Restoring Social Equilibrium in Nigeria Through Reconfiguration
PARTITION OR PERISH: RESTORING SOCIAL EQUILIBRIUM IN NIGERIA THROUGH RECONFIGURATION Okechukwu Oko" I. INTRODUCTION Ethnic identity is central to the life of Africans.' An individual's ethnic identity helps to shape perceptions, political behavior,2 and even personal relationships.3 Prospects of a better life, such as access to modem facilities, adequate health care, and state appointments, far too often depend on an African's ethnicity.4 Fear of exclusion from power, and by extension from the nation's wealth, is genuine and remains a major impetus for aggressive ethnic identification in most African countries.5 The fear of losing control of the machinery of government to another ethnic group reinforces the * LL.B. (Hons), LL.M. (University of Nigeria); LL.M., J.S.D. (Yale Law School); Assistant Professor, Southern University Law Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I gratefully acknowledge the useful comments and suggestions by Professor Q. Johnstone, Professor Emeritus, Yale Law School. I also wish to thank Triscilla Taylor, J.D. '98, and Lakoshia Roberts, J.D. '99, for their invaluable research assistance. 1. A. Selassie, Ethnic Identity and ConstituionalDesign for Africa, 29 STAN. J. INT'L L. 1, 12 (1992) ("Ethnicity tends to be more important to Africans than it is to individuals elsewhere. In much of Africa, ethnicity is the hub around which life revolves."); GERHARD MARE, ETlNICITY AND PoLmcs INSouTH AFRICA 2 (1993) ("Ethnic identity is similar to a story; it is a way of dealing with the present through a sense of identity rooted in the past."). 2. Rotimi Suberu, Comment, Federalism and Nigeria's Political Future, 87 AFR.
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