as their statuses are discriminated against even when educated since they probably do not have
certificates from schools in the major cities. Getting job for them is all the more difficult sometimes
not because they do not have the qualification but because they do not have “godfathers” that could
facilitate their getting job. These voiceless also face horrendous barriers in accessing loans from both
regular and micro‐finance banks as they, most of the time, do not have the collateral security. Worse
still, it is these rural communities lacking in infrastructural facilities such as good road networks,
primary health centre, portable water, electricity, including firms, factories and cottage industries
that the governments tend to under develop. Theirs is double jeopardy – their communities suffer
underdevelopment while their citizens suffer discrimination in major towns and cities.
It should be reiterated that MGDs by 2015 may not be achieved in most of the countries unless there
is the political will while adequate attention is paid by various governments to the critical issues of
the MDGs such as Goals 1 and 7 dealing with poverty and environmental issues respectively. It is sad
to note that the minorities are excluded from most of the economic dialogue processes including the
drafting of the poverty reduction strategies papers, MDGs domestication process, and dialogues on
other economic frameworks. An adage says, “you don’t shave the head of a person that is not there”
which tends to show that governments pretend to plan for all but tactfully exclude the minorities
who are supposed to be part of the beneficiaries of such policies and programmes that they are
planning. Therefore, to achieve MDGs becomes a problem as the minorities do not have a say on
strategies to alleviate their poverty as in Goal 1 of the MDGs.
Furthermore, it is commonplace to find in some countries that their tradition ossifies the inclusion of
the minorities in political process which in turn prevents the minorities from economic participation
and benefits accruing to such countries. In some cases, it is the minority resources such as land and
mineral that serve as the mainstay of their economy yet the minorities are impoverished by the
majority that hold the political power. One may exercise restraints in mentioning specific countries
where this anomaly occurs but it is apt to refer to what is happening in Nigeria where the Niger
Delta fetches Nigeria over 90 percent of her foreign earning and yet this region suffers both political
marginalization as well as economic hardship.
In addition, the anti‐minority policies such as quota system or federal character has not been helpful
in making the minorities “an integral part of the development of society as a whole” according to the
spirit of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious��and
Linguistic Minorities. For example, the power rotational policy otherwise called the “zoning system”
which is a policy of one of the major political parties in Nigeria is not favourable to the minorities in
that country. According to the policy, the presidential slot in particular is shared only between the
north and the south on rotational basis which implies that the power must rotate between the
Hausa‐Fulani in the north and Yorubas and Igbos in the southern part of the country after two terms
of eight years each. By interpretation, it means other ethnic minorities numbering over 300 both in
the north and in the south would not taste power till eternity as there is no plan to include them in
power sharing formula arrangement of the ruling People’s Democratic Party.
IDENTIFICATION OF GOOD PRACTICE
The good practice is for governments all over the world to provide an enabling environment of
equal opportunities for all irrespective of ethnic or religious background to fully participate in the
political process of their countries. In the Nigerian example cited above, something close to good
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