Abu Bakarr Bah is assistant professor of sociology at Northern Illinois University.

• Chapter 1 Introduction: Democracy, the Nation-State, and EthnicityChapter 2 The Genesis of Nigeria and the Elimination of the Common EnemyChapter 3 Ethnicity and the Breakdown of Democracy and the Nation-StateChapter 4 Nation-State Building in Post-Colonial NigeriaChapter 5 Varieties of Institutional Design in Post-Colonial NigeriaChapter 6 Conclusion: The Breakdown and Reconstitution of Democracy in a Post-Colonial Multiethnic Nation-State

An admirably informed and insightful analysis of the challenge posed to consolidation of a stable democratic order in Nigeria by its ethnic diversity. Abu Bakarr Bah, drawing largely on Nigerian sources, explores the paradox of the counter-productive shift to centralization in spite of the repeated constitutional affirmation of the federal character of this multi-ethnic state. The clear failure of authoritarian military rule richly documented by the author demonstrates the necessity of democratic rule, but Bah also shows the limits of democratic formulas thus far devised in containing explosive ethnic tensions.