Imperialism and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria, 1960-1996

Book Description
In the more than three decades of political independence, many African states have gone through several violent civil wars generated by ethnic animosities and intolerance. These wars have resulted in a total collapse of the civil society and a fragile social order that is often accompanied by organized pogroms as was recently the case in Rwanda. Today, the political picture of many African nations is characterized by the disintegration of the political structure and a disorganized national economy incapable of providing subsistence for the masses of the people. One explanation for this may be found in the role ethnicity continues to play in the new emerging states, the majority of these artificial state entities were put together and defined by the selfishness of former colonial powers, especially France and Britain. The on going human disasters, including famine, genocide, and massacres of innocent civilians in Rwanda, Burundi and elsewhere in Africa, shows clearly the severity of the ethnic issue in black Africa. There is no other place where this ethnic time bomb is more frightening than Nigeria, which already has gone through a major civil war. This book is an attempt to understand the role ethnicity plays in nation building and its implication for the instability of the neocolonial state in the developing world and Nigeria in particular.

From the Back Cover
This is a radical departure from traditional analyses of the Nigerian State, which often unduly focus on ethnicity as the motivating force in Nigerian politics. The book examines the class dimensions of the Nigerian political crisis since 1960, when this culturally diverse nation assumed the stature of independent nationhood from the British imperial state. The writer posits that the ruling elite, whether constituted in the military or the civil society, consistently used ethnicity to secure its own class domination in the absence of a coherent class ideology. The author argues that the military transition agenda to a "democratic state" is nothing more than a ploy by the military elite and its civilian partners to perpetuate themselves in power in spite of international opposition. The author hopes that a grassroots ideology will emerge and unite all the marginalized strata of the Nigerian society. In the absence of such ideology, the author foresees a fragmentation of the Nigerian nation along ethnic lines, a fragmentation that will most certainly provide a new basis for another civil war similar to, and most possible bloodier than, the Biafra war of 1967-70.

About the Author
Pade Badru is an associate professor in the department of pan African Studies and Sociology at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. He holds degrees from the City University of London, London School of Economics, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he received his Ph.D.


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The book examines the class dimension of the Nigerian political crisis since 1960, when this culturally diverse nation assumed the stature of independent nationhood from the British imperial state. The writer posits that the ruling elite, whether constituted in the military or the civil society, consistently used ethnicity to secure its own class domination in the absence of a coherent class ideology. The author argues that the military transition agenda to a "democratic state" is nothing more than a ploy by the military elite and its civilian partners to perpetuate themselves in power in spite of international opposition.


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