Institutionalized stratification in Northern Nigeria Abstract. A raft of theories exists in the fields of social sciences providing explanations for the deepening social inequality and existential problems confronting the northern region of Nigeria. Many of the theories include the colonial interference in the modes of life of Africans, personal failures of the politicians to meet the social needs of their people, institutional corruption and others. This paper will take a fresh look at the problems with a proposed solution. To achieve this objective, the authors have taken the perspectives of economic sociology for critical and analytical approach by employing new ways of knowing to detect asymmetries of systems of social institutions and their concrete relationship with a range of social outcomes. The innovative interdisciplinary approach has made it possible to detect those asymmetries, their concrete ways and methods of influencing extant social institutions. Further still, this work explores the existential problems by making a careful appraisal of the set of social institutions and their contributions to social deprivations and social exclusions in the north of the country. A combined method of primary observation and secondary data have been adopted for this analysis, to allow a cursory look into the social and economic challenges threatening the existence of Nigeria as an entity. Keywords: social exclusion, institutionalized stratification, social instability.
