Why three Major Ethnic Groups in Nigeria
It is evident to all that Nigeria has three major ethnic groups which is Hausa/Fulani, Yeruba and Igbo. The three major ethnic groups do no negate the fact that there are other ethic groups which is more than 450 that are called minor ethnic groups. Nonetheless, the question why aforementioned ethnic groups is called major and others minor, together with the reason why there cannot be unity within these three ethnic groups in Nigeria, is the bone of contention for this discuss.
To understand why we have three major ethnic groups in Nigeria, one ought to go back to the history of Nigeria from the colonial era till October 1st, 1960 which was the independence of Nigeria. First and foremost, the British took an interest in Nigeria because of its resources. It is pertinent to understand here that when we talk of NIGERIA during the colonial period we mean the protectorates: Lagos as the crown colony, the Northern and Southern protectorates representing the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria.
Nigeria with its natural resources and high population density was one of the more profitable and economic colonies. It also produced goods that were not in competition with the white settler agrarian colonies which meant that it could avoid the worst of excesses of the depression in the 1930s which hurt the standard commodoties more than the exotic products of Nigeria.
The British colonized Nigeria in 1884. It was established as a colony in 1884 at the Berlin conference where Africa was divided by European powers. This is because of the economic interest of the colonial masters, seeing that this part of the world is is blessed with good mineral resources. This was evident to them after the British government assumed direct control of the Royal Niger Company’s territories, the northern areas were renamed the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, and the land in the Niger delta and along the lower reaches of the river was added to the Niger Coast Protectorate, which was renamed the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria.
The Northern protectorate predominantly Muslim and the Southern protectorate largely Christians were aggressively "westernizing".
Lagos (representing Yeruba) remained the capital of the south, with Zungeru the new capital of the north. On January 1, 1914, following the recommendations of Sir Frederick Lugard, the two protectorates (Northern and Southern) were amalgamated to form the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria under a single governor-general resident in Lagos. Between 1919 and 1954 the title reverted to governor. The amalgamation was an administrative fiat of Nigeria by the British colonialist overlord for economic and administrative convenience particularly to control vast area as part of the governing policies. This amalgamation is the emerging of Hausa/Fulani Yeruba and Igbo.
The fact that the colonial system in what was to become Nigeria, as elsewhere, was essentially a commercial expedition meant that the outcome was the creation of corporate entities rather than nation states. Consequently, the Nigeria of today with these three major ethnic groups, is more or less an industrial project rather than a community of people with legitimate rights to determine their own local affairs.
In essence, the Nigerian people and their land were imagined not as people with rights to exist and function as a community or even nations. They were imagined as corporate money making entities whose bodies were enslaved and lands plundered. This system created a problem of unification in the “post-British” era.
People with different ideology, Religion, worldview and culture, being merged as one, seems like the mixture of fire and kerosene. They cannot be united, rather, it is either the fire and kerosene burns or you seperate them.
©️Abonyi, Hyginus Ebuka.
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