ETHNICITY AS A TOOL FOR NATION-BUILDING IN NIGERIA

Most studies carried out on race, ethnicity and national question have posited and concluded on the phenomenon as germane; if not the only source for main conflicts of wars and crises in Africa. Indeed, arguments cropped have proven that the very underlining factors for the underdevelopment of African nations on the global political space are traceable to this malaise and which presume endless solutions and fatalistic instincts.

This paper shows how ethnicity is a national question and how it constitutes a serious obstacle to national development, cohesion and integration, especially in a country like Nigeria, believed to be highly heterogeneous. The paper opines that, should this product be harnessed as a tool for nation-building by political players and statesmen, it could no doubt become ‘resources’ for national greatness. The paper maintains that, not until this effort is made, Nigeria and by extension Africa will continue to witness monumental surge of ethnic violence and destruction instead of peace, unity and development.

A descriptive-historical approach is therefore employed for framework conceptualization that allows for critical analysis of data, through literature review with a view to justifying the data collected for the position taken on ‘how ethnicity actually constitutes resources rather than obstacles towards a nation’s development efforts’. The research further explores theories of ethnicity and race for empirical justifications of data on how ethnicity is negatively advanced in most instances but how it could be positively converted into resources if used as a tool for nation-building.