version carries more of your characteristic voice: the triplets ("anxiety, agitation and alienation"), alliterative clusters ("merchants of resentment, brokers of bitterness"), rhythmic contrasts, and sociological imagery while still retaining academic seriousness.

© PROFESSOR S. A. DOSUNMU

President, Association of Sociologists of Education of Nigeria (ASEN)

- Nigeria