Conference of Autochthonous Ethnic Nationalities Communities Development Associations | |
Purpose | Community development, language education, indigenous land rights |
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Location | |
Region served | Central and Northern Nigeria |
Membership (2021) | 15 states |
Official language | English and indigenous languages of Nigeria |
Secretary General | Suleman A.D. Sukukum |
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CONAECDA (acronym for Conference of Autochthonous Ethnic Nationalities Communities Development Associations) is an organization that serves as a coalition of indigenous ethnic communities in central and northern Nigeria. [1] CONAECDA works in diverse areas such as language development, [2] community development, and indigenous land rights. [3] It represents a few hundred indigenous groups that are spread across 15 Nigerian states. [4] [5]
CONAECDA has chapters in 15 Nigerian states, including Kogi State, [6] Benue State, Yobe State, [7] Kwara State, Plateau State, [8] Kaduna State, Bauchi State, Nassarawa State, Taraba State, Adamawa State, Niger State, and other states.
Many ethnic groups from the Middle Belt of Nigeria have representatives with CONAECDA. [9]
The Secretary General of CONAECDA is Dr. Suleman A.D. Sukukum. [10]
CONAECDA is active in promoting minority and local ethnic languages in Nigeria. It has asked state governments in Nigeria to allow local ethnic languages to be taught in the educational system. [11] It has also organized workshops and conferences across Nigeria relating to language development, language education, community development, and indigenous rights. [12] [13] [14] CONAECDA also collaborates with SIL International on language documentation and development. [15]
Plateau State is the twelfth-largest Nigerian state. It’s located near the centre of Nigeria and includes a range of hills surrounding the Jos Plateau, its capital, and the entire plateau itself.
The culture of Nigeria is shaped by Nigeria's multiple ethnic groups. The country has 527 languages, seven of which are extinct. Nigeria also has over 1150 dialects and ethnic groups. The three largest ethnic groups are the Hausas that are predominantly in the north, the Yorubas who predominate in the southwest, and the Igbos in the southeast. There are many other ethnic groups with sizeable populations across the different parts of the country. The Kanuri people are located in the northeast part of Nigeria, the Tiv people of north central and the Efik-Ibibio are in the south south. The Bini people are most frequent in the region between Yorubaland and Igboland.
Bauchi State is a state in the North-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered by Jigawa to the north, Yobe to the northeast, Gombe to the east, Taraba and Plateau to the south, Kaduna to the west and Kano to the northwest. It takes its name from the historic town of Bauchi, which also serves as its capital city. The state was formed in 1976 when the former North-Eastern State was broken up. It originally included the area that is now Gombe State, which became a distinct state in 1996.
The forty or so Plateau languages are a tentative group of Benue–Congo languages spoken by 15 million people on the Jos Plateau, Southern Kaduna, Nasarawa State and in adjacent areas in central Nigeria.
The Gbagyi or Gbari are an ethnic group found predominantly in Central Nigeria, with an estimated population figure put at 5.8 million, spread in four States, including the FCT, and located in thirty local Government areas, according to the 2006 National Population Census figures. It is also the name of their language. Members of the ethnic group speak two dialects. While speakers of the dialects were loosely called Gwari by both the Hausa Fulani and Europeans during pre-colonial Nigeria they prefer to be known as Gbagyi/Gbari. They live in the Niger, the Federal Capital Territory - Abuja, and Kaduna State. They are also found in Nasarawa central Nigeria Area. Gbagyi/Gbari is one of the most populated ethnic groups in the middle belt and indigenous in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria. This means Gbagyi people are the bonafide owners of the Nigerian capital city, Abuja.
There are over 525 native languages spoken in Nigeria. The official language and most widely spoken lingua franca is English, which was the language of Colonial Nigeria. Nigerian Pidgin – an English-based creole – is spoken by 30 million people in Nigeria.
