Nigeria, one of the nations whose economy is heavily depended on oil, lies in the west of Africa. Nigeria is a country of multi ethnicity with around 120 million populations. Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo are the three dominant groups from over 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria. Oil is one of the major cause factors which pushed Nigeria towards its disintegration causing 30-month long civil war till 1970 (Oby, 2005: 111). Nigeria was colonized by Britain in 1914 and was granted full independence in 1960 (Burnell, 2000). Starting from 1947, many colonized countries were granted independence. Many of these countries which went through the experience of colonization had greater hope after the end of colonial rule. Nevertheless, the high hope did not last long in many of these countries (William and Chrisman, 1993). Soon after the decolonization, many of them experienced internal conflicts of war, violence and dispute. Nigeria could not remain apart from this hard reality. After six years of independence, Nigeria underwent “successive military coups in 1966 that claimed between one and three million lives” (Burnell, 2007: 45). The Nigerian civil war which is also known as ‘Biafran War’ started in July 2, 1967 and ended in January 15, 1970 (Atofarati, 1992). The civil war was between “the political elite of the secessionist Biafra [Easter region] and the rest of Nigeria [Northern, Western and Midwestern regions] (Oby, 2005: 1). It is said that after Nigeria gained independence from Britain, the country “has been torn apart by wars, violence and ethnic conflict” (Hughes, 2008). Today the country is no more into war like before in 1967 albeit there are many forms of conflict left in the country which has their original roots from the British colonial rule (Hughes, 2008). Therefore, Nigeria’s case after independence can also be looked through the perspective of Post-colonialism which basically shows “the social and cultural effects of colonization” (Mansur, 2000). Post-colonialism is a “theoretical approach which focuses on the direct effects and aftermaths of colonization” (Gurukkal, 2002). Post-colonial theory tries to scrutinize the continuing “impact that colonialism has on post-colonial development” (Burnell, 2007: 38). Some of the outcomes, seen in Post-colonial Nigeria, such as disintegration in the national unity, uncertainty towards authority and exploitation of resources with alienation of people are discussed below through Post-colonial facets.
One of the aspects of Post-colonialism is defilement in culture, politic and economic activity of the colonized nation leading to national disintegration (Mansur, 2000). Before Nigeria was colonized, the country “Nigeria” did not exist at all. People from various backgrounds from different languages, cultures and political practices were all put together by the colonizer to form an artificial nation with random sketches of borders calling them Nigerians (Hughes, 2008). It was never taken into consideration that “a nation can not be created by the simple drawing of lines on a map” (Hughes, 2008). Nigeria being the country with many ethnic groups has always been a heterogeneous country, for having people from different ethnicity and tribes but the colonizer’s major interest was on the natural resources of Nigeria and not in the national integration. Abu Bakarr (2004) in his article Approaches to Nation Building in Post-colonial Nigeria states that “Peace and unity without proper political representation from all the ethnic groups as well as the fair and equitable distribution of the national resources” would hardly be possible in nation building. Nationalism in Nigeria grew on the basis of ethnic and tribal rather than national interest. Therefore, true unity among the people in Nigeria was hardly made possible (Atofarati, 1992). Therefore, we can sum up that the British colonization left Nigeria with socio-cultural disparities.
Another aspect of Post-colonialism is ‘ambivalence towards authority’ (Mansur, 2000). Nigeria, after being independent, went through several military rules with instability (Hughes 2008). The British government imposed the “Westminster style government system” to rule Nigeria which was completely different from the government system which many ethnic groups were not used to with (Hughes, 2008). Soon after the independence, Nigeria could not deal with all the ethnic groups as a common interest. Because of this situation, the seeds of disorder were sown in the region with division within ethnic groups (Hughes, 2008). Instead of integration, the British rather “created division and distrust among Nigerians through indirect rule and different administrative policies towards Northern and Southern Nigeria” since newly independent Nigeria lacked well and long term development vision of nationhood (Burnell, 2007: 118). Ignoring the very fact of the governing system of all those ethnic groups, the Britain regulated their own model of governance which did not match with the way of life of the native people in Nigeria. The implemented system could not play a vital role in bringing all the ethnic groups together (Hughes, 2008). “It is said that British created a country called Nigeria but not a nation” (Ihueghu). Though Nigeria had been a separate independent state, it is still heavily influenced by the British. Burnell claims that “The European export of the idea of the mono-cultural nation-state left most post-colonial states with the dilemma of how to reconcile this with ethnically and religiously plural societies” (2007: 47). According to Louise Anten (2009:16) “Most of the fragile states are post-colonial state.” She further, in her paper, Strengthening Governance in Post-colonial Fragile States, mentions that if the state is imposed upon the will of “colonial authority” then this leads to weak political system with a “dominant political elite and permanent exclusion of certain groups (Anten 2009: 16). The very ideas of Anten and Burnell suit with Nigeria’s political system. Because of this, the power authority and legitimacy in Nigeria has always been a question mark.
The third impact of colonization is on natural resources and native people. The colonizers exploit the natural resources of the colonized lands massively causing exhaustive damage economically. Nigeria stands fifth oil exporting country in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and also the fifth largest oil-exporting country to the US. But to its dismay, oil has been the major cause of the conflict in the country (Oyefusi, 2007). Oil in Nigeria never led the Nigerian to prosperity but instead it left poverty, impoverishment and violence. It was the British government which granted “the monopoly of oil concessions in Nigeria to British and British-allied capital” (Oby, 2005: 116). Multinational oil corporations like shell made big business from the production of oil from the oil resources of the Niger Delta. Handful of rich people in the power and elite groups which consist of politicians and ex-military personnel on manipulate ethnicity to promote conflict and crises for the sake of their own benefits (Oby, 2005: 120). After Nigeria became oil exporting nation, oil became “95 percent of its export earning and 80 percent of the revenues of the state” (Oby, 2005: 117). Nigeria completely abandoned the agricultural based cash crop and depended on oil export which left a long term effect in the Nigerian society (Oby, 2005: 118). Now it imports more food than it produces (O’Neill, 2009). O’Neill in his article calls the today’s Niger Delta a “Curse of the Black Gold” where “Groups of hungry, half-naked children and sullen, idle adults wander dirt paths. There is no electricity, no clean water, no medicine, no schools” (2009). It is a catastrophe to see the “gas stations which are often closed for want of oil supply” (O’Neill, 2009) in the country which supplies oil to many of the nations through Multinational Corporation. These make many sensible people to think that Nigeria would be a better off without oil. Therefore, colonization in Nigeria left with exploitation in natural resources as well as native people.
Viewing through the perspective of Post-colonialism, many negative impacts can be traced out in Nigeria which rooted with colonialism. It would have been better for Nigeria if there were no oil resources since oil brought division rather than unity among the people in Nigeria. Also, the powerful countries like Britain would not have colonized countries like Nigeria if it did not posses natural resources. Most of the countries in the past were colonized for the benefit of natural resources. Though there are many socio-economic and political consequences of colonialism, cultural defilement, misuse of authority and exploitation of natural resources and native people can not be denied.
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