The Political Economy of Colonialism and Nation-Building in Nigeria

This chapter examines the political economy of colonialism and nation-building in Nigeria. It argues that the politics of difference, the binary of citizens and subject, the legacy of tribalism and ethnicity that colonialism reinforced and amplified continue to play out in the manner in which self-hate, Afrophobia, xenophobia, kenimanism and kenimatoism continue to define everyday relations, struggle for relevance, meaning and power in Africa. It adopts both historical and materialist political economy approaches in contextualising and situating the contemporary resurgence of centripetal and centrifugal forces in Nigeria. As well as the threats posed to the continued existence of the country as a single political entity. These forces are linked to the foundational errors, extractive logic and exploitative motif force of colonialism.