Minority Groups: Bridgeheads in Nigerian Politics, 1950s–1966

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges the Federation of Nigeria has faced since independence in October 1960 is the apparent contradiction in its geographical and demographical configuration, otherwise known as the “national question.” The British colonial administration fashioned an uneven and lopsided Nigeria Federation wherein majorities and minorities of different shades, categories and sizes emerged. While there seems to be no doubt that Nigeria’s ethnic minorities have been sidelined, oppressed, traumatized and brutalized in all facets of national life, available literature on Nigeria’s “national question” has overdramatized the gains of the majorities and the pains of the minorities. On the whole, scholarly attention has not been paid to the contributions of the so-called minorities to the emergence of national politics in Nigeria. This is the vacuum this chapter seeks to fill—it examines the contributions of ethnic minorities to the emergence and sustenance of national politics in Nigeria from the 1950s to 1966, when the Nigerian First Republic collapsed.