Federal Success in Nigeria: State-Building and Ethnic Conflict Managment

Abstract

Observers note that instances of ethnic conflict serve as an obvious manifestation of tension between the idea of the nation and the structure of the modern state. The current global rash of allegedly unique ethnic disputes merits a serious assessment of its place within the decline of the nation-state. Along with the notion that the nation-state is in decline, scholars have asserted the presence of another global trend in the use of federalist approaches to nation-building and conflict management. After exploring the possibilities of a relationship beween ethnic conflict and possible solutions in federal theory, this essay grounds these conjectures in an analysis of the Nigerian state. While issues have certainly complicated the path to the success of the federal state in Nigeria, the state should be viewed as generally successful in achieving its end of survival amidst threatening conflict.