The Middle Belt or Central Nigeria is a term used in human geography to designate a belt region stretching across central Nigeria longitudinally and forming a transition zone between Northern and Southern Nigeria. It is composed of the southern half of the defunct Northern Region of Nigeria, now comprising mostly the North Central and parts of the North East and North West geopolitical zones, and is characterised by its lack of a clear majority ethnic group. It is also the location of Nigeria's Federal Capital Territory.
Bata (Gbwata) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Nigeria in Adamawa State in the Numan, Song, Fufore and Jimeta gire Yola maiha Demsa lamorde LGAs, and in Cameroon in North Province along the border with Nigeria. Dialects are Demsa, Garoua, Jirai, Kobotachi, Malabu, Ndeewe, Ribaw, Wadi, and Zumu (Jimo). It is often considered the same language as Bacama.
Kwanka, or Kwang (Kwaŋ), is a dialect cluster of Plateau languages in Nigeria.
Adara, is a language spoken by Adara people of Kaduna state and Niger state of Nigeria. The name Adara is also used to refer to the ethnic group.
Fulani herdsmen or Fulani pastoralists are nomadic or semi-nomadic Fulani people whose primary occupation is raising livestock. The Fulani herdsmen are largely located in the Sahel and semi-arid parts of West Africa, but due to relatively recent changes in climate patterns, many herdsmen have moved further south into the savannah and tropical forest belt of West Africa. The herdsmen are found in countries such as Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Guinea, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, and Cameroon. In Senegal, they inhabit northeastern Ferlo and the southeastern part of the country. In some of these countries the Fula constitute a minority group. They inhabit Northern Nigeria and some parts of the country.
Communal conflicts in Nigeria can be divided into two broad categories:
Nimbo is a border town in Uzo-Uwani area of Enugu State, Nigeria, where seven villages- Ekwuru, Nimbo-Ngwoko, Ugwuijoro, Ebor, Enugu-Nimbo, Umuome and Ugwuachara were invaded, and scores massacred by over 500 armed Fulani herdsmen, rated the fourth deadliest terror group in the world, in the early hours of April 25, 2016. Uzo Uwani has boundaries with the Southern States of Ebonyi and Anambra, and Central States of Benue and Kogi, where these attacks have increased lately.
Herder–farmer conflicts in Nigeria are a series of disputes over arable land resources across Nigeria between the mostly-Muslim Fulani herders and the mostly-Christian non-Fulani farmers. The conflicts have been especially prominent in the Middle Belt since the return of democracy in 1999. More recently, they have deteriorated into attacks on farmers by Fulani herdsmen.
Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria is a loose partisan advocacy group centered on promoting the welfare of Fulani pastoralists in Nigeria. The organization was founded in the early 1970s with headquarters in Kaduna. It became legally operational in 1979 and gained wider acceptance as an advocacy group in 1987.
Adara people, are an ethnic group in the Middle Belt who speak the Adara language, a north Plateau language of Nigeria. Dio Awemi Maisamari is the National president of Adara Development Association (ADA) with his assistant Luke Waziri assistant secretary of the association.
Southern Kaduna is an area inhabited by primarily various non-Hausa speaking peoples living in the south of Zazzau Emirate of Kaduna State. It is located in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria. Southern Kaduna consists of 12 Local Government Areas out of a total of 23 in Kaduna State. Some view it as being less of a geographical identity and more of an ethnic identity concept.
Musa Didam was a former District Head of the Fantswam District, then in the Jama'a Emirate and later the first indigenous monarch of Fantswam (Kafanchan) Chiefdom, a Nigerian traditional state in southern Kaduna State, Nigeria. He was also known by the titles "Mallam Musa Didam,""Mr. Musa Didam" and "Agwam Fantswam I."
Anti-Fulani sentiment is the hostility that exists towards Fulani people in Nigeria, Mali and other West African nations and the discrimination that they are subjected to as a result of it. The Fulani are a semi-nomadic ethnic group that is dispersed across several West African countries. Fulani people represent 6% of Nigeria's population.