“What a tragic and unfortunate foundation. The British colonialists were masters of divide and rule. The forced amalglmation of the southern and northern protectorates of Nigeria in 1914 was a Greek gift which was designed to fail and inplode after a period of time. Nigerians have done well to even hold it together for this long and that they have only been through one civil war. It could have been a lot worse than that given their internal differences but I really do fear for the future of the country. Can a forced marriage or an essentially unhappy artificial union last for 100 years? I doubt it. Nigerians have never known the benefits, beauty and power of true nationhood. They have never even been asked by anyone if they really wish to remain together in this sad union.
For the last 96 years they have just trudged along and managed and tolerated one another whilst constantly struggling and squabbling over the meagre resources of the state and over who will become President and where in the country that President will come from. It is a tragedy of monuemental proportions because they do not have the type of visionary leaders that can actually bring them together as one and enhance national unity. The British were very unkind indeed to have brought such an aberrant union of irreconcilable nationalities together into one forced and fixed artificial state. Nigeria as a nation was jinxed and indeed programmed to fail from the start. It was indeed a cruel joke and the only thing that has kept it together for so long is the oil of the Niger-Delta area and the genial nature and tremendous patience, faith, fortitude and resiliance of the Nigerian people themselves.”
______________ Gina Hall, August 2010.