International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Reviews Vol.5 No.2, June, 2015; p , (ISSN: )

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1 SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND ECONOMIC INEQUALITY IN NIGERIA: CAUSES, EFFECTS AND THE WAY FORWARD OFOEGBU CHIMA RAPHEAL DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY MADONNA UNIVERSITY OKIJA ANAMBRA STATE ABSTRACT This paper examines the issues involved in social stratification, a situation where human beings are not considered equal by themselves. It does this vis-a-vis the factors that create inequalities and its effects subscribe and affirm the fact that the world, is hierarchically structured and made and so like the rock whose layers are placed in Strata, human beings are graded in levels..however, this paper makes a case against a static stratification in which someone s social class is fixed because of an individual gender,education,birth place, color to name a few and favors social mobility in which one can progress from one class to another if he or she consciously works towards it and merits it. There are social injustices that tend to make a permanent polarization of the society into the haves and have not, bourgeoisie and proletariat, aristocrats and commoners in which the rich continues to be richer and the poor poorer without any hope of bridging the existing artificial inequality. This article in a strong language does not admit or compromise on static inequality, and as such recommends social mobility as a panacea to the human side of social stratification. Human side in the sense that most of the issues involved in social stratification are man-made, mere historical accident and not intrinsically linked to individuals. Key words: social stratification, economic-inequality, social-mobility, and classism. INTRODUCTION: Mere glance at the society in which we find ourselves reveal some inequities that cut across the social, political, economic and religious sphere. This inequality or technically speaking stratification divides the people into the poor and the rich, industrialists and peasantry. Aristocrats and commoners etc, There is no consensus by sociologists as to the origin of social stratification. However Openheimer etal (2002) agree that its origin is to be found in the conquest of one group by another, the conquering group set itself as an upper class dominating the conquered society which became lower class. In fact, no society is un-stratified. J.O Onwuka (2010: 128) posits that there exist the Osu outcast system among the Igbos of Nigeria, the vernas of India, apartheid a race based stratification in south Africa. The same Onwuka (2010: 128) bemoaning the evil of social stratification quotes an excerpt from the universal Declaration of Human Right as saying; All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedom set forth in this declaration, without distinction of any kind such as race, color, sex,language, religion, political or other opinion property, birth or other status (UNESCO courier 1963: 16-17). Having set the ball rolling, by doing a kind of a survey on the subject matter, I shall proceed to put forward a working definition of social stratification. 166

2 Statement of problem. The author is worried by the way men are judged not based on the content of their character but by the content of their pocket or what value they posses in their immediate society. Societies are at a very great loose of human and material content of the various categories of human that are not generally given a chance by the society because they are regarded as people of a lesser category of humans. Because the author is worried about the general level of unequal availability of natural resources and other natural factors, that are beyond the control of humans, mentioned other forms of segregations and discrimination among humans as being anti progressive for societies generally Social stratification: A working definition. In his classics, sociological theory, D. S Dzorgbo (2013: ) defined social stratification as the ranking or grading of individuals or groups into hierarchical layers on the basis of income or wealth, status or prestige. Lending credence to Dzorgbo s position, Murray (1994) put it in a different language thus: social stratification the horizontal division of society into higher and lower social units. The implications and consequences arising from such a graded society is that it forms the basis for distribution of resources, privileges or status that accrue to one, Preferences to name a few. Wherever social stratification exists, there is always social inequality. There is no un-stratified society but the argument I am making is that the position that one occupies in a social setting should not be permanent. There is room for social mobility. This can be achieved by getting rid of some injustices that tends to restrict social progress. Historically, four basic system of social stratification can be distinguished; these are slavery, caste, estate and class. In the case of slavery, we find an extreme situation in which some people own others as their properties. Onwuka (2009: 131) writes that the slave s master uses his slave as he or she likes and had all rights frozen. Caste on the other hand is a form of stratification that is birth based. The type of family in which one is born to pigeon holes him or her to a fixed permanent caste. The Osu of Igbo, Nigeria stands out as an example of caste. Furthermore, estate is another form of stratification. Here in feudal society, the entire population is divided into the first estate comprising of the nobility, the second estate which is made up of the Roman clergy and finally the estate in which the commoners belong. Another kind of stratification that can be identified is class. Class according to Schaefer (2005: 201) is a social ranking based on economic position in which achieved characteristics can influence social mobility, the traces and practices of caste, estate, slavery and class can be found in various cultures and societies. Social mobility: what is it? Social mobility represents the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society, that is to say a change in social status. The goal and aim of social mobility is to attain a classless society. A society in which there is equal opportunities for individuals irrespective of gender, race, class to the point of the rise of meritocracy. I do not advocate the classless society that communism projects but a situation where individuals are mobile within the social ladder. We further distinguished the following basic mobilites; vertical versus horizontal, intra-generational and inter-generational. In vertical mobility, these are a change in position between social levels, for instance, a factory worker who opens up a personal business move from one social level to the next. Horizontal mobility on the other hand, this is a change in position that occurs within the same social level, for instance, a poorly paid nurse who leaves the hospital to another place where she or he is better paid moves on to better social status. That represents a horizontal kind of mobility. Intra-generational mobility spans beyond one s life time to his or her offspring. Inter-generational mobility is a change that occurs in one s social status during one s life time. More so, Giddens, Dunie and Appebaum as quoted by Onwuka (2006: A13) saw social mobility as movement up and down a hierarchy of position in a social stratified system. Having defined the two key operational terms in this discuss, I shall now proceed to look at what some key sociologists have said concerning the subject matter of stratification and inequality. Building on antecedents: socio-political philosophers view on social class/stratification. Some prominent thinkers have put forward reasons why social classes exist. Notably among them are Karl Marx and Max Weber. 1. Karl Marx: Marx in his socio-political philosophy adduces one of the reasons for class is what he called the relation to means of production. For him, unequal access to the means of production leads to inequality and stratification in the society. The means of production according to Onwuka 167

