CSEA in collaboration with the African School of Economics organized an in-house seminar meeting. The session featured a paper presentation by Narrelle Gilchrist from the Politics Department, Princeton University, and a sequel panel discussion facilitated by Tunde Salman, Hussaini Abdu, PhD. and Dr. Ndubuisi Nwokolo.

In the session, Narrelle unveiled her paper titled “A Way to Mitigate Ethnic Tension? Re-examining the Ability of Ethnic Federalism to Reduce Group Grievances in Nigeria.”

The paper examined the experience of ethnic federalism in Nigeria to show how differences in the design and enforcement of decentralization determine its ability to mitigate ethnic conflict. It also compared ethnic federalism under the 1979 constitution with federalism under the 1999 constitution and then studied the experiences of two different regions – the Niger Delta and Kaduna.

The paper finds that ethnic federalism can reduce ethnic tension, but
only when it is well designed and well enforced relative to a group’s specific grievances.

The event was held on Thursday, July 28, 2022 at the African School of Economics, Abuja Campus.