Obasanjo And The Nigerian's Nation-state Building

This article aims to explore the outstanding leader of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo has made an outstanding contribution to the nation-state building in Nigeria during his military government (1976-1979) and the civilian government of the Fourth Republic (1999-2007). This paper also analyzes the Obasanjo's constraints to build the nation-state in order to explore their experiences and lessons.Obasanjo military government's nation-state building mainly in political "government to the people". In 1976, Obasanjo served as Nigeria's military head. Took office, he declared that "government to the people". In 1979, Obasanjo promulgated the 1979 Constitution for the forthcoming civilian government of the Second Republic, the new constitution identified a number of basic political framework and principles for the civilian government. The same year in October, Obasanjo initiative hand over power to Shagari civilian government, truly realize the "government to the people" of the political transition. Olusegun Obasanjo's nation-state building in his military government laid the foundation for Nigeria's future political development.In 1999, Obasanjo has re-run for the presidency set up the "civilian government of the Fourth Republic" which full of hope. However, the new government's situation is not optimistic. These grim situation is the manifestation of the internal contradictions that nigeria is not mature enough to build the nation-state, And this issue can not be avoided for the Obasanjo Government. Faced with this situation, Obasanjo take political, economic and cultural aspects of a full-scale nation-state building which make country take a tremendous development. But Obasanjo's national state-building are also facing many problems.For Nigeria, the nation-state building exist opportunities and challenges.