COUNSELLING FOR SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT: A PANACEA FOR SOCIO-POLITICAL INSTABILITY AND ETHNIC/RELIGIOUS CRISES IN NIGERIA

BY:

IRABOR PETER ODION
07037830536

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL STUDIES, COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, IGUEBEN, EDO STATE

BEING A PAPER PRESENTED AT THE COUNSELLING ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (CASSON)

HELD AT
SCHOOL HALL, NATIONAL GRAMMAR SCHOOL, NIKE ENUGU, ENUGU STATE
FROM 16TH TO 17TH OF APRIL, 2012

ABSTRACT
Counselling-which that provides direction or advice as to a decision or course of action is inevitable in any organisation, institutions or society. More importantly, the roles of counselling in a country like Nigeria made up of diverse ethnic groups and often confronted with socio-political menace that threatens her existence cannot be over emphasized. This study therefore investigates the roles and important of counselling towards the sustainability of Nigeria socio-political development and ethnic/religious unity. Finally, the study examined and recommended how Nigeria can equally experience stable socio-political and ethnic/religious unity with the counsellors playing divergence role in the society.

INTRODUCTION Nigeria is a country of extraordinary diversity and as such has extraordinary complexities (Irabor, 2011). Indeed, Nigeria adventure into pluralism of religions and ethnic diversities owns its origin to colonial conquest which permeated the entire continent of Africa beginning from the early 19th century. In the case of Nigeria, the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorate made Nigeria a Multi-ethnic and multi-lingual country (Aba, 2006).These extraordinary complexities of Nigeria diversity are a reflection of the high avalanche of socio-political instability and ethnic/religious crises that has currently befallen the country. This view was further accentuated by recent damming report of the National Intelligence Council of the United State Government which forecasted that by the year 2015, Nigeria might cease to exist as a nation state. Given this background, the importance of counselling towards ensuring sustainable socio-political and ethnic/religious unity is inevitable. In line with this, and cognizance of the existence of latest threats to the future ethnic and socio-political stability, the question comes; what are the plausible ways that counselling can mediate between the people and the government to provide sustainable environment? Further to this, what are the roles that a counsellor can play towards ensuring sustainable socio-political and ethnic/religious unity in the county? This question comes out of the fact that counselling as a profession should be explored to provide qualitative advise and suggestions for the purpose of adjusting the society in a way to ensure stable socio-political environment and ethnic/religious unity.
The Concept and Fundamental of Counselling It is difficult to think of single definition of counselling. This is because definition of counselling depends on theoretical orientation. In view of this, different definition and meaning of counselling by different scholars will be examined. Counselling is a process by which a person is assisted to confront and resolve his social and psychological problems through interaction with another well-informed person. Orubu (1991) described counselling as a combination of programmes and activities geared towards assisting an individual to develop social and psychological skills, attitude and competencies so that he can solve his problems in a more personality satisfying manner. Counselling could also be seen as a process of helping individual to understand themselves and their world (cherlzer and Stone, 1997). By this definition, counselling is not a one time event and is not a single action, and continues in the life of the individual and it involves a series of action tailored. progressively towards achieving a goal. Counselling is not meant for only students or clients experiencing problems. It is also a social institution where a counsellor carries out a programme of public relationship with the immediate community. This he does by participating in various community programmes and thus furnishing the members of the community with information and advice with the aim of adjusting the behaviours of people positively to achieve sustainable socio-political environment. (Gordon, 2012). Blanchand and Fenm (1969) opined that counselling is the purposeful direction of the growth of individual in the five worlds which are: social, emotional, psychological, physical and mental. In the aspect of social world, counselling is actively carried out to adjust the society towards providing sustainable socio-political environment. This view was supported by Rabietu (2011) who maintained that counselling involves helping, aiding, directing or assisting an individual towards better understanding of himself and his world. This brings about adjustment for the individual. Based on this, a counsellor should be a trained expert who is exposed to enough psychology necessary to understand and predict human behaviour in a society.
The definition of Feltham and Dryden (1993) revealed that:
Counselling is a principled relationship characterized by the application of one or more psychological theories and a recognized set of communication skills, modified by experience, institution and other interpersonal factors, to clients’ intimate concerns, problems or aspirations, it may be of very brief or long duration, take place in a government or private setting… it is service sought by people or society at large in distress or in some degree of confusion who wish to discuss and resolve these in a relationship which is more disciplined…

