The European partition of Africa at the end of the nineteenth century produced enduring geo-political changes, with various ethnic groups permanently separated into different political formations. Borgu was just one of the affected areas, dived by the French and British in 1894 and 1898. Now independent after years of British rule, the Nigerian Borgu is here examined in thorough detail, from earliest times to now. The book focuses on the new emergence of a political identity in the Borgu, as well as its dynasties, economic growth and relations with the Yoruba.

An introduction to the politics and society of post-colonial Nigeria, highlighting the key themes of ethnicity, democracy, and development.

Moses E. Ochonu explores a rare system of colonialism in Middle Belt Nigeria, where the British outsourced the business of the empire to Hausa-Fulani subcolonials because they considered the area too uncivilized for Indirect Rule. Ochonu reveals that the outsiders ruled with an iron fist and imagined themselves as bearers of Muslim civilization rather than carriers of the white man's burden. Stressing that this type of Indirect Rule violated its primary rationale, Colonialism by Proxy traces contemporary violent struggles to the legacy of the dynamics of power and the charged atmosphere of religious difference.

In Religion and the Making of Nigeria, Olufemi Vaughan examines how Christian, Muslim, and indigenous religious structures have provided the essential social and ideological frameworks for the construction of contemporary Nigeria. Using a wealth of archival sources and extensive Africanist scholarship, Vaughan traces Nigeria’s social, religious, and political history from the early nineteenth century to the present. During the nineteenth century, the historic Sokoto Jihad in today’s northern Nigeria and the Christian missionary movement in what is now southwestern Nigeria provided the frameworks for ethno-religious divisions in colonial society. Following Nigeria’s independence from Britain in 1960, Christian-Muslim tensions became manifest in regional and religious conflicts over the expansion of sharia, in fierce competition among political elites for state power, and in the rise of Boko Haram. These tensions are not simply conflicts over religious beliefs, ethnicity, and regionalism; they represent structural imbalances founded on the religious divisions forged under colonial rule.

Nigeria¿s future as a unified state is in jeopardy. Those who make or execute U.S. policy will find it difficult to advance U.S. interests in Africa without an understanding of the pressures that tear and bind Nigeria. Despite this, the centrifugal forces that tear at the country and the centripetal forces that have kept it whole are not well understood and rarely examined. After establishing Nigeria¿s importance to the United State as a cohesive and functioning state, this monograph examines the historic, religious, cultural, political, physical, demographic, and economic factors that will determine Nigeria¿s fate. It identifies the specific fault lines along which Nigeria may divide. It concludes with practical policy recommendations for the United States to support Nigerians in their efforts to maintain a functioning and integrated state, and, by so doing, advance U.S. interests.

The political economy problems of Nigeria, the root cause for ethnic, religious, political and economic strife, can be in part addressed indirectly through focused contributions by the U.S. military, especially if regionally aligned units are more thoroughly employed.

In this book, Dr. Olufemi Oluniyi takes a fresh look at Muslim-Christian violence which has become synonymous with the name of Northern Nigeria. It is fresh in the sense that he takes a historical approach to the problem, dating back to the founding of Northern Nigeria. This approach inevitably brings to the fore the culpability of the colonial government for the institutionalisation of inequality and for pursuing policies which are tantamount to planting the seeds of religious violence for post-independence fruitage and harvest. By highlighting the role of the colonial administration, he is by no means suggesting that post-independence perpetrators of violence are less culpable for their crimes against humanity. Rather, the highlight is meant to raise awareness of what was really going on, despite official cover-up.

This book analyzes how neo-liberal state economic policies and political reforms have impacted on state-society relations, economic and class configurations, social composition of power, social welfare and cohesion in post-military Nigeria; and points to key policy recommendations that may be crucial in redirecting the future of the country.