Is Nigeria a Nation-State or a Multinational State?

Nov 17, 2025 0

Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa, bordered by Niger in the north, Chad in the northeast, Cameroon in the east, and Benin in the west. Its southern coast lies on the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. Nigeria is a federal republic comprising 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, where its capital, Abuja, is located.

Understanding Nigeria's identity requires examining its historical context, diverse ethnic composition, and the challenges it faces in forging a unified national identity. The question of whether Nigeria is a nation-state or a multinational state is complex, with arguments supporting both perspectives.

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Defining Nation-State and Multinational State

Before delving into Nigeria's specific case, it is essential to define the terms "nation-state" and "multinational state."

A nation-state is ideally a sovereign entity where the state's territory aligns with the national territory, and the population shares a common national identity, culture, language, and history. The hegemony of the nation-state should ideally lead to each state having one nation.

A multinational state, on the other hand, is a sovereign entity that comprises two or more nations or states. Historical multinational states that have since split into multiple states include the Ottoman Empire, British India, Qing Empire, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, the United Arab Republic and Austria-Hungary.

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Nigeria: A Mosaic of Ethnic Nationalities

Nigeria presents a complex case due to its diverse ethnic composition. A multinational state, Nigeria is inhabited by more than 250 ethnic groups with over 500 distinct languages all identifying with a wide variety of cultures. The three largest ethnic groups are the Hausa-Fulani in the north, Yoruba in the west, and Igbo in the east; comprising over 60% of the total population.

The official language of Nigeria is English, chosen to facilitate linguistic unity at the national level, although in practice, Pidgin and the languages of the three largest ethnicities also serve as lingua francas in Nigerian society. Nigeria is divided roughly in half between Christians, who live mostly in the southern part of the country, and Muslims, who live mostly in the north.

The largest nation in Nigeria is the Hausa-Fulani, which accounts for 29 percent of the country's population. However, the group actually encompasses two distinct ethnicities: the Hausa and the Fulani (or Fulbe). While both ethnicities are found in large areas of West Africa, it is only in Nigeria that they are classified as a single ethnic group for political expediency. Nigeria is also made up of many other ethnic groups like the Yoruba, Igbo and Ibibio.

Prior to colonialism, they were not self identified as one ethnic nationality but are so today along with the three Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo which classification does carry between each group of who is part of and not part of the group aside from them Nigeria as about 250-500 other ethnic nationalities considered minorities with some large enough to control the outcomes of elections in states such as the Igala and Urhobo.

In Nigeria, there are over 500 languages spoken among more than 250 nations. The most populous nations are the Hausa 30%, Igbo 15%, and Yoruba 15%.

Ethnic groups in Nigeria (Source: Wikipedia)

Colonial Legacy and the Artificial Construct of Nigeria

There is no such thing as pre-colonial “Nigeria” as it is fundamentally a creation of British colonialism and therefore foreign to the people within it. The modern state originated with British colonialization in the 19th century, taking its present territorial shape with the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and the Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914.

Nigerian independence did not undo changes wrought by colonialism, but instead solidified them. In claiming African land, European explorers and conquerors would press on as far as they could overpower the natives, maintain supply lines behind their advances, and not impinge on other European claims.

The Nigerian state is run by a small cartel of self-serving elites. Its purpose is to provide a venue for their cooperation across religious and ethnic divisions, just enough to divvy up state oil revenue among themselves and their clients.

Challenges to Nation-Building

The tendency of Nigerian leaders to ignore the nature of Nigeria’s creation is mainly why the country remains troubled. The failure to acknowledge Nigeria’s birth defects and tortured history has led to the unwillingness to invest time and effort in nation-building.

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Truth be told, Nigeria is an artificial construct. But while the amalgamation in 1914 became a fait accompli, and while most of us want Nigeria to remain one, the truth is that the imperfect country that emerged from the contraption must be perfected and forged into an inclusive, fair and just nation if ethnic allegiances are to be suppressed and subsumed under a state with a sense of common purpose.

According to Professor Chris Brown of the London School of Economics argues in his book, ‘Political Restructuring in Europe’, that in multinational states, politics “at best takes the form of group bargaining and compromise and at worst degenerate into a struggle for domination”. Well, in Nigeria, politics is a struggle for domination, with entrenched oppositional identities.

Nigeria: A Prebendal Archipelago

Nigeria is not a conventional nation-state, even if that is how other foreign ministries and international organizations perceive it. It is not quite a nation because Nigerians are not united by language, religion, culture, or a common national story. It is not quite a state because the government is weak and getting weaker, and it fails to provide for the security of its citizens, the primary requirement of any state.

Instead, Ambassador Campbell characterizes Nigeria as a prebendal archipelago: prebendal because Nigeria’s corrupt elites appropriate public money for private purposes, but prevent the state from breaking apart due to ethnic and religious rivalries out of self-interest. Elites benefit from state preservation through access to revenue from state-owned oil, government contracts, and office, all of which require a formal state.

Simultaneously, the elites keep the government weak so they are not challenged, and government authority is restricted geographically to islands in a sea of ungoverned spaces-an archipelago. With this duality, it is a challenge for African democracies to build a mutually beneficial bilateral relationship.