Author	Raphael Chima Ekeh
Publication	Searching for Peace in Africa
Year	1999

Summary

Not only is the incidence of land disputes increasing, they are becoming increasingly serious too. Many lives have already been lost while property with a value running into hundreds of millions has been destroyed. The stress, bereavement impoverishment, disruption of social life and insecurity caused by these conflicts is enormous and is inimical to the development of the communities concerned. This article presents a critical analysis of one such conflict - the ongoing dispute between the Aguleri and Umuleri. It aims to show how these conflicts can be explained with reference to the pre-colonial era, to describe their nature and intensity, to present an account of the intervention strategies that have been tried, and to make recommendations.
The Aguleri and Umuleri are of the same Igbo ethnic extraction and are predominantly Christians. The Aguleri and Umuleri towns are located in the southeastern part of Nigeria in Anambra State, close to the large town of Onitsha, which lies on the Niger River. In the southeastern part of Nigeria, they are considered to be among the most highly educated as a result of their early contact with the missionaries.
The question 'who owns the land?' is at the root of communal clashes in several theatres across the country today. The same question also explains the bloody fights between Umuleri and Aguleri communities. The crisis goes back to the beginnings of each community's recorded history as it centres on the question of which community first settled its current territory and which community has the prior claim to the area known as Otuocha. To understand the source of the conflict however, an historical overview of the changing dynamics of the land dispute between the Aguleri and Umuleri is necessary.

Pre-colonial boundary conflicts
The central importance of land to the peoples of pre-colonial Nigeria, especially those occupying the equatorial rain forests, cannot be doubted. They were essentially farmers and aside from its direct economic importance, land also served variously for the payment of dowries, reparation for murder and other serious crimes and as a means of exchange. Consequently, land came to be the symbol of wealth and social standing in these societies. Land was also the principal cause of war. A class of warlords emerged and became consolidated in most parts of pre-colonial Igboland. This materialist perspective seems to us a more plausible explanation than the usual reference to the absence of clearly demarcated boundaries between pre-colonial communities. Boundaries were mostly settled on a balance of coercive forces. Thus, it is less a question of whether boundaries exist than it is a question of the ability to enforce their demarcation. This ability depends to a large extent on the development of a warrior class which is able to defend the land already in its possession and to capture more land. This was clearly the case during pre-colonial times.

The colonial era
The colonial state exacerbated the contradictions already existing in these societies by supporting some communities over and against others. Records show that captain O'Connor, the district officer of the area in the 1930s partly engineered the problem by encouraging the Umeleri to make claims to the whole of the Otuocha land, and promised to support them in this war (Chinwuba 1981:1). This, apparently increased the bitterness in the region and bottled it up for the future. Partisan policies of this type led to a substantial loss of faith in the colonial legal system. It is this lack of faith, partly carried over from the colonial state, that accounts for the inability of the post-colonial state to resolve the problem.
The acquisition of land by European traders, and the colonial government for various purposes provided the land necessary for trading and residential purposes, missionaries, churches, schools and farms, government residential quarters and administrative infrastructures. Ibeanu and Matthew's survey of 1995 shows that these lands are usually located in border areas. It was this land, which was either granted or seized, that was to become the most common source of conflict among neighbouring communities. This conflict was also aggravated by competition among European communities, particularly among different churches and levantine companies. In some places, neighbouring communities became divided among two missions. A grant of land to one meant a counter-grant to the other. Where disputed territory is involved, a spiral of conflict is immediately unleashed. The Otuocha land dispute between the Aguleri and Umuleri communities clearly illustrates the role of Europeans in creating and intensifying land disputes. This is a case of grant and counter-grant, sale and counter-sale to Europeans of land that had, historically, been used by the two communities in common without problem.
For one thing, the colonial dispensation created a local class of petty-bourgeois who sought property in land for various reasons. This group of social agents became the 'champions' of the interests of their communities chiefly for the purpose of securing political backing for their interests. The burgeoning of town unions, that became the stepping stone for petty-bourgeois political aspirations, is a remarkable feature of this era. Politically and economically marginalised by colonialism, this was the only platform readily open to the petty-bourgeoisie. They therefore became the vanguard of their communities in the various land disputes. Lawyers were particularly important in this regard. In Aguleri for instance, the youth association continues to play a central role in the dispute with Umuleri.

