HISTORY AND NATION BUILDING: THE CHALLENGES OF NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE

Abstract

The role of History in the development of a nation is indispensable. A nation that plays with its past by neglecting its history or its past in the task of nation-building shall find it very difficult to attain nationhood. Neglecting our history implies ignorance of our collective past as a people in a nation. This paper focuses on the challenges of nation-building and the pivotal role of history in fostering nation cohesion in Nigeria. Nigeria has been struggling with the task of nationbuilding since independence in 1960. Unfortunately, six decades after independence, the spate of crisis and acrimony among the people have been provoking scholarly debates about the creation of the Nigerian entity. Finally, the historical methodology approach of enquiry was used in the
analysis of facts presented in this paper.