Emerole, Walter Ginikanwa, PhD
School of General Studies, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria.
Email: waltino2013@gmail.com
Abstract
Ndi Owerri-Igbo, located within the five quarters of Oyima, Umuororonjo, Umuonyeche, Amawom and Umuodo, which constituted the major part of Owerri Municipality-the capital of Imo State of Nigeria, and the variegated tribes of Hausa-fulani, who occupy a section of the Owerri Municipality, otherwise called the Ama-hausa area, have since nine years before 1901, lived peacefully together in Owerri Municipality with the immigrant Hausa-fulani otherwise known as the settlers. Throughout this long period of co-habitation, history appears to be silent on any instance of major conflict or crisis between the two groups, except, of course, in the case of the Nigeria/Biafra War (1976 – 1970). Even at that, none of these two groups was fingered as either the remote or immediate cause of the war which temporarily disturbed the tranquility and peace which the two groups enjoyed. That notwithstanding, the post Biafra War era, also appears not to have any recorded case of major conflicts between the groups, up to 2013. Worried about the unusual case of peaceful living among the two groups, especially in view of the constant instances of crisis erupting between and amongst Igbo elements and Hausa-fulani persons elsewhere in the country, the present paper therefore is an attempt to investigate the obvious and salient factors responsible for the long lasting peace which have existed between the two groups, with the aim of recommending its findings to other Igbo groups to be applied in their relationships with immigrant groups with whom they live. The paper therefore insists that the search and application of alternative conflict and crisis resolution mechanism in intergroup relations such that the Hausa-fulani and Owerrri-igbo example provides, holds the key to national building, unity and sustainable development. To achieve the objective of the study, thematic and historical research methodologies were adopted, as emphases were laid on oral interviews for data collection.
Keywords: Owerri-igbo, Hausa-fulani, inter group relations, peaceful living, alternative conflict resolution.
Introduction; A few years before 1901, having set out on a journey to the East of Nigeria precisely, Igbo land, by Six northern immigrants from Kano namely; Malam Suleman Yahaya, a Magugawa Herbalist, a Fulani Cattle rearer, Yahaya‘s hunter friend named Malam Dogo Makama Amed and Gaba Gujukun .1 On arrival, their first place of settlement was Umuezeala in Ehime Mbano. From this point, they relocated to Akabo, from where they moved to settle at Orukwuru Njemanze in Owerri and finally at Okohia -the place