The post-colonial period
The post-colonial period has seen a worsening of the Aguleri-Umuleri conflict. There is no doubt that to a large extent these disputes were carried over from the colonial era. Land became a rallying point for villages, town and communities. Ibeagu and Matthew conclude that these disputes are difficult to resolve because they tend to become a vehicle for the expression of communal sentiments. The Aguleri-Umuleri dispute over the Otuocha land assumed alarming proportions after the civil war (Chinwuba 1981:25). The dire economic condition of post-colonial Nigeria fuelled the tensions already latent in the situation. However, the conflict was expressed in terms of litigation. The two communities' claims over the Otuocha and Agu-Akor lands have even reached the Supreme Court.
In 1993, the Umuleri sued the Aguleri over the rest of the land outside Otuacha but lost the case because they had earlier sold the land in question to the then Royal Niger Company Ltd. In 1935 and 1950 they also lost their appeals to the then West African Court of Appeal and Privy Council, London.
In 1964, the amendment of the instrument which constituted Otuocha, the headquarters of the then Anambra County Council, by altering the name to 'Otuocha Aguleri' occasioned another suit from the Umuleri which was, however, overtaken by the civil war. However the East Central State Government restored the name to 'Otuocha'
In the landmark judgement of 1984, the Supreme Court ruled that 'neither the Aguleri, nor the Umuleri have been able to establish that they are exclusive owners of Otuocha land'.
After 1984, the Aguleri community took a belligerent and provocative posture and began claiming Otuocha as its exclusive property.

Conflict Dynamics

Despite their close historical ties, the people of the Aguleri and Umuleri communities have been at each other's throats for centuries. The two communities have for decades lived and farmed side by side but with mutual distrust and enmity. In September 1995, the situation exploded. That year, public property including schools, banks, post offices, town halls and even churches were razed to the ground, further, some 200 private houses were destroyed and countless people killed.
The recent clashes of April 1999 followed the death of Mike Edozie, an Aguleri indigene, who was incidentally the chairman of the local government council of the area during the 1995 crisis. During his funeral some young men identified as Umuleri youths swooped on the mourners. There was pandemonium as the Umuleri youths allegedly dispersed mourners, gunning down some of them in the process. Exact casualty figures are disputed, but more than one hundred persons were killed.
Such is the intensity of the Aguleri-Umuleri conflict that both communities are deserted except for those actually prosecuting the war. Most of the indigenes of the feuding communities are now refugees in neighbouring villages while hospitals in Onitsha and environs are overflowing with victims of the communal clash.

Official Conflict Management

Multi Track Diplomacy

Prospects

There have been no NGO initiatives in the area apart from the Red Cross Society's provision of emergency aid for refugees and displaced persons in the conflict. This is however considered a reactive rather than a pro-active measure toward transformation of the conflict.
In terms of official government intervention, the Nigerian state has taken three main types of action in an attempt to check the Aguleri/Umuleri disputes: peace enforcement, acquisition of disputed areas, and via court actions over disputed land. State intervention has mainly taken the form of court actions over disputed land.
The government has also constituted a number of commissions of enquiry to look into the causes of conflicts, identify stakeholders and make recommendations. Following the disturbance and killings of 1995, a commission of enquiry was set up to inquire into the circumstances and to ascertain the role played by different parties in the conflict. Although the government released a white paper in February 1997 with far reaching recommendations, nothing was done to defuse the situation until the latest conflagration of 1999.
The apparent failure of the Nigerian state to control the conflict arises from the people's lack of faith in the ability of the state to further their socio-economic aspirations. Thus, state intervention in land disputes is viewed with suspicion. Even the judicial system has failed to command the confidence of the Aguleri/Umuleri people. Despite having numerous lawyers and access to ample external legal advice, both communities have interpreted the various court pronouncements to suit themselves and these distorted interpretations have been largely responsible for the bad blood between the two communities.

