One Nigeria: the Birth and Evolution of an Idea

Nigeria is an important country in the grand scheme of things for many reasons. It is, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, an important source of energy for the world economy. As the most populous country, and one of the biggest economies, in Africa, it exercises a massive impact on the stability of the region. It is home for one in five Africans and, therefore, exerts commensurate influence on the destinies of as many. Its prosperity is the prosperity of a significant portion of the black community worldwide; so would be its devastation and poverty. Yet, despite its over-bearing size and influence, Nigeria is also a fragile construct, born out of the hard-headed pragmatism of British colonialism. Very little thought was given to its long-term stability as an organic entity at the time of its creation. These antecedents have continued to define the evolutionary pathways the nation has taken. The global trends of ethnicity, tribalism, religious conflict and parochialism that have come in the wake of the Cold War are familiar ghosts in the Nigerian context. They are the tectonic forces that have shaped, and distorted, a nation which history has consigned a significant position in African and world affairs. This book explores the foundations of Nigerian unity; the contradictory forces that unified the country, the nature of that unity and the many ways in which its own history has continued to shape and define the evolution of the country. It is a book that advocates an escape from the disintegrative patterns of the past and defends the rationale for the continued existence of a united Nigeria.