A nation has been defined as a
stable community of people, formed based on a common language, territory,
economic life, ethnicity, and a common culture. The concept of nation building
means the efforts of newly independent countries notably the countries of
Africa to transform their territories into viable nations. These new states are
not nations ab initio but countries
with many nations embedded! Nation building therefore becomes necessary because
these countries had been carved out by colonial powers without regard to
ethnic, religious, or other boundaries.
Nation-building includes the
creation of national paraphernalia such as flags, anthems, national days,
national stadiums, national airlines and national languages. At a deeper level,
national identity needed to be deliberately constructed by molding different
ethnic groups into a nation. This is essential because as said earlier, the
colonialists usually brought many nations together to form a country. For
example, Nigeria has been described as a country comprising many nations.
Most times these new countries or
states are plagued by distrust among the member ethnic groups, conspiracy
theories and destructive rivalry between the ethnic groups within the state.
This sometimes resulted in their near-disintegration, such as the attempt by
Biafra to secede from Nigeria between 1967 and 1970. In Asia, the division of
British India into India and Pakistan was in part due to ethnic differences,
which might have been aided by other factors like colonial mismanagement of the
situation. The Rwandan genocide as well as the recurrent problems experienced
by the Sudan can also be related to a lack of ethnic, religious, or racial
cohesion within the state. To this day, the national question remains a topical
issue in Nigeria.
Obviously, the task of forming
states into nations is quite an onerous task. We shall in this series examine
the task of nation building using the above topic which will be treated under the following three sub-headings:
- The building blocks of a nation.
- Where lies peace and development?
- Love as the
basis of nationhood.
The following essays will address
the above-mentioned points. Enjoy…
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