Chapter One

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Nigeria is a multi-religious, multi-ethnic, and multicultural society with enormous potential for economic, social, and democratic development. However, intense conflicts and violence that manifested within it even from its earliest time under the colonial rule have made development and progress elude the country. Nigeria is usually characterized as a deeply divided state in which major political issues are vigorously contested along the lines of complex ethnic, religious, and regional divisions. The causes of these conflicts may not be unconnected with the way and manner religion is portrayed to its adherents and mistrust between the followers of the various religious and ethnic groups. The issues that generate the fiercest contestation include those that are considered fundamental to the existence and legitimacy of the state, over which competing groups tend to adopt exclusionary, winner takes all strategies, which include the control of state power, resource allocation, and citizenship.

Ethnic conflict has been rightly defined as one of the greatest obstacles to meaningful development in Africa (The Courier 1993). In Nigeria, this sort of competition and rivalry among various ethnic groups is seen as a product of colonial contact. The ethnic factor, however, did not diminish with the advent of independence; rather, it became a yardstick for measuring contribution to the national development effort and especially for allocating and distributing power and national resources. As Nigeria is currently engaged in another exercise aimed at establishing a sustainable form of democracy, there is urgent need to address  perceived factors that may militate against the success of this endeavour. In certain quarters, the annulment of the democratic transition programme by the military in 1993 at the conclusion of the presidential polls is believed to have been motivated by ethnic sentiments. On a similar note, the 30-month senseless slaughter occasioned by the Nigerian civil war from 1967 to 1970 was anchored on ethnic rivalry.

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