National Identity and Crisis of Integration in Multi-Ethnic Nigeria: An Existentialist Perspective

Abstract

One would expect Nigeria after attaining a century old as a nation state on January 2014 to have overcome the problem of national identity and crisis of integration resulting from its multiethnic composition, but recent events have revealed that this desired status is yet to be fully attained. In fact, there have been continuous agitation by various ethnic nationalities ranging from militancy in the Niger Delta south region which has transformed into oil bunkering, armed robbery and organized kidnapping spreading to the southeastern and western part of the country; to various forms of religious fanaticism in the northeastern axis which recently metamorphoses into terrorism and kidnapping as socio-political characteristic of the present Nigeria society, the question that arises is how far Nigeria as a nation state has put itself on the part of achieving national identity and integration of its multiethnic nationalities into a united nation state. Through the methodological approach of historico-logical analysis of identified factors militating against the above objective, this article will proffer the existentialist principle of inter-subjectivity predicated on some tested democratic values such as rule of law, justice, equality, fairness and freedom as panacea for attaining national identity and resolving crisis of integration in Nigeria.