Anarchism in Nigeria has its roots in the organization of various stateless societies that inhabited pre-colonial Nigeria, particularly among theIgbo people. After the British colonization of Nigeria,revolutionary syndicalism became a key factor in the anti-colonial resistance, although the trade union movement deradicalized and took a more reformist approach following the country's independence. The contemporary Nigerian anarchist movement finally emerged from the left-wing opposition to themilitary dictatorship in the late 1980s and saw the creation of the Awareness League.
With the exception of the north, which was largely dominated by theSokoto Caliphate, many of the peoples inpre-colonial Nigeria lived instateless societies. According to the Nigerian anarchistSam Mbah, these stateless people groups included theIgbo,Birom,Angas,Idoma,Ekoi,Ibibio,Ijaw,Urhobo andTiv.[1] Particular attention was given to the Igbo,[2] whose political organization was based on a quasi-democraticrepublican system of government. In tight knit communities, this system guaranteed its citizens equality, as opposed to a feudalist system with a king ruling over subjects.[3] With the exception of a few notable Igbo towns such asOnitsha, which had kings calledObi, and places like theNri Kingdom andArochukwu, which hadpriest kings; Igbo communities and area governments were overwhelmingly ruled solely by a republican consultative assembly of the common people.[3] Communities were usually governed and administered by a council ofelders.[4] Due to the incompatibility of the Igbo decentralized style of government and the centralized system including the appointment ofwarrant chiefs required for indirect rule,[5]British colonial rule was marked with open conflicts and much tension.[6] Under British colonial rule, the diversity within each of Nigeria's major ethnic groups slowly decreased and distinctions between the Igbo and other large ethnic groups, such as theHausa and theYoruba, became sharper.[7]
The Nigerian labor movement began to constitute itself almost immediately after the introduction of British capitalism to the region. During the early 1900s, agitation increased in response to the imposition of employment contracts, which obliged work without any provisions for workers' rights.[8] Nigerian workers became conscious of the racial disparities opening up inColonial Nigeria, with European workers earning more than Africans for the same work.[9] Conditions worsened during theGreat Depression, as the colonial government imposed direct taxation on Nigerian workers and convertedpermanent employment intoday labor.[10] The rumours that the Igbo women were being assessed for taxation sparked off theWomen's War inAba, a massive revolt organized and executed by women.[11][12] Inspired by the anti-colonial writings ofNnamdi Azikiwe, Nigerian workers became more radicalized throughout the 1930s, aiming to bring an end to British colonial rule throughclass conflict.[10]
The rise ofsyndicalism was spearheaded byMichael Imoudu, who led the Railway Workers' Union in initiating the country's first ever strike actions, culminating in the1945 Nigerian general strike.[13] Subsequent strikes only strengthened the workers' movement, which saw the rise ofclass consciousness and the emergence ofanti-capitalist andanti-state ideas, as well as the use of more militant tactics such assabotage.[14] Trade unions began to serve as a strong counterweight to the trademonopolies held bymultinational corporations such asUnilever and even went on to advocate for thesocialization of Nigeria's economy.[15] Trade union leaders eventually began to establish formal alliances with nationalist political parties, with theNational Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons even being described byMichael Crowder as a "confederation of trade unions".[16] Despite the labor movement having contributed in large part to the independence of Nigeria, the capitalist system remained in place after independence. With the achievement of the country's independence, the Nigerian labor movement largely lost itsrevolutionary syndicalist tendencies, with many trade unions taking onreformist andclass collaborationist lines.[17]
In 1960, theFederation of Nigeria becameindependent from theBritish Empire, later evolving into theFirst Nigerian Republic under the parliamentary government ofAbubakar Tafawa Balewa. During this period, left-leaning factions withinWestern andEastern regional governments established a program of farm settlements, based on theKibbutz system, with the intention of recreating the pre-colonial communal way of life. These self-managing settlements were made up of farmers and their families living on collectives, where themeans of production were held in common and the produce yielded was distributed equally among the inhabitants, while agricultural surplus was exchanged by cooperatives.[18] However, the egalitarian principles of the program were eventually eroded away, after the First Republic was overthrown in acoup d'état, which instituted the firstNigerian military junta under theSupreme Military Council, led byYakubu Gowon.[19] The coup was followed by acounter-coup[20] and ananti-Igbo pogrom,[21] during which thousands ofIgbo people were estimated to have been killed, with a further 1 million Igbos fleeing from theNorthern Region to theEastern Region.[22]
