THE CONCEPT OF NATIONAL IDENTITY AND HOW NIGERIAN IDENTITY CAN BE RESTORED IN EVERY ADMINISTRATION
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE NIGERIAN NATION AND THE CONCEPT OF NAITONAL IDENTITY
The term ‘nation’ is used to describe a country with the same descent language and history and united under one government. The national identity of any national are those identifiable characteristic and symbols that distinguish her from all other nations the world Nigeria as a nation is the most population country in the continent of Africa with over three hundred ethnic and linguistic groups; a geographical land mass of about 923,768 square kilometers and a bourgeoning population of about 120 million people.
The Nigeria land mass territorial waters and air space are infact the every many nations lying on the west coast Africa along the gulf of guinea, she is bounded on the west by republic of Benin to the East by Cameroom to the North by Nigeria republic and the South by the Atlantic ocean the country is also naturally endowed with enormous natural human and material resources endowments that are capable of making virtually any nation great. This with this the nation has enough capability to maintain and sustain her territorial integrity and indeed also her leadership in African.
Nigeria as a nation gained her independence from British colonialists. However, this independence was not achieved so easily rather it was achieved through lone years of colonial struggle by the Nigerian nationalists. They include Herberb Macaulay Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe Chief Obafemi Awolowo Abubakar Tafwaa Balewa Aminu Kanu and many others. Nigeria as one society come into formal being on January 1914 when the Northern and Southern provinces were united name Nigeria was alien because it was coined by Florashow, a non-Nigeria who had been a correspondent for London times Nigeria. But toddy it is generally assumed that the name was derived from the phrase ‘Niger Area’ which emphasized the proximity of the geographic entity to the Niger River.
Those who support the British creation Nigeria argue that the merging of divergent ethnic the merging of f\divergent ethnic groups the carrying out of the geographical land mass the institutionalization of governmental structure and the establishment of economic and social facilities for the whole country are the major factors that brought about the emergency of Nigerian nation.