Imagining the Nigerian Nation Through the West African Pilot 1960-1966
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University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 8-2016 Imagining the Nigerian nation through the West African pilot 1960-1966. David Zintak Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Part of the African Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Zintak, David, "Imagining the Nigerian nation through the West African pilot 1960-1966." (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2494. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/2494 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. IMAGINING THE NIGERIAN NATION THROUGH THE WEST AFRICAN PILOT 1960-1966 By David Zintak B.A., Loras College A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Louisville In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts In Pan-African Studies Department of Pan African Studies University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky August 2016 Copyright 2016 by David Zintak All Rights Reserved IMAGINING THE NIGERIAN NATION THROUGH THE WEST AFRICAN PILOT 1960-1966 By David Zintak B.A., Loras College A Thesis Approved on July 13, 2016 by the following Thesis Committee: __________________________________ Dr. Theresa Rajack-Talley (Co-chair) __________________________________ Dr. Tyler Fleming (Co-chair) __________________________________ Dr. Mawuena Lo ii DEDICATION This is dedicated my mother and father for whom without, this thesis would never have been started nor completed. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my parents for helping me along my scholarly journey. Next, I thank my professors whom have stood by me through the good times and bad. I would especially like to thank Dr. Fleming, Dr. Logan and Dr. Rajack-Talley. Serving on my committee was not easy, and I appreciate all the help each one of you has provided me along the way. iv ABSTRACT IMAGINING THE NIGERIAN NATION THROUGH THE WEST AFRICAN PILOT 1960-1966 By David Zintak August 5, 2016 The independence era in Nigeria, ushered in after 1960 and ending in 1966 with the fall of the civilian-elected government in a military coup, was a pivotal juncture in the construction and imagining of the nation and the citizen. Ideas of what a citizen should act like, dress like, and what mindsets were proper to hold were discussed frequently in the media. One critically important media outlet during the independence era was the West African Pilot. The Pilot is generally considered an influential nationalist publication during and prior to this era. This thesis explores how Nigeria was imagined through the Pilot. It focuses on the complexities of citizenship which were discussed through the paper’s articles, columns, and advertisements, with due attention to the products the advertisements attempted to sell. My argument contests the homogeneous notion claiming that the Pilot only contributed to the hardening of ethnic identities and allegiances leading into the civil war in 1967. Instead, the articles, columns, and advertisements in the Pilot suggest multiple v Imaginings of citizenship not solely based on ethnicity, but also gender and consumerism. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………….iv Abstract……………………………………………………………………………v List of Figures…………………………………………………………………...viii I. Introduction……………………………………………………………........1 II. Political Citizenship 1960-1966……………………………………………15 III. Independence Products and the New Nigerian Citizen……………………..64 IV. Women, Beauty, Food, and Citizenship in the West African Pilot….……...110 Conclusion………………………………………………………………….......179 References………………………………………………………………………180 Curriculum Vitae………………………………………………………...……..185 vii LIST OF FIGURES “Mass Demonstration at Isalegangan: Govt. Urged...” ………………………………...35 NASO Brothers…………………………………………………………………………..98 viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The seven year period between official independence and the onset of civil war marks an important era in Nigerian history. This era, commencing in 1960 and ending in 1967, saw official end of British colonialism, the beginning of the Nigerian citizen, the birth of Nigeria’s first republic in 1963, and the end of the civilian government after military coups in 1966. These turbulent years were initially characterized by a jubilant mentality stemming from the downfall of the empire. However, the mood quickly soured after the birth of the republic, as the civilian government settled and seemingly continued inherited colonial mentalities of exploitation, corruption, and nepotism. According to Frederick Cooper, this continuance of colonial legacies among the ruling elites was common throughout post-colonial Africa.1 Nigerian elites ostensibly followed along the same exploitative path, as many government officials looted the literal and figurative coffers in order to purchase luxury homes and cars. Moreover, they bullied voters either through strong arm-tactics or through softer political maneuvers centered on ethnic affiliations, and seemingly catered to international concerns while ignoring their Nigerian constituency. Following independence, the initial excitement and hope faded away, and eventually the country erupted into an ethnic-fueled conflict in which Biafra attempted to secede from Nigeria. The outbreak of civil war outwardly suggests the failure of the 1 Frederick Cooper. Africa Since 1940: The Past of the Present. (Cambridge University Press, 2002), 2-4. 1 national project, which had focused, at least rhetorically, on the unification of Nigeria and the Nigerian people. Yet despite the deemed failure of the civilian and military governments to unite the people—which as Toyin Falola generally explains occurred as a result of ethnic politics—the era is historically important in terms of the formation and solidification of citizenship and the Nigerian citizen’s identities. With the onset of official independence, the national citizen was officially born in a political sense. For the first time, Nigerians were officially citizens of Nigeria; they were no longer subjects of the British Empire, nor citizens of Britain or the British Commonwealth. These changes did not figuratively occur over-night, although it is generally clear that the country was not completely prepared for independence in terms of Nigerian national identity formation as is suggested by the breakdown of the civilian government in 1966. Moreover, despite official political independence, Nigerian historians seemingly unanimously agree that the country was not politically, socially, or economically fully independent from Britain.2 Therefore, the infant country’s leaders were not prepared for the political, social, and economic complexities which arose from official withdrawal from the empire. The British left Nigeria with the legacy of colonial exploitation, which required immediate and intense attention by post-colonial Nigerian leaders. It is not a logical stretch to understand much of the country’s post-colonial failures through the lens of British political, social, and economic hangovers. 2 See the following: Adebayo Oyebade. The Transformation of Nigeria: Essays in Honor of Toyin Falola. (Trenton: Africa World Press, 2002); James Coleman, Nigeria: Background to Nationalism. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1958), 145. For Africa in general see: Frederick Cooper. Africa Since 1940: The Past of the Present. (Cambridge University Press, 2002). 2 These years saw the emergence of the Nigerian citizen, yet simultaneously ushered in questions of whom was the Nigerian citizen. Although this question had begun to circulate prior to independence, especially after 1957, the year Nigeria became self-governed, through nationalist driven media outlets, the hunt for solutions to this question intensified with political independence. As, Toyin Falola and Matthew Heaton highlight in A History of Nigeria, following independence, the search for a Nigerian nationalism, Nigerian culture, and a Nigerian identity intensified.3 Elites and the government sought the formation of a national cultural identity in order for the country to become unified and socially independent. This question was responded to by numerous different groups and people whom provided various suggestions as to how to unify, if to unify, or the positives and negatives to unification attempts or lack of attempts. The British left-over legacies are numerous and have been explored by multiple scholars of Nigerian history. First, the British left a country, which consisted of many different group affiliations and identities, previously unified through and against British exploitation, to be ruled as a unified entity. The anti-colonial sentiment which unified the population ostensibly died when the country became officially independent. This left Nigeria in an urgent political and social situation with potential for group division because the ideology which had generally bound many of the people together had been hypothetically fulfilled. This dissolution of the identity glue, left politicians and elites the monumental task of creating a Nigerian citizen and Nigerian