Proceedings of the 18th International Academic Conference, London

SOCIAL IDENTITY AND STATEHOOD: NIGERIA ON THE TRAIL OF FORMER SUDAN?

NASA'I MUHAMMAD GWADABE

Abstract:

This paper seeks to determine whether Nigeria as a heterogeneous political entity has the potentialities to continue surviving as a unified state; or it will split according to social identity lines into two different states. To ascertain one of these two assertions, a historical comparative analysis between Nigeria and former Sudan has been conducted to see if there is tendency that Nigeria will follow the footsteps of former Sudan by splitting into two different independent states. The choice of former Sudan to be compared with the Nigerian case is as a result of some social identity compositions the two countries have in common. Nigeria passed through colonialism, which led to the amalgamation of the North dominated Muslims, and the South dominated Christians, into a holistic colonial administrative entity in 1914; and both sides are ethnically divergent from one another. Former Sudan too has this North-South divide, which in most cases led to conflicts over control of economic resources and political struggle for power and influence; which eventually let to the split of the former Sudan into two sovereign states. In this paper, Social Identity Theory is used as framework for analysis.

Keywords: Conflicts, Nigeria, Social Identity, Sudan and Statehood

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2015.018.083

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