After the military junta reneged on theAburi Accord, which had promised to decentralize power in Nigeria, the Igbo military leaderChukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu unilaterally declared the independence ofBiafra. Due to Ojukwu carrying out the instructions of a Consultative Assembly and the voluntary construction of theBiafran Armed Forces,Stephen P. Halbrook compared him to the Ukrainian anarchist revolutionaryNestor Makhno,[23] although this libertarian characterization is disputed.[24] Eventually, the "Biafran Revolution" was defeated militarily and Biafra was reincorporated into Nigeria, under centralized military rule.[25]
After theelection ofShehu Shagari asPresident of Nigeria, the Supreme Military Council handed power over to a new civilian government, ending over a decade of military rule and establishing theSecond Nigerian Republic. However, the new government was beset bypolitical corruption,[26] and introduced the first austerity measures of the country's history in 1981.[27] This republic was short-lived, and was overthrown by anotherSupreme Military Council in the1983 Nigerian coup d'état, led byMuhammadu Buhari. This second military junta was also short-lived, as it was itself overthrown by theArmed Forces Ruling Council in the1985 Nigerian coup d'état, led byIbrahim Babangida, who resumed the implementation of austerity policies under astructural adjustment program by theIMF.[27]
During this period ofmilitary rule, the left-wing opposition to the military junta began to engage in a debate on the future of Nigeria. Workers of theNigeria Labour Congress (NLC) published a manifesto, which proposed socialism as a viable option for the future of economic and political life in Nigeria, calling forworkers' control of themeans of production.[28] Anarchism also emerged from these debates, with a leftist coalition called The Axe being established at theUniversity of Ibadan in 1983. The Axe developed anarchist tendencies and published a number of periodicals, but the group was eventually dissolved during the crisis experienced by the Nigerian left during the late 1980s.[29] Meanwhile, the Awareness League (AL) was established as a study group at theUniversity of Nigeria, bringing together a broad coalition ofMarxists,Trotskyists, human rights activists and leftists. During their studies, the AL took particular interest inA Look at Leninism by Ron Tabor, a repudiation ofMarxism-Leninism andstate socialism. With the advent of theRevolutions of 1989, many Nigerian left-wing activists began to re-examine their commitments to Marxism, leading the Awareness League to officially embrace anarchist politics in 1990.[30][31] The AL thus grew from a small study group into a large-scale anarchist organization, with around 1000 members distributed in every single southernstate, as well as in three northern states, and eventually being admitted as the Nigerian section of theIWA-AIT.[32]
During the1993 Nigerian presidential election, the Awareness League were among the progressive groups that supported thesocial democratic candidateMoshood Abiola, believing that "the installation of a left-of-center government was a minimum condition for the propagation and pursuit of anarcho-syndicalist struggle and ideals."[33] Despite Abiola's victory over the pro-military candidateBashir Tofa,[34][35] the results were annulled by Ibrahim Babangida,[36][37] causing widespread protests and political unrest that ultimately led to the resignation of Babangida, with aninterim government being established in his place. The nascentThird Nigerian Republic was itself overthrown bySani Abacha in acoup d'état, restoringmilitary rule over Nigeria.[38] The Awareness League reaffirmed its rejection of military rule and resumed its collaboration with other leftist organizations in order to resist the new government.[39]
The struggle against the dictatorship reached an apex in 1994, when petroleum workers called a strike demanding the end of the military dictatorship. The Awareness League and other trade unions joined the strike, bringing economic life around Lagos and the southwest to a standstill. After calling off a threatened strike in July, the NLC reconsidered ageneral strike in August after the government imposed conditions on Abiola's release. On 17 August 1994, the government dismissed the leadership of the NLC and the petroleum unions, placed the unions under appointed administrators, and arrested Frank Kokori and other labor leaders. According to Sam Mbah, "never since the civil war of the 1960s had the Nigerian state come so close to disintegrating."[40]
With the death of Sani Abacha in 1998, his successor initiated atransition back to democratic rule, establishing theFourth Nigerian Republic. In the wake of democratization, many community groups and leftists organizations were now left without the common enemy of military rule, leading some - including the Awareness League - to begin fragmenting.[41] During this period, Sam Mbah andI.E. Igariwey published their bookAfrican Anarchism, which compiles a history of the anarchist movement in Africa and draws from the anarchic traditional practices of many of Nigeria' indigenous peoples.
During theEnd SARS protests of 2020, which called for the abolition of theSpecial Anti-Robbery Squad, protestors set fire to police stations, government buildings and banks, while also releasing prisoners.[42] PresidentMuhammadu Buhari reacted to the movement by warning young Nigerians of anarchists that were allegedly attempting to hijack the protests[43] and stated that the federal government "would not tolerate anarchy in the country".[44]