The interpretation of the meaning of counselling in this respect is about helping people in the society to change some aspects of their thoughts, feelings or behaviour to enhance their life, or simply to explore and/or clarify their thoughts or feeling with purpose of providing good and qualitative socio-political environment. Therefore, need for counselling has become paramount in order to promote the well being of the people living in the society. Effective counselling should help to improve the self-image of young people and facilitate achievement in life tasks. It empowers girls and boys in, and benefit from the economic and social development of the nation. The overall aim is to provide people living in the society with the opportunities to work in self-defined ways, toward living in more satisfying and resourceful ways as individual and as members of the broader society. Contemporary Nigeria Socio-Political Issues Firstly, it may be important to define the term socio-political. Socio comes from the word social and is used in many different senses and regarded as a fuzzy concept referring among other thing. For the purpose of this study, social refers to matters that can be explained only by factors outside an individual’s control and immediate social environment which affect many individuals in a society (Wikipedia, 2012). This definition revealed that social issues are controversial issues which affect people’s personal lives and interaction. Specifically, it relates to human society and its modes of organisation. The impact of social issues are only felt on the people living in that particular area and some of these social issues are suicide and assisted suicide, ethnic crisis, religious crisis, political instability, economic instability, corruption, unemployment, poverty, drug abuse, Divorce, lack of good health care, environmental pollution, lack of qualitative education among others. All these create social problems and difficulties that people often face in the society. It’s a condition that threatens or alters the normal function of society to which there is a general consensus that something need to be done about (Wikipedia 2012).
Depending on the kind of the society (whether developed, developing or underdeveloped society), one can easily find social problems suitable to that particular society. However, there are four general objective conditions which must be met before an objective reality in the society becomes elevated to the special status of social problem. They are:
1. The objective condition must be perceived to be a social problem publicly, i.e. there must be some public outcry. People must become actively involved in discussing the problem. Public attention becomes directed toward the social condition
2. The condition must involve a gap between social ideals and social reality. i.e. the condition must run counter to the values of the large society.
3. A significant proportion of the population must be involved in defining the problem. (A large proportion of the population must be concerned about the conditions. It must have national attention.
4. The conditions must be capable of solution through collective action by people. If no solution is perceived possible, people will resign themselves to their fate.
Socio-political therefore is a combination of social and political factors. Socio-political consists of social relations involving authority or power and refers to the regulation of public affairs with a political unit and to the methods and tactics used in solving social problems (Macmillan Dictionary 2012). Androld (2012) opined that socio-political problem affects the society, it domestic spending, agenda e.t.c According to World Bank (2009) how stable a particular society is depend on a wide range of concerns to the effectiveness of a state’s institutional arrangements, decision making process, policy formation, implementation capacity, information flows, efficiency, competence, public management, availability of basic social amenities, social right and the nature of the relationship between rulers and of ruled. Based on this, whenever, the people of a certain society are deprived from the listed above, the social problems arises. Given this background, the major socio-political instability affecting Nigeria as a country are; corruption poverty, unemployment, insecurity of lives and property and ethnic/religious crises. There is no gainsaying the fact that Nigeria is a corrupt nation. Nigeria in year 2000 was ranked the most corrupt country by Transparency International. This frightening assessment came at a time when the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ranked Nigeria the 26th poorest country in the world. Corruption has proved itself as a word possessing two lethally sharp edges in Nigeria (Akintola, 2004). Corruption has destroyed probity and accountability in the nation while it constitutes an intractable obstacle in the path of attracting foreign investment, which is necessary for economic growth and the attendant socio-political stability. Yet facts confronting us proves that Nigerians have not learnt their lessons. Corruption is seen in the day-to-day of Nigerians activities. This has gone a long way from the government to the ordinary person on the street. The truth is that corruption begets poverty. Too much money in too few hands has led to the concentration of income in few hands. Through massive corruption, the nation’s wealth is daily cornered and siphoned out of the country (Adonri, 2012). This was further stressed by the former U.S. President, Bill Clinton when speaking at the annual ThisDay Award in Lagos which was published by the Vanguard online Newspaper on February 20, 2012. He warned that the widespread poverty in Nigeria is responsible for the violence that is tearing the nation apart. He decried the widening gap between the rich and the poor in Nigeria. He said:

“You (Nigeria) can’t just have this level of inequality persist. That’s what’s fuelling all this stuff (violence) you also have to give people something to look forward to when they get up in the morning”.

