Today 1st of October, 2023 marks Nigeria's 63rd Year of Independence. 63 years after been freed from colonial rule by Britain, Nigeria is indeed standing strong with a population of over 200 million people and an uninterrupted democracy that's already lasted for 24 years not a lot, but for Nigerians it's a milestone considering the 33 years spent in military rule. Now for most people the fore mentioned information is common but there is a much more popular question ask on every Independence Day celebration- how developed is the country since from 1960- it is also no secret that the answer to this question is much more negative than positive. But today we are not going to talk about the development status of the country but rather the most important and glaring issue the country has faced since 1960, "unity". In 1914 the British colonial administration led by Lord Lugard fused together three regions from Western Africa, the conservative Nothern Nigeria Prote
Nigeria became independent on October 1, 1960. The period between independence and when the first military coup d'etat first took place on Jan 15, 1966 is generally known as the first republic although the country only became an official republic on October 1, 1963. After an election on February 1961, the Cameroonians also voted to join Nigeria as they were originally administered separately. At independence, Nigeria had all the trappings of a democratic state and was indeed regarded as a beacon of hope for democracy. It had a federal constitution that guaranteed a large portion of autonomy to the three (later four) regions; it operated a parliamentary democracy modeled along British lines that emphasized majority rule; the constitution included an elaborate bill of rights; and, unlike other African states that adopted one-party systems immediately after independence, the country had a functional, albeit regionally based, multiparty system. These democratic trapping