Minority Rights and the National Question in Nigeria

Uyilawa Usuanlele is Associate Professor of History at the State University of New York (SUNY) Oswego, USA.Bonny Ibhawoh is Professor of African History and Global Human Rights at McMaster University, Canada.

• 1. Introduction: Minorities and the National Question in Nigeria.- I. Minorities, Colonialism and Decolonization.- 2. Decolonization and the Minority Question in Nigeria: The Willink Commission Revisited.- 3. Historicizing Ethnic Groups’ Movements and State Creation in Nigeria, 1947-1967.- 4. Minority Groups: Bridgeheads in Nigerian Politics, 1950s – 1966.- II. Minorities and Postcolonial Politics.- 5. The Owegbe Cult: Political and Ethnic Rivalries in Early Post-Colonial Benin City.- 6. Midwest Region’s Non-Igbo Minorities Responses to Biafran Occupation and Federal Liberation in the Nigerian Civil War, 1967-1970.- 7. Ethnicity, War and Military Politics in Nigeria.- III. Minorities and Contemporary Nation-Building.- 8. Willink’s Report, Niger Delta Region and the Nigerian State Fifty Years After: Any Hope for the Minority?.- 9. National Integration, Citizenship, Political Participation and Democratic Stability in Nigeria.- 10. Ethnic Minorities and the Quest for National Integration in Nigeria: Federalism and State Creation to the Rescue.- 11. Religious Referent Power and Ethnic Militias in Nigeria: The Imperative for PaxNigeriana