Fifty years on
Al Jazeera offers a good 23-minute video (and a transcript of the video) about the 50th anniversary of Nigerian independence.Becoming Nigerian
Home to 150 million people, one-quarter of the entire African continent's citizens, Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation. The British, who colonised the nation for the first 60 years of the 20th century, ruled over some 250 tribes often by playing one off against the other.
So when independence was gained in October 1960, tribalism was a powerful force.
Nigerians who took over at independence were faced with the challenge of trying to form a sense of Nigerian belonging and identity. Most people could only relate to their ethnic groupings.
These divisions have remained within Nigerian society, intermittently causing outbreaks of deadly violence. Despite Nigeria's enormous oil reserves, its population is poor, collective victims of rampant corruption.
But at 50, and with an election just around the corner, can this country finally fulfill its potential and become the biggest African success story?…
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Labels: history, Nigeria, political culture
posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:23 AM
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