Under Reconstruction: Ethnicity, Ethnic Nationalism and the Future of the Nigerian State

Abstract

Nigeria transited from military authoritarianism to civil rule on 29 May, 1999. Since this date, the country has been bedevilled by all forms of protracted conflicts. Many innocent citizens have lost their lives and properties worth millions of dollars have equally been destroyed. These conflicts, that are now threatening the stability, national cohesion, and survival of the multiethnic Nigerian post-colony, have taken a definite pattern. They are now being championed by the various ethnic militant movements that are agitating for social justice, regional autonomy, and their own significant slice of the proceeds from the country's resources. Undoubtedly, Nigeria is blessed with stupendous human and material resources, but ironically, it has become the bastion of inequitable state policies, poverty-ridden, etc., where ethnicity has pervaded every facet of its life. In a nutshell, these conflicts are function of social frustrations of the disadvantaged ethnic groups arising from failed expectations of government to deliver their basic socio-economic needs. This research explores the primacy of ethnicity, ethnic nationalism, and enters into critical discussions on the activities of the various ethnic movements to examine their implications for Nigeria's survival. First, what are the historical roles of ethnicity in Nigeria? Second, what account for the upsurge in the activities of ethnic movements in the pre- and post-29 May, 1999 Nigeria? Third, what are the structural problems within the 'defective' Nigerian federation that are now compelling various ethnic minorities to violence with the aim of achieving their goals of de-marginalisation? Fourth, are the activities of the ethnic militias the bane to the corporate existence of Nigeria or contribute to the vibrancy of its democratic politics?