Nationalism and National Integration in Nigeria

This chapter examines the contexts within which nationalism evolved in Nigeria, largely against the backdrop of Africa’s colonial history and the associated crisis of national integration in the postcolonial period. This chapter argues that struggles for independence in Nigeria was influenced largely by developments around the world and happenings within the Nigeria’s colonial entity. Western education among the natives, influences of the First and Second World Wars as well successes of independence struggles in states such as India inspired Nigeria’s Independence struggles. Through different phases of the nationalist struggles, many structural reforms were instituted by the colonial government and bequeathed to the Nigerian state that appears to sow the seed of discord among the various fragments that make up the Nigerian state, which complicates the country’s drive to nationhood and national integration. This chapter is guided by a combination of three theories of self-determination, which advocates ethnic nationalism as the basis of national integration, the melting pot theory that emphasized the elimination of ethnic and other subnational identities and the management theory that advocates for the institutionalization of responsible and representative government as recipe for national integration. Methodologically, this chapter relied on existing secondary data collected and analyzed through desk review. The substance of these materials provided insights on the trends and challenges of different phases of nationalist movement in Nigeria as well as Nigeria’s touted path to nation-building and national integration. This chapter found that many factors undermine Nigeria’s national integration. These include the debate about appropriateness of the political system, resource mobilization and allocation, power sharing, structural arrangements among other contentious issues, which exploded into myriad of political crisis of military coups and counter coups, civil war, north-south dichotomy, ethnic nationalism, regional tension and bad governance. This chapter argues that some remedies such as Federal Character Principle, National Youth Service Corps and Federal Unity Schools, though made some positive impacts but are far from facilitating national integration in Nigeria. This chapter concludes that the Nigerian nationalists have succeeded in the struggle for political independence; however, they failed in their drive to ensure full integration of the state after independence.