INFLUENCE OF COLONIAL TRIPOD-POWER-BLOC ON POLITICS AND POLICY MAKING IN POST-INDEPENDENT NIGERIA

Abstract

Nigeria, as a nation-state finds it difficult to manage ethno-nationalism, partly because the British imposed a scheme that resulted in a lopsided federation. The implication was that the old monolithic North was overwhelmingly larger in landmass and population than the two other areas of the three pre-independence regions. Each of the three regions was under a hegemonic power bloc that ensured its stranglehold on its affairs. Each region also has minority groups. More often, attempts were made by the octopus nations to exclude the minority groupings from mainstream governance decisions and confine them to the position of drawers of water. The result is a tendency towards centrifugal pulls by the country's blocs, resulting in a country with a “low federal political culture” whose components are unable to “think federal” even after independence. The paper uses Identity theory to explain the nature of ethnic, factitious politics in post-colonial Nigeria. Using historical-descriptive methods of analysis, the paper concludes that the major drivers of the three hegemonic tribes are bent on creating a federal environment where sectional attributions remain the firma terra for all decision-making, political discussions, and actions. Based on this conclusion, it is recommended that attention should be on engraining qualities that respect and uphold all basic principles of federalism, that minorities should be allowed space to develop along with others and at their own pace, and that elections and census exercises should be conducted following regional and international best practices.