ETHNICITY AND AGITATION FOR CREATION OF STATES IN NIGERIA: THE DEFUNCT NORTH WESTERN STATE AS A CASE STUDY

ETHNICITY AND AGITATION FOR CREATION OF STATES IN NIGERIA: THE DEFUNCT NORTH WESTERN STATE AS A CASE STUDY

Abstract:

Demands and agitation for creation of new States in Nigeria has been a recurrent feature since the London Constitutional Conference of 1957. The fundamental reason for the demand has always, until very recently (i.e. since the growth of an oil revenue – fuelled economy) been cultural pluralism or ethnic differences. This pluralism has led to the perennial problem of “minority groups” within administrative units, thinking objectively or otherwise that they are at a disadvantage. The Willink Commission that was set up by the British Colonial .. government in 1957 did not make any recommendation that would break up the three regions. Instead, it held the view that the only meaningful way of allaying the fears of minorities was to encourage democratic government within the regions. After independence in 1960, only the Mid-West region was carved out of the old Western region in 1964, leaving the East and North intact. The Military regime under Gowon tried to solve the problem of minorities by breaking up the regions into twelve states in 1967. The euphoria did not lasts demands for more states continued. Minorities within the “1967 new states” started agitating. One of such areas of agitation was the defunct North Western State. This thesis exaines the nature and structure of this agitation. My findings demonstrate that majority of the rural dwellers were not fully aware of the agitation. Those who knew about it on the two sides (old Niger and Sokoto provinces) were the educated elites and urbanites. This has led me to conclude that ethnic differences were only used by the elites of both sides to break up North Western State. The agitation was an intra-elite struggle for values like political offices, administrative posts and contract awards. The only reason why the State could have been dismembered at all was its vastness, which was not conducive to effective administrative and economic planning. Although I do not deny the existence of ethnic contradictions in the thesis, I am highly convinced by the available evidence that those primordial contradictions have been harped upon and utilized by the dominant elite class within the system for elite-ends. I suggest that this sort of manipulation in the Nigerian political process can be much more contained if there are fairly strong unifying ideology, committed leadership mass literacy and purposeful government

ETHNICITY AND AGITATION FOR CREATION OF STATES IN NIGERIA: THE DEFUNCT NORTH WESTERN STATE AS A CASE STUDY

Sharing is caring!