NIGERIA AND THE CHALLENGES OF NATIONAL UNITY

Uche Eme Uche; Chigozie Okonkwo; Aniefiok Sunday Peter

doi:10.18768/ijaedu.616007

Conference Paper

NIGERIA AND THE CHALLENGES OF NATIONAL UNITY

Year 2020, Volume: 6 Issue: 16, 54 - 65, 10.09.2020

Uche Eme Uche Chigozie Okonkwo Aniefiok Sunday Peter

https://doi.org/10.18768/ijaedu.616007

Abstract

The task of unifying the various ethnic, religious, political and socio-economic groupings in Nigeria has remained a daunting national challenge more than hundred years after amalgamation in 1914. This is particularly puzzling considering that all government regimes since independence in 1960 have made national unity their important agenda. Concomitant programmes, policies and mantras including institutionalization of the federal character principle, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), unity schools, national symbols, National Orientation Agency (NOA), and mantras such as “the unity of the nation is not negotiable”, among others, have been adopted to facilitate national unity in Nigeria. Yet the gap between the various groupings seems wider as the nation is still plagued with ethnic rivalry, religious intolerance, political exclusion, quest for self-determination, power sharing and violent agitations, to mention a few. This paper explored the challenges of national unity in Nigeria after one hundred years of existence. Employing the Choice theory, documentary data sources and qualitative data analysis, the paper contends that the challenges to national unity in Nigeria appear to persist because of the manipulations of political, ethnic and religious elites due to pecuniary gains and enduring rivalry over the control of state power. The result showed that unity remains a scarce commodity in Nigeria because of the manner elites conceived and implement policies to reinforce primordial loyalties. As a result, government policies and projects are narrowly conceived and implemented to favour selected groups and communities. This heightens disagreements and controversies among the diverse peoples and communities, threatening the nation’s existence and development.

Keywords

elite , ethnic and religious groups , unity

References

Mazrui, A. (1983), Cultural Engineering and Nation-building in East Africa, North-Western University Press, Evanston
Ikelegbe, A. (1995), Politics and government: An introductory and comparative analysis. Benin City: Uri Publishers.

Year 2020, Volume: 6 Issue: 16, 54 - 65, 10.09.2020

Uche Eme Uche Chigozie Okonkwo Aniefiok Sunday Peter

https://doi.org/10.18768/ijaedu.616007

Abstract

References

Mazrui, A. (1983), Cultural Engineering and Nation-building in East Africa, North-Western University Press, Evanston
Ikelegbe, A. (1995), Politics and government: An introductory and comparative analysis. Benin City: Uri Publishers.

There are 2 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language	English
Subjects	Other Fields of Education
Journal Section	Articles
Authors	Uche Eme Uche Chigozie Okonkwo Aniefiok Sunday Peter
Publication Date	September 10, 2020
Submission Date	March 9, 2020
Published in Issue	Year 2020 Volume: 6 Issue: 16

Cite

EndNote	Uche UE, Okonkwo C, Peter AS (September 1, 2020) NIGERIA AND THE CHALLENGES OF NATIONAL UNITY. IJAEDU- International E-Journal of Advances in Education 6 16 54–65.

Download Cover Image

Article Files

Full Text

Contact: ijaedujournal@hotmail.com

International E-Journal of Advances in Education by IJAEDU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://ijaedu.ocerintjournals.org