Recommendations

Land disputes in general remain a serious threat to national security. The resilience of these disputes calls for a comprehensive national security formulation. This should also take into consideration structural violence arising from poverty, exploitation and inequality. However, state interventions have only served as temporary rather than lasting solutions. Indeed in many cases, these strategies have only deepened and intensified the conflicts.
A meaningful intervention in the Aguleri-Umuleri conflict therefore requires an in-depth, integrated and comprehensive conflict transformation strategy by a third party NGO. This will be aimed at building the capacity of the people in the community towards reconciliation and the re-humanisation of themselves. This could be achieved through bringing together all parties in the conflict to a problem-solving workshop which will create the necessary psychological space for them to begin to talk about their needs and fears thereby re-humanising themselves. This will also empower them to take their fate in their own hands and to take control of the peace process. This however must be preceded by a prejudice-reduction workshop for each of the groups to work on their identity towards healing and reconciliation.
Because of the Nigerian government's power over all aspects of the people's lives, and the NGOs lack of capacity to effect structural changes, it is necessary to have a synergetic peace-making effort involving the government and the NGOs. It is here that the church can play a role. In order to preserve the sainthood attained by one of the indigenes of Aguleri, Rev.Fr. Iwene Tansi, the Catholic church can be prevailed upon to constitute an advocacy group that will lobby the government to put in place the necessary structural changes needed to sustain any peace effort in the area. It is also necessary that a mechanism or structure created and owned by the people for anticipating and managing subsequent disputes be put in place in the area.

Miscellaneous

Chinwuba R. Legal essay on the Otuocha Land Case, Enugu Star Printing and Publishing Company, 1981
Clubb, L. Iboland Tenure. Ibadan University, Press, 1961
Ibeanu O. and Matthews The Refugee Situation in Nigeria - Paper presented at the conference of the African Studies Association of the United Kingdom (ASAUK). Cambridge University. September 14-16, 1988
Ibeanu O. The State and Population in Displacement in Nigeria; Politics, Social Stress and Displacement in Rural Anambra State. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Nigeria, 1992
Vanguard Newspapers Monday April 19, 1999 This Day - The Sunday Newspaper May 2 1999.

Service Information

REPORTS:	Amnesty International: Nigeria - Release of Political Prisoners. March 1999; Human Rights Watch: Nigeria - Crackdown in the Niger Delta. June 1999; The Price of Oil - Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights Violations in Nigeria's Niger Delta. Febr. 1999; Transition or travesty - Nigeria's Endless Process of Return to Civilian Rule. October 1997.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS:	Stabilizing Nigeria - Sanctions, Incentives, and the Support for Civil Society, by Peter M. Lewis, Pearl T. Robinson, and Barnett R. Rubin. Center for Preventive Action, New York, 1998.
SELECTED INTERNET SITES:	http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~n.today/mirror.htm (weekly newspaper Abuja Mirror); http://www.kilima.com/mediamonitor/ (weekly publication Nigeria Media Monitor, edited by the Independent Journalism Centre in Lagos); http://www.postexpresswired.com/ (daily newspaper The Post Express); http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~n.today/today.htm (weekly newapper Today); http://tribeca.ios.com/~n123/nigerldr (Federal Republic); http://www.FreeNigeria.org (Free Nigeria Movement, grassroots based global mass movement); http://www.igc.org/kind/fon5.htm (Friends of Nigeria); http://www.nigeria.net/nigeria.nsf (General news and information); http://www.odili.net/nigeria.html (NigeriaWeb); http://www.cldc.howard.edu/~ndmorg/ndmpage.html (Nigerian Democratic Movement)
RESOURCE CONTACTS:	Judith Burdin Asuni - director Academic Associates PeaceWorks; Barnett R. Rubin - Director Center for Preventive Action. Email BRubin@cfr.org.
ORGANISATIONS:	Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, 13 Agudama Avenue, D-line, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, E-mail: disera@infoweb.abs.net. Data on the following organisations can be found in the Directory section: Academic Associates PeaceWorks (AAPW); International Women Communication Centre (IWCC); Centre for Conflict Resolution and Peace Advocacy (CCRPA); Committee for the Protection of Peoples Dignity (COPPED).

About the author

Raphael Chima Ekeh is Project Officer Training at Academic Associates PeaceWorks