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Political Transition, Ethnoregionalism, and the “Power Shift” Debate in Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

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Extract

The Nigerian military has been engaged in a program of transition to democratic rule since 1985. The country’s military rulers developed “transition politics” into a strategy of transitions without end, a ruse to prevent democratization. Hopefully, Nigeria is now at the crossroads. One of the most important issues posed in the transition has been the ethnoregional one: Would entrenched ethnoregional forces allow political power to shift from the North to the South? It is not a new question in Nigerian transition politics.

Two broad issues surface when ethnoregional domination emerges as a political issue in Nigeria: control of political power and its instruments, such as the armed forces and the judiciary; and control of economic power and resources.

Type
Part 1
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1999 

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References

Notes

1. Oyediran, Oyeleye, “Transition Without End: From Hope to Despair,” Conference on Dilemmas of Democracy in Nigeria, University of Wisconsin, November 1995 Google Scholar.

2. Tamuno, T.N., Peace and Violence in Nigeria (Nigeria Since Independence History Project, Ibadan, 1991)Google Scholar.

3. Bello, Ahmadu, My Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962), 132 Google Scholar

4. Tamuno, Peace and Violence, 402-107.

5. Ibid., 430.

6. Ibid., 431-432.

7. Yahaya, Dahiru, Keynote Address Kano State Constitutional Conference Workshop, Kano, Nigeria, April 1994)Google Scholar.

8. Ado Gwaram, “The Myth of Quota System and the Injustices in Nigeria’s Public Services,” ibid.

9. Ibrahim Mu’azzam, “Voting Pattern and the Myth of Hausa-Fulani Political Domination,” ibid.

10. Nwankwo, Arthur, The Igbo Leadership and the Future of Nigeria (Enugu: Fourth Dimension Press, 1985), 9 Google Scholar.

11. Ibid., 21.

12. Okoye, M., Storms on the Niger (Enugu: Eastern Nigerian Publishing Corp., 1964), 117 Google Scholar.

13. Ejionye, U.A., The Abia Dream: Selected Speeches of O. Onu. (Ibadan: Spectrum, 1993), 430 Google Scholar.

14. Abubakar Jika, Weekly Trust, December 2, 1999.