Nigeria and the Threat of Disintegration: Issues in Proper Perspective

Abstract

The human failures and energies released by great upsurges in history astonish and reverberate at their moment of impact but quickly varnish or become distorted in the dust of time. It would be right to say that Nigeria became effective by the promulgation of the amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorates in 1914 by Lord Frederick Lugard. This was how the seed of national insecurity was inadvertently laid, for the diversity which should have been the source of unity became constant source of political uprising and devastations. Our political elite instead of fostering our unity continue to stoke the fire of ethno-religious nationalism and imposition of harsh religious legal codes on so many unwilling and pretentiously willing people leading to agitation for a breakout of the country. This paper examines these aspect of the agitations. The paper evaluates the origin and echoes of Nigerian instability. The paper concludes that the socio-economic and political crisis being witnessed in Nigeria today is a reflection of the inherent disunity in the country following the amalgamation of the different cultural and linguistic nationalities of Nigeria into one geographical entity.