Minority Rights and the National Question in Nigeria (African Histories and Modernities)

This book offers a thematic study of key debates in the history of the ethnic politics, democratic governance, and minority rights in Nigeria. Nigeria provides a framework for examining the central paradox in post-colonial nation building projects in Africa – the tension between majority rule and minority rights. The liberal democratic model on which most African states were founded at independence from colonial rule, and to which they continue to aspire, is founded on majority rule. It is also founded on the protection of the rights of minority groups to political participation, social inclusion and economic resources. Maintaining this tenuous balance between majority rule and minority rights has, in the decades since independence, become the key national question in many African countries, perhaps none more so than Nigeria. This volume explores these issues, focusing on four key themes as they relate to minority rights in Nigeria: ethnic and religious identities, nationalism and federalism, political crises and armed conflicts. Front Matter....Pages i-xv Introduction: Minorities and the National Question in Nigeria....Pages 1-14 Front Matter....Pages 15-15 Decolonization and the Minority Question in Nigeria: The Willink Commission Revisited....Pages 17-39 Historicizing Ethnic Minorities’ Movements and State Creation in Nigeria, 1946–1967....Pages 41-59 Minority Groups: Bridgeheads in Nigerian Politics, 1950s–1966....Pages 61-84 Front Matter....Pages 85-85 The Owegbe Cult: Political and Ethnic Rivalries in Early Postcolonial Benin City....Pages 87-111 Midwest State’s Non-Igbo Minorities’ Responses to the Biafran Occupation and Federal Liberation in the Nigerian Civil War, 1967–1970....Pages 113-142 Ethnicity, War and Military Politics in Nigeria....Pages 143-162 Front Matter....Pages 163-163 Willink’s Report, Niger Delta Region and the Nigerian State 50 Years After: Any Hope for the Minority?....Pages 165-182 National Integration, Citizenship, Political Participation and Democratic Stability in Nigeria....Pages 183-205 Federalism, Ethnic Minorities and National Integration in Nigeria....Pages 207-225 Religious Referent Power and Ethnic Militias in Nigeria: The Imperative for Pax Nigeriana....Pages 227-246 Back Matter....Pages 247-253 Uyilawa Usuanlele, Bonny Ibhawoh, Editors. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.