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State Creation in Nigeria: Failed Approaches to National Integration and Local Autonomy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Henry E. Alapiki
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Abstract:

This paper seeks to demonstrate how the fissiparous tendencies bearing on the Nigerian national polity make the policy of using state creation to achieve national integration a failed strategy. The paper shows how the outcomes of state creation exercises in Nigeria have failed to assuage the very forces that instigate new state demands. It contends that the prospects for national integration and local autonomy depend on the emergence of a purposeful national leadership and proper political restructuring of the federation designed to generate a national image that has more appeal than the regional ones.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Cet essai cherche à démontrer comment les tendances sécessionnistes pesant sur le système politique national du Nigeria mettent en échec la stratégie de création d'un état pour accomplir le projet d'intégration nationale. Cet essai montre comment les résultats de simulation de création d'un état au Nigeria n'ont pas réussi à apaiser les forces mêmes qui engendrent de nouvelles raisons d'état. A cela s'oppose le fait que les projets d'intégration nationale et d'autonomie locale dépendent de l'émergence d'une direction nationale sensée et d'une restructuration politique appropriée de la fédération constituée en vue de générer une image nationale qui a plus d'attrait que les images régionales.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , December 2005 , pp. 49 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2005

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