The poverty data released by the National Bureau of statistics on February 13, 2012 and published by Vanguard online Newspaper on February 20, 2012 suggested that 112 million Nigerians are poor going by the economic situation in the country in 2011. While 100 million are in absolute poverty, 12.6 million are moderately poor. This figures shows that there is a lot of work for the government to do to lift a huge proportion of the populace out of poverty through eradication of corruption, and this can be achieved through effective counselling. The consequences of such a large number of folks below the poverty level could transcend to a potential threat of socio-political instability when the population feels pushed to the wall, and this is what is currently happening in the Northern part of the country. Poverty has bred millions of destitute in the North who have become instant and easy recruits for Boko Haram who have constantly terrify the unity and socio-political development of the country. Poverty levels vary across the country, with the highest proportion of poor people in Northeast and the lowest in the Southeast. The reason for the high rate of poverty in the North may be due to the fact that the Almajiri system in certain parts of Northern Nigeria continues to produce armies of unskilled labour that can hardly be productively engaged in modern means of wealth creation. Thus, it now calls for the government to adjust the areas through the provision of counselling to enable the teaming youths in the North move along with the modern age of globalization. In the area of unemployment, the various government economic polices according to Andori have been the major bane of unemployment in the country. He said:
“Poverty is linked with unemployment. Other than the fact that the Nigerian economy is not creating new jobs, the few existing jobs is being lost by factory closures arising from high cost of production”.

As if to buttress Andori’s hypothesis, Ighodalo, in his analysis opined that:
“A lot of people cannot look after themselves, what makes it worse is the seeming hopelessness and difficulty in having gainful employment; the number of people looking for employment and the number of people looking for assistance bears testimony to this, and this will remain so far as long as government remains the biggest spender and the playing field remains un-level”.

Given this critical analysis, it then becomes relevant for government to inject counseling experts in her economy to treat economic empowerment with a necessity to create jobs for the youths, create an enabling environment for entrepreneurship, expand the scope of vocational training centers and create new ones to absorb the ever-growing youth population who cannot be absorbed in tertiary institutions of learning.

Ethnic/Religious Crises in Nigeria: An Overview
Ethnic and religious crises are an ill-wind which blows nobody any good. Ethnic/religious are expected to produce stability in the country. Every religion emphasizes love, kindness, humility, industry and other qualities capable of producing peaceful co-existence in the society (Fadeiye, 2005). However, ethnic and religious adherents have embarked on a policy of religious intolerance that has produced serious conflicts and has led to socio-political instability in the nation. Few instances of ethnic/religious crises will be cited. Currently, the ethnic/religious crisis involving the Boko Haram in the Northern part of the country has degenerated into the massacre of the southern or the northerners who are Christians in the area. On December 4, 2011, the Islamic Militants, Boko Haram, attacked Damaturu, the capital of Yobe State and left over 100 of innocent people death and was only rivaled by the Kano serial bombing incident of January 20, 2012 which claimed over 200 lives including a journalist with the Silver Birth Media outfit, Mr. Akogwu Enenche (Vanguard online Newspaper February 11, 2012). Ethnic feuds occurred in Sagamu in Ogun state between Yoruba and Hausa communities (Sotunde, 1999). The Aguleri/Umuleri communal clashes claimed the lives of 25 mobile police officers (Igboanyo, 1999). The anti- sharia demonstration gave rise to the worst mayhem ever unleashed on the Kaduna (Sirajo, 2000). The Damboa religious upheaval in Borno led to the death of many people (Ibrahim, 2000). There are still uncountable instances of ethnic and religious crises in other part of the country, apart from the few ones mentioned.
In fact, ethnic/religious crises have led to high rate of insecurity of lives and property in Nigeria to the extent that it has become a day-to-day heading in the Nigerian Newspapers. All these crises have in one way or the other tampered with the socio-political stability of the country. The crises are inimical to progress and they are capable of posing a threat to local and foreign investors. Odugbesan (2000) quoting Bola Tinubu said:
‘‘...the situation in Nigeria had generated a lot of concern among the business community in the US and Europe while their confidence in Nigeria’s ability to forge a great nation has been shattered.”

