Nigeria as a Geo-Political Entity and Sovereign Actor in International Relations: Interrogating Its Emergence

Abstract

Utilizing the Secondary Sources of information gathering as well as Content Analysis, this paper x-rayed and questioned the metamorphosis of Nigeria as a single geo-political entity and sovereign participant in International Relations. It ascertains among others that the pre-colonial ethnic nationalities (such as the Igbo, Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba societies) lived in a variety of autonomous politico-economic systems, that the present day geo-political entity called ‘Nigeria’ is neither a “Natural Evolution” nor a “willful or voluntary association” arrived at by the pre-colonial ethnic groups but an “artificial British colonial imposition or creation” culminating in the 1914 amalgamation of Northern and Southern protectorate; that even the nomenclature-‘Nigeria’ is of colonial origin; that with non-militant nationalism, Nigeria obtained her independence on October 1, 1960, but has, since then, at the standpoint of neo-colonialism, been participating peripherally in the relations among nations. The paper also proffers necessary panacea.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2016.v5n1p59