Post-Colonial Nigeria Political History - Essay Example

Post-Colonial Nigeria Political History Like several other Asian and African countries, the western African state of Nigeria also won freedom from the British imperialism in the aftermath of WWII in 1960 after a long struggle the indigenous people made against the foreign rule in order to re-take the administration from the British into their own hands for the implementation of law on the basis of their cultural, religious and traditional ideologies. Although the country appeared to be successful in establishing their government the same year they won freedom from the foreign rule, yet the country underwent all the problems and disturbances an overwhelming majority of the third world experienced in their post-colonial years. Consequently, Nigeria not only remained dependent of the United Kingdom several years after the winning of freedom from the latter, but also turned out to be victim of ethno-racial and religious conflicts after obtaining the status of a sovereign state. Hence, wide scale corruption, red-tapism, nepotism, hoarding, lawlessness, unemployment and poverty remained the most dominant challenges faced by the country during its post colonial years till today (Ihuegbu 2002). Like all the newly liberated nations on the map of the globe, Nigeria also experienced ethnic, racial, religious, regional and class discrimination in the country, where the communities belonging to eastern, western and northern parts of the vast country appeared to be determined to dominate over other ethnic and regional communities in one way or the other. Hence, Nigeria became the prey to civil war, and remained as the crowd of people after half century of breaking the shackles of slavery, which could not be stated as a nation in the real sense of the world. A coalition alliance under the title Nigerian People’s Congress came at the helm of the governmental affairs, through elections, in order to establish a conservative Islamic political system in the country. Since both Christian and Muslim communities are in majority in the country, the prominent leader of Christian-dominated National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) Nnamdi Azikiwe (1904-1996) was nominated to be the first Governor General of Nigeria, who belonged to the majority Igbo ethnic group of Nigeria (Rustad 2008). Since the northern Yoruba community, having significant proportion in the national population, was not invited to participate in national affairs, they chose to form opposition alliance Action Group under the leadership of Obafemi Awolowo. Somehow, the differences among the Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo ethnic tribes turned into political rivalries, where all these regional groups were determined to obtain political supremacy in order to enforce the system of their choice subsequently. Since the unrest was in vogue in different parts of the country, where the communities were at daggers drawn in Nigeria, a plebiscite was held in 1961 in order to decide the fate of southerner and northern Cameroon, where the former voted in favor of Cameroon, while the latter decided to remain as an inevitable part of Nigeria (Rustad 2012). However, instead of introducing improvements in political structure, the country was dragged to a long lasting bloody civil war, called Nigeria-Brafran War (1967-70), which paved the way towards the further division of the country into sects and factions causing heavy losses in men and material subsequently. The military personnel also added their share in bringing an end to the civilian government with the alleged allegations of corruption and favoritism is every area of the state. Like other third world countries of Asia and Africa, Nigeria also fell into the hands of the military regime during early 1970s, which ended in 1979, resulting in the ruination of the social and economic fabrics of the country. The military ruler General Obasanjo assured the peaceful transfer of power to the elected civilian leader Shehu Shagari. Somehow, the democratic governments had to make very hard efforts in order to bring the ethno-racial and religious differences to their end projected and promoted by the military regimes. Instead of observing dedication and reformative steps for the welfare of the population, the democratic government failed to deliver any positive and reformative activity to the masses (Rafiu et al., 8-9). As a result, Muhammadu Buhari took over the reigns of the government by toppling the democratic government. The Nigerians demonstrated their willingness for the same because of the high corruption allegations raised against the Shagari government. Buhari had attempted to introduce some immediate steps for combating with corruption; however, his regime was overthrown by another coup d’ etat in 1985 resulting into the beginning of a powerful military regime under Nigerian Army Chief Ibrahim Babangida. The Babangida regime announced severe punishments to its political opponents, and made solid steps towards the economic stability of the country. He also made efforts for leading Nigeria towards obtaining a respectable status in the international arena. Nevertheless, Babangida is notorious for introducing the most corrupt socio-political system in the history of Nigeria. Like all other military dictators of the third world countries, General Babangida also resisted relinquishing from his political position, though the people had elected his political opponents in the 1993 general elections. Thus, chaos and anarchy got its way everywhere, which resulted into the establishment of an interim government with Babangida’s nominee Ernest Shonekan (Ihuegbu 5). Apparently, it was a peaceful transfer of power; nevertheless, it was replaced by another coup d’ etat in late 1993 under General Sani Abacha, which lasted for five long years till 1998, leaving more stories of corruption, cruelties and misuse of public offices in its wake. General Abubakar took over as new head of state, who administered free and fair general elections in the country in 1999, and transferred the power to the leader of majority elected coalition Obasanjo (Rafiu et al., 17). President Obasanjo ruled over the country for eight years, and laid indelible imprints of his rule on the politics of the country. However, the country still lacked political and economic stability. Obasanjo government held elections in Nigeria in 2007, which brought Peoples Democratic Party to power subsequently (Rustad 2012). Umaru Yar’Adua was elected as the new head, and ruled over the country till his death in 2010, and was replaced by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. President Jonathan was re-elected in 2011 elections, and still serves as the civilian head of the state. By closely examining and analyzing the political history of Nigeria, it becomes evident that the country had remained the playground of the experiments of dictators and corrupt civilian governments on the one hand, and the victim of corruption, nepotism, conspiracies and intrigues on the other, since its winning freedom from the United Kingdom in October 1960. Somehow, it has also made tremendous progress amidst such unstable political and economic situation, and has been one of the fastest developing economies of central and western Africa. Nevertheless, political stability and electing of honest and dauntless leadership is highly necessary for the smooth running of the political and economic set up of Nigeria. Works Cited Ihuegbu, Nnamdi “Colonialism and Independence: Nigeria as a Case Study” 2002 1-8 Retrieved from Accessed on November 16 2012 Rafiu, Olaopa Olawale Rafiu, Owolabi, Akinola & Folasayo, Salaam Najeem “The Nigerian state, political assassination and democratic consolidation: A historical exploration” African Journal of Political Science and International Relations Vol. 3 (2) April 2009 156-164, Available at Accessed on November 16 2012 Rustad, Siri Aas “Power-sharing and Conflict in Nigeria: Power-sharing Agreements, Negotiations and Peace Processes” Center for the Study of Civil War PRIO 2008 1-21 Retrieved from Accessed on November 16 2012 Read More