The Politics of State Creation and Yoruba Nationalism in Western Nigeria.

Abstract

This paper examines how state creation in Nigeria, between 1967and 1997 has prevented pan-Yoruba nationalism from evolving to a coherent and unified political force in Nigeria. It is argued in the paper that despite the colonial and early Yoruba nationalists’ efforts at inventing pan-Yoruba nationalism among the Yoruba sub-ethnic groups in Westem Nigeria, the fragmentation of the region in the name of state creation did not allow the effort to yield into sustainable and formidable voice, which one can refer to as pan-Yoruba nationalism. Instead different sub-Yoruba groups, especially between 1967 and 1997, having secured their local autonomies through state creations. pursued their provincial nationalism instead of the regional (pan-Yoruba) nationalism which was the vision of the Yoniba colonial and early political elite in the early 19th and I-30th centuries. The paper further argues that between I967 and 1997 when the whole western Nigeria was broken into six states, the “emerging” Yoruba nation becomes problematic due to the fact that each of the states that. were created from the Yoruba region are now pursuing their local interests rather than the regional interests, which they pursued when they were together as Western Region. Thus, the proposition that administrative structure may weaken cohesion becomes a realityas shown in Yoruba nationalism.