Senior Nigerian officials play down the groups' significance, even as President Olusegun Obasanjo threatens to impose a state of emergency in Lagos to suppress the most prominent of them. Others, however, see potent politics in the rise of ethnic identity groups, especially in concert with the sharp rise in the death toll from tribal clashes. And, in fact, the dissidents' core complaint is against the political structure, which has left some feeling oppressed. This democracy, as it is, won't solve the problem. Of the groups, the Oodua People's Congress has garnered the most attention.
Violence is one reason.
Elements of the OPC have been associated with ethnic riots in Lagos that left at least 40 people dead and two police officers splashed with acid earlier this month. A third officer was carried from a police station and killed. But the OPC is also an unlikely constituency to complain of being left in the cold. The group is named for the legendary first man of the Yoruba, the tribe that dominates Lagos and the country's populous southwest. And Obasanjo is Yoruba himself.