The Challenges of Nation-Building in Nigeria and the State-Building Alternative

ABSTRACT

Nigeria’s current democratic dispensation is plagued by a rise in ethnic nationalism, agitations for self-determination and secession, claims of marginalisation, and ethnic, regional and religious tensions. These issues continually dominate state politics. For some analysts, these problems are symptoms of a lack of oneness among the multiple ethno-linguistic and religious groups that make up the country. They are of the view that the solution to the intractable problems lies in nation-building, suggesting the enthronement of a sense of common nationality. On the contrary, this article argues that the lack of national consciousness for a nation may not be the main problem but the lack of viable institutions that can promote deep inter-ethnic relations. State-(re)building in the form of institution-strengthening is rather important for unity in the plural society. Therefore, the creation of new institutions and the strengthening of existing ones, including the federal system, to produce a viable Nigerian state capable of delivering on public goods and good governance is more important to address the many challenges confronting the state.

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).