Nigeria and the Challenges of Nation Building

Nigeria since her independent in 1960, has been challenged by myriads of socio-political and economic problems. Historians as well as international relations experts are of the view that this is as a result of imbalanced political structure the country inherited from British, her former colonial master, and the failure of the Nigerian political class to correct this anomaly. Ethnic sentiments and nepotism characterized the first Republic, which invariably led to it's early collapse. A federal system of government was adopted to accommodate the vested interests of the different sections of the country. However, the failure of succeeding military regimes and civilian administrations, predominantly of the northern part of the country to sustain and practice federalism in it's true form is responsible for the call for restructuring by various sociocultural groups within the Southern part of the country. This work therefore examines the teething problems behind Nigeria's disunity and political instability, and suggests that the only way forward is the "restructuring" of existing political structure, to avoid the impending danger of disintegration as postulated by the Western World.