Study On The Role Of Political Elites In The Process Of Nigerian Nation-State Building (1960-2000)

Political elite play a unique and important role in the modernization process of developing countries.20 years after 1960, one year which was called "African Independent Year", the worldwide African research experts and scholars had done a number of studies through the two concepts "ruling elites" and "ruling class" in African history and social development. To understand and use these two concepts accurately was seen as prerequisite to understand most problems of economic development and social changes in African countries. Therefore, the political elite is undoubtedly a unique African studies analysis unit and breakthrough point.Firstly, this paper aims to study the formation, differentiation and combination of Nigerian political elites since independence, and also the status and social role of Nigerian political elites. Secondly, it will discuss the function and value of political elites in Nigerian Nation-State Building, also discuss the interactive relationship between political elites and Nation-State Building. Finally, this paper tries to answer how Nigerian political elites are shaped in the process of Nigerian Nation-State Building, as well as how political elites involve or promote their Nation-State Building.With the development of Nigeria nationalism movement, Nigerian political elites emerged. In this process, they have also transformed from tribal political elite to modern country elite. Even though as minority group of the whole political system, they never have single identity, but were formed with differentiation and combination, they could be further divided in view of the particularity of Nigerian culture, history and reality. According to the regional differences, they could be divided into:northern political elites and southern political elites; according to the administrative structure, they could be divided into:the federal level political elites, state political elites and local political elites; according to their relations with traditional society, they are divided into traditional political elites and modern political elite.To promote Nigeria Nation-state building process and to enhance a sense of nationhood of Nigerian masse, Nigerian political elite carried out a series of policy measures. These policy measures and reform practice basically could be divided as the following aspects:strengthening national sovereignty centralization; pushing national integration; promoting Nigerian unified national culture construction. To be specific, these measures include constitutional reforms, divide-states plan, federal characteristics, census, economic localization, unified national education and language reform, etc. Overall, these measure have facilitated the process of nation-state building, and these factors, such as tribalism, disputes between political parties, cultural differences, has been weakened. Successive Nigerian governments and political elites have obtained great achievements in seeking for country development model which truly meets African political reality features and cultural development. They have also made great contribution in safeguarding national political unity, promoting the integration between tribal cultures, pushing national culture homogeneous integration process.As a matter of fact, due to the particularity of its identity and irreplaceability of status, which make political elites play an important role in Nigerian politics, economy, culture, society, etc., their behavior can have significant and irreversible effect on Nigerian country. On the part of political elite individuals, it is hard to clarify their merits and misses in the process of nation-state building. But for the whole of Nigerian political elites, their historical evaluation should be affirmative and praisable. After all, from a historical perspective, the process of Nigerian nation-state building has never been terminated since its independence. In this sense, Nigeria political elite have participated and promoted the process of Nigerian nation-state building. Meanwhile, modern Nigerian country is still in the process of continuous development, the national integration and the state-building can't be completed in a day, it still be challenge for every Nigerian ruler and leader. We believe that only those who really understand the Nigerian history and reality, tradition and culture can drive this "Nigeria nation-state" ship flexibly and go ahead bravely.