On the individual basis, there is constant emotional problem of fear. The incessant religious riots in the Northern parts of the country is making people from the South residing in those areas either resign their appointment or seek for transfer. Some traders have for fear of religious/ethnic riots folded up their business in the north. This again poses a serious threat to socio-political stability and investment in the areas. Group mobilization using ethnic/religious sentiments is a strategy which political elites in Nigeria often use to gain the support of the dominated citizens to give them political legitimacy. They often do this to gain the support of their constructed identity group or sub-groups, irrespective of the consequences to the country. Hence many politicians in Nigeria prefer to project themselves along ethnic, religious or regional lines which have been reinforced by Nigeria’s colonial and post-colonial history and the failure of the national socio-political developmental strategies to make Nigerians full citizens of any part of the country in which they are resident. Thus, the need to sensitize and educate the people through counselling on the need to shun political elites inculcating this ugly act is inevitable if the country will experience stable ethnic/religious unity.
Corruption, poverty, unemployment and insecurity of lives and property have led to socio-political instability and no matter how we look at it; there is a need for a national adjustment of the society at large through counselling. And here we mean those desirable norms and standard of morality that appeal to good judgment and promote the effective running of the society should be inculcated no the people and the government by the counsellors.
Recommendations
We have clearly seen that the future of this country among other recommendations lies on effective counselling to both the government and the society at large. In making specific recommendations for social adjustment which will create an atmosphere of enduring peace, harmony and progress, the government should provide government funding counselling to give cost free community services. Based on this, there should be counselling units established in all the local government in the country. The counselling units should have among other departments such as sexual and abuses department, crime department, ethnic/religious department, human empowerment department, government policy department etc. The goals of the counselling units should include among the following:
- Carrying out research and investigations on the main work and difficult issues affecting the people and the community at large.
- Making suggestions to the government i.e. acting as feedback to the government base on their research and investigations. This will follow a monthly report to the government
- To educate and empower the people in the community to adopt peaceful and non-violent means for resolving conflicts in their lives and to pursue healthy relationships based on mutual respect and appreciation of human rights.
- To provide a forum for the masses for their issues and complains to be had and responded to by the government in an appropriate and timely way
Through the research, suggestions and recommendations of the counselling units in each local government of the country, there should be at the federal level, a group of actively counselling experts that can directly assist, advise, explore and otherwise contribute to the development of government policy. With the establishment of counselling units, people should be advised, encouraged and informed to reject or desist from individuals or groups of people that cunningly manipulate the ethnic/religious issues that have polarized the country. This will be achieved with the use of mother tongue to educate the people. In this sense, counsellors should be trained in their mother tongue to carryout this important task. Lastly, since religion cannot be separated from the society, leaders of both Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (SCIA) should educate their followers to promote peaceful co-existence among the diverse ethnic group in Nigeria. Similarly, they should be a living example by kicking against religious and political intolerance and other social vices that can impede the sustainability of socio-political environment in Nigeria.
Conclusion
This paper has focused on how counselling can provide social adjustment considering the socio-political instability and ethnic/religious crises confronting Nigeria as a nation. The paper therefore revealed five major challenges to socio-political sustainability in Nigeria and they are: poverty, corruption, unemployment insecurity of lives and property and ethnic/religious crises. As a result of these menace, largely the young ones subsequently falling prey to addictions of alcohol, tobacco, drugs, armed robbery and at times suicide bombing which is now a common feature by the Boko Haram. For the country to experience stable socio-political environment, counselling units should be established in all local government of the federation. Through the establishment of this counselling units, there will be a provision for the masses for their issues and complains to be had and responded to by the government. This paper also maintained that counselling experts that can directly assist, advice and contribute to the development of government policy should be at every sectors of the nation. This will be in form of bringing government nearer to the people and solving the socio-political ills confronting the country. Finally, this paper maintained that ethnic/religious crises are likely to continue unless there is an effective and proper counselling for the teaming youth in the country on the need to embrace peace and dialogue and shun politicians that cunningly manipulate the ethnic/religious issues to achieve personal or political gains.

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