3 (2010) refer to land, tools, machinery, capital etc,.which every society use to create wealth. Based on the relationship and accessibility to the above mentioned means two classes of people emerges: those that own the means of production know as the bourgeoisie and those who do not own, the proletariat. In a capitalist society according to Marx, the bourgeoisie/proletariat relationship is always exploitative to the point that the latter is always in perpetual penury and there is no hope of bridging the existing inequality.marx recommends what he calls class consciousness as a way out of this inequality and exploitation. 2. Marx Weber: like Karl Marx before him, Weber believed that property ownerships is a strong determination of social class. However, he disagrees a little with his predecessor by adding some dimensions to it. According to Onwuka (2010) the 3ps of sociology namely property, prestige and power determine social stratification and differentiation. The contributions of the duo, Marx and Weber are very vital for appreciation of sociological perspectives today. The major weakness that can easily be identified in weberian sociology of class is its pluralistic approach in social stratification. The reason is not far-fetched. It makes it very difficult to specify stratified social groups in society. The boundaries between each group are almost difficult to specify and end up producing a fragmented stratification. Despite their inadequacies and limitations however, their contributions provoke serious thought on the perennial questions of sociology. The next question that readily calls ones attention is, why does social stratification exist? Why is it that a classless society does not exist ab-in-itio? These questions are taken care of under the headings below : CAUSES OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION: A LOOK AT THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES. 1. The functionalistic perspective of stratification: The functionalists submit that what motivate individuals in the society to undertake difficult and risky ventures is if that can contribute to the enhancement of their social status. The implication of this is that there must be rewards to provide inducement and those rewards must be distributed unequally to ensure that all positions get filled. Davis More calls this functional importance of position. Simple examples can instantiate this position. A medical Doctor earns more money and prestige than a cleaner. The reason is that not all and dick and harry possess the requisite intellectual capacity to pursue such a rigorous discipline. Besides the cost of training is quite much. And so the functionalities recline on this reason as a justification for the universality and existence of stratification. 2. The Conflict Perspective on Social Stratification: The conflict theorists are highly critical of social stratification asserting that it benefits only one class to the detriment of others. Conflicts believe that stratification perpetuates inequality; they borrow a lot from the work of Karl Marx. Marx believed that social stratification resulted from people s relationship to means of production. And people were polarized into the haves and have not. The exploration of proletariats by the bourgeoisie according to Onwuka (2010: 144) results in social stratification and inequality and this represents the view of the conflicts. The slight modification of Marx s social stratification theory which the conflict made was to introduce other dimensions to the perceived inequalities. These according to the conflicts include; gender, ethnicity, race, power, prestige, education etc. The possession and non possession, acquisition and non acquisition of any of those attributes determine ones influence, power, among the individuals in the society. While the functionalists see stratification as a force for good, the conflicts see it as an evil that should be nipped in the bud. The foregoing has been an attempt to identity the causes of inequalities or technically called stratification in the society through the view points of various sociopolitical perspectives namely the functionalists and the conflicts. Having done that, I shall now proceed to outline the effects of stratification on the individuals in the society. The effects of social stratification on the society: A clarion call for social mobility. The goal of this section is to identity the effects that social stratification has on the people. The negative effects as they may be, will serve as the spring board for actions and effects that will as much as practical enough remove barriers to social mobility in the society. Social stratification is the major reason singled out for unequal economic, social and political relationship. In such a system, people rank and evaluate each other based on a socio- economic level. The resultant effects of such a system therefore is that it causes social disparity and other allied problems as it is an unjust system with a concentration of power and wealth in a certain few members of the society. Similarly and more so, social differentiation creates emotional stress and depression on the part of people that belong to lower social class as they have unequal access to the means of production. The Dawn 168

