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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 May 2014
The colonial engraving of political frontiers on Africa has profoundly affected the history of the continent. A legacy of heterogeneity resulted from assembly of diverse environmental and social milieux within singular boundaries. Rather than lending a richness of experience and resources enhancing post-independence development, this diversity has led to well-known consequences of regional ethnic antagonism ranging from spirited competition to warfare. At the present time, African nations face persuasion from opposite poles. On the one hand, preservation of traditional ethnic diversity in art, clothing, dance, literature, and other aspects of cultural heritage are important to a consciousness of self-value and one's identity. On the other hand, nationalism, socio-economic unity, and spatial integration to meld diversity into a modern nation-state are manifest in establishment of official languages, educational systems, and national economic development plans. Whether these aspects of unity and diversity are necessarily antithetical is less important here than the question of continued attitudes of differentiation and the perpetuation of local and regional identity.
The consequences of diversity in Nigeria need little introduction. The Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria was assembled in 1914 from Lagos Colony and the former Lagos, Southern Nigerian, and Northern Nigerian Protectorates. Each of the predecessor territories had incorporated diverse ethnic groups, tribal institutions, and/or city-states, and each major region persisted separately as a province after this initial federation (Adejuyigbe, 1974). Federal level unity was limited to the European administration. Two forces characterized political momentum in pre-independence Nigeria: one was the drive for unity with the goal of eventual independence; the other was for greater local autonomy and the creation of smaller internal regional units. In 1939, for example, the Southern Federation was divided into what became the Eastern and Western Provinces. These provinces achieved internal self-government in 1957, followed by the North in 1959 (Prescott, 1959, 1966). National independence in 1960 did not quell determined efforts for separate recognition by various regional and ethnic groups, in one case resulting in the 1963 separation of the Mid-Western Region from the Western Region. Until 1968, however, the Eastern and Northern Regions remained unchanged. Widespread disruption following the military coup of 1966 led in 1967 to the Federal Military Government's creation of the contemporary pattern of twelve states (Figure 1). Although none of the states coincides perfectly with ethnic, linguistic, religious, or cultural boundaries in Nigeria, each state nevertheless offers greater local autonomy and recognition, especially to some of the less populous Nigerian ethnic groups.