Ethnic Separatist Agitations: Implications For Political Stability In Nigeria

Abstract

This paper focused on the litany of ethnic separatist agitations that had dotted the Nigerian political landscape since colonial era till date. The quick resort to extreme strategy of secessionist threat or attempt at the slightest ethnic group provocation has made the “national question” in Nigeria unanswered. These primordial underpinnings manifest lack of collective faith in the Nigerian nation building project. The paper identified through thematic and chronological processes of analysis, that there is a positive relationship between the ethnic separatist agitations that have traumatically engulfed Nigerian state and the unstable character of Nigerian polity. It is argued that Nigerian government and politics fell short of the bench-mark for a stable polity because it has witnessed monumental structural and institutional basic changes, illegitimacy of all its regimes, lack of rule of law and outright disregard to the principles of equity, fairness and justice in its internal politics. The paper recommends that conscious efforts should be made by the present Nigerian leadership to address all forms of discriminations on the basis of race, sex and other social-cultural imperatives and that the task of “nigerializing” all Nigerians should be pursued with vigour.