4 daily newspaper (Pakistan based, 9 th may 2011) submit that social stratification creates a gulf between the people in terms of their income and measuring social relationships with social position, education and health. The ensuing disparity therefore becomes chaos in the society and these constitute stumbling block in terms of progress and development of our society. Another aspect of the stratification that deserves our attention and consideration is the gender based social stratification. The inequality that comes in here stems from one s sex. Africa is a patriarchal society. And so the female folk tend to remain in a subordinate position for life. Experience has shown that many women tend to do far better than their male counterparts in school in very technical and specialized disciplines like medicine, law to name a few, but it is observed that men try to sideline the intelligence of women through the erection of sentiments and barriers. The kind of stratification one finds in a feudal society is most worrisome, that one is an Osu or Di- Ala is by dint of accident of history. The so called differences are socially ascribed. There is nothing sacrosanct about his or her caste. He or she should enjoy open social mobility in which there are no restrictions to the extent he or she can go on the rung of social ladder. Another area of social stratification worth highlighting is race related discrimination. One scolor of the skin does not confer any innate ability on him or her. And so the blacks should not be stigmatized and looked on with contempt. Where a black man is more qualified for a particular office, there should not be any restrictions to his or her ascending to the position. Nature distributes gifts freely to individuals irrespective of their color. Having looked at the effects of social stratification on the people. Social stratification :a way forward. How do we solve the problems created by social differentiation in society? In order words, how do we synthesis the anthesis? From the sociological viewpoint cum experience,i put forward the following recommendations: 1. Implementation of Enactments that protect the rights of the minority? There have been various laws and enactments both at local and internal levels that protect the rights of the minorities and those adjudged to be inferior by the society, but these laws are always played down on. Already at a women s right convention hold in New York, the participants came up with a modified version of the U.S Declaration of independence which reads thus according to Newman (1996: 426), we hold these truth to be self evident : that all men and women are created equal It was the view of the participants at this conference that the women of the past were submerged in closed stratification because they were contended with their second class position in the society. And so Newman (1996: 246) writes that these women who are invoking these declarations and U.S charter insist that they be given immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of United State of America. In their reminiscences, the women recalled that 150 years ago their situation was nothing but passive but their collective effort and struggle has brought a significant liberation and emancipate onto the women folk. 2. Radical Re-orientation of the People: the mentality of some people for instance the Osu of Igbo land that they are inferior and subservient creatures has gone down deep in them, that proffering solution to it becomes an uphill task just as democratic culture in gradually diffusing through the length and breadth of the globe, the idea that race is only a question of skin pigmentation should be made to be understood by people. Solutions to Osu system should concentrate on effecting some changes in social structure (with legislation)and in personal structure (with education). There should be an enforceable legislation that can stem the tide of such a system.there should be a considerable gap between a law on the book and a law in action.without a competent enforcement, any law is dead. Let me in this article appeal to the new democratic government of President Muhammad Buhari to adopt bills that would outlaw any form of discrimination in Nigeria especially based on the Osu caste system. 3. Education: The main purpose of education is to remedy ignorance. According to Ekwuonwa (2010:22) the 1999 constitution has it also that a citizen of Nigeria of a particular community, ethnic group,place of origin, sex, should not be discriminated against. Knowledge of this is the function of education and sensitization. Youths should be exposed to this kind of education as leaders of tomorrow and partners of today. This is to ensure that the mistakes of today do not Perdue. 4. Religion: should exhort their followers to practice brotherly lov and extend socio-economic hands of support to one another in their respective societies 5. Mass Media: The mass media should disseminate information to public for any solution to be effective, the mass media must play active role. This paper however does not claim that the solutions proffered are exhaustive but it is of the view that the above measures and others unmentioned can guarantee liberation and emancipation of people through open social mobility. 169

5 CONCLUSION: Resting the case. The foregoing has been an exposition and a discuss on the issues bothering on stratification and differentiation related cases, the issues handled are as old as humanity and so an instant remedy that promises to right the centuries old wrongs can only be a miracle. So it is the contention of this article that while equality is achievable and attainable, it has to be consciously worked for. Let us all join hands and realize the dream of a society that is egalitarian. REFERENCES Onwuka, J. O, (2010) Basic Sociology, Revised Edition, M. B Authentic Press, okigwe Imo State Anthony, G., Sociology, 6 th Edition, Wiley India, P.V.T Ekwouwa, M. O. (2007) Man in Society, Versatile Publishers, imo State. Dzorgbo, D. S (2013). Sociological Theories, Woeli Publishing Services, Accra Ghana. Newman, D. M.Sociology: (1996) Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life, Pine Forge Press,6 th Edition. Dawn Newspaper, 9 th may, Openheimer, M. P., (2006) Introduction to Society, University of Chicago Press, USA. Murray, K. K., (2005) Sociology: A Critical Perspective, 3 rd Edition, Don Mills, Oxford Press. England O Donnell,Gerard, (1994) Mastering Sociology, 3 rd Edition MacmillanPress,. 170