Restructuring, Secession and True Federalism: Ethnic Agitations and the Deepening crises of Nigerian Federalism

Gabriel Tyungu, Godwin Koko

One of the problems bedeviling the post-colonial Nigerian state is the failure of attempts to wield together the disparate ethnic nationalities that were brought together by colonial fiat, otherwise called the amalgamation of 1914. Thus, the desire to maintain the colonial status quo has seen the country go through series of military coups and a bloody civil war to sustain the nation’s indivisibility. However, the ugly experience of the civil war, it would seem has not taught sufficient lessons on the imperatives of harmonious co-existence of various ethnic groups without confronting each other. The main contention has been competition over access to power and material resources by the various ethnic nationalities that fear the control of power and material resources by any of the ethnic groups would lead to their domination and marginalization. This has given rise to all sorts of agitations regarding the country’s nature of federalism and the need to restructure so as to provide a balance federal structure capable of allaying the fear of marginalization. It is the contention of this endeavor that the fear of marginalization is behind recent uproar in the country about the restructuring debate and other sundry issues such as secession and calls for a return to regionalism and resource control.