HUNDRED YEARS OF BRITAIN‟S NIGERIA: A HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSES OF THE IDEA OF A "NON-NEGOTIABLE UNITY”

Abstract

Nigeria has a fundamental existential malady: the fact that she does not appear to meet the standard of a well-formed state (wfs). She, therefore, does not meet the logical standard of a well-formed formula (wff). The fear of failure for the frail and fragile formula of the Nigerian formulation is at the foundation of the frequently and fragrantly fronted mantra, “Nigeria‟s unity is non-negotiable”. This paper, therefore, analyzes the logic behind the idea of a “non-negotiable unity” and shows that it is an insult on the sensitivity of the peoples of the ethnic nationalities within the Nigerian geographical space whose sovereignties were imprisoned by the 1914 amalgamation. The paper equally observes the impossibility of a unity that is non-negotiable, and via the application of expository, historical and critical analysis, shows that it is (paradoxically) disunity that the powers that superintend over Nigeria‟s affairs end up engendering. The paper gives some socio-political, economic and religious reasons why some forces want the status quo to remain the same and proves historically that the lure for economic control and religious domination are the hub that turns the unity-at-all-cost agenda. The paper concludes by showing that unless we have a no-holds-barred, unconditionally-negotiated unity, the militancy, insurgence, demand for fiscal federalism, resource control, self determination, secession etc that have characterized the Nigerian state in the past decade or thereabout would most likely bring Africa‟s largest country to her feet. For man cannot be held for long against his will.