Beyond Concerns about Policy Implementation

But beyond policy implementation, the trajectories of notions that have come to underline nation building processes in African states equally deserve consideration. Like Nigeria, most countries of the South are Imperial creations, products of Western Imperialism. Throughout colonialism, their formations have been underlined by western ideal conception of what constitutes a modern state. Building on the Western foundation, African states upon Independence, have sought to undertake nation building aimed at creating national identity especially in diverse ethnic societies (Brubaker, 1996; Anderson, 2006; Smith, 2009; Meredith, 2011). Nation building as earlier noted, has also meant the undertaking of developmental projects by these states to advance regional and economic development, and other developments be it in education, health, among others (Talentino, 2009, p. 381). But what is important and of concern to this thesis, is the kinds of notions that have underlined this process.

Imperial states: Western Modernist theories of nation building

Like most states in Africa, Nigeria’s conception as a state is essentially an Imperial project². Essentially, colonialism led to the creation of civic-territories as African states; and within these states are contained diverse ethnic groups without a common national identity. This has often led to fractures in the form of civil wars, ethnic clashes and other forms of socio-political unrests (Le Vine, 1967; Osaghae, 1998b; Collier, 2007; Dunn, 2009; Belloni, 2011; Zambakari, 2012;

2 In 1914 the Nigerian state was created by the British and by 1960 political Independence was granted to Nigeria. The history of British colonialism in Nigeria although stretches far back into the 19^th Century.

1914 was when the two Protectorates – Northern and Southern Protectorates which hitherto existed independently were amalgamated into one country as Nigeria by the British.

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Bandyopadhyay and Green, 2013). Post-Independent African states have thus desired to build nations to foster unity among its diverse ethnic societies. For example, Vale (2008, p. 161) illustrates a sense of this diversity using Nigeria.

Nigeria’s heterogeneous a n d fractious population has lived through eight military rulers and a thirty “month civil war during its first thirty-five years of independence….the schisms operate in various ways: there are tribal divisions among the Yoruba in the southwest, the lbo in the southeast, and the Hausa/Fulani in the north; there are religious differences between the predominantly Muslim north and the largely Christian and animist south (and tensions among Muslims as well).

There are socioeconomic differences between the south, influenced by Western style development, and the less" developed north; and there are further tensions between the three largest tribal groups, and the remaining multi-ethnic tribes constituting the over 250 in the country.

But of a major concern is the ways in which these states have approached this task of nation building. They have largely though, approached this using modernist theories on nationhood.

As discussed in chapter 2, these theories rather accentuate a more concern for Western conception of what constitutes a nation - an ideal modern nation. They define a nation especially on the basis of distinct territory ‘with definite centre and clear and recognised borders’; as ‘a legal political community, with a unified legal system and institutions in a given territory; as

‘collective autonomy institutionalised in a sovereign state for a given nation;’ as ‘membership in an inter-national’ system or community of nations’- among other features (Smith, 2005 p.

95). Smith (2005, p. 95) narrates how these features clearly seek an ideal Western conception of a nation.

Undoubtedly [modernism] provides a clear and coherent definition, but the combination of these features produce a pure or ideal type, not of the nation per se, but of a particular kind of nation, namely modern nation. This is a particular variant of the general type of nation, and it possesses its own peculiar features.

These derive from the fact that it is a product of a particular milieu: that of eighteenth century Western Europe and North America and of its rationalist, Enlightenment culture. This is the kind of nation imagined and created by a specific kind of nationalism, the civic-territorial kind…it flourished in a particular part of the world, namely Western Europe and North America.

But more than that, he goes on to reveal how these underpinnings orienting toward a Western audience, is experimented elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.

Attempts to create the Western kind of nation were made in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, whose very different conditions the civic-territorial concept had to be adapted(Smith, 2005, p. 95).

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The African states, desiring to create national identity among its diverse ethnic society, find these underpinnings of the Modernist theories quite attractive.³ Thus, most of them have opted to build nations on the basis of the civic-territories; the civic-territories bequeathed to them by the colonial empires as Independent states since these civic-territories possess some of the features that Modernist theories accentuate⁴. It is within these civic-territories, defining the boundaries of these states, that the states have used different strategies to pursue national identity which is expected to bring the diverse ethnic society together and evoke feelings of loyalty of one common nation (Brubaker,1996). Brubaker (1996) reports further that some have used administrative programmes that seek to create this while others explore a wide range of other strategies. For example,

National flags and anthems: their colours, shapes and patterns, and their verses and music, epitomize the special qualities of the nation and by their simple forms and rhythms aim to conjure a vivid sense of unique history and/or destiny among the designated population… what counts is the potency of the meanings conveyed by such signs to the members of the nation. The panoply of national symbols only serves to express, represent and reinforce the boundary definition of the nation, and to unite the members inside through a common imagery of shared memories, myths and values’ (Smith, 2001 p. 8)

Others have used capital relocation to promote national identity within the territorial nations.

Schartz (2003, p. 2) indeed, demonstrates that ‘capital relocation is one of the more innovative tools for building states and national identification’. He explains further.

In Europe capitals emerged as part and parcel of state and nation building, outside Europe capitals emerged after territoriality had been established. In the latter cases, the capital cities suited the functions of the state quite imperfectly.

With decolonization, post-colonial élites had to create and locate real capital cities—cities that controlled territory and promoted loyalty in the inhabitants just as their European counterparts had done… capital relocation in post-colonial contexts is distinctive in that it turns on nation and state-building imperatives (Schartz, 2003, p. 4).

3 These states somehow are against building national identity on the basis of what Geerz (1973) and others refer to as ethnic cleavages. They reckon it will be difficult to do so due to diversities of cultural differences from these diverse ethnic groups that make up these post-Independent states. Then again, there is the question of which cultural cleavages would national identity be based upon. Not handled properly, there is the fear of privileging one ethnic group over another and perhaps fanning the embers of ethnic tensions.

4 It must also be noted that the use of modernist theories to build territorial nations in Africa in a way coincides with the heydays of the dominance of these theories in the 1960s, when most of these countries were having political independence - thus influenced by these theories (Chapter 2).

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Imperial states: Western Modernist theories of planning to build national capitals

But again, to construct national identitiy in these capital cities, the states have had to rely on Western planning ideas. This comes mostly from modernist planning ideas such as master planning and underscored by the rational planning process. Chapter 2 traces the history of these kinds of planning in the South and their connection to national capital cities. Mainly, these Western planning knowledge are expected to help articulate the aspirations which these capital cities seek to achieve. In the case of Abuja, its history of master plan making spans over 3 decades. It is assumed that the plans beyond acting as the vehicle through which national identity will achieved, would equally help in the building of a modern capital city, cause regional and economic development, among other aspirations. But as can be seen in the case of Nigeria and most other contemporaries of Abuja, these kinds of planning with

But again this is not limited to only capital cities of the South but indeed across much of the South, where ‘the superimposition of Western urban planning and management models onto African contexts has attracted much criticism’ (Goodfellow, 2013, p. 84) for their failure to bring a desired result (see Mabogunje, 1990; Rakodi, 2001; Watson, 2003; Harrison, 2006b;

Miraftab, 2009; Myers, 2011 ; Todes, 2012; Kamete, 2013a).

Clearly, right from colonialism with the states conceived as Western Imperial states, post-Independence efforts at nation building have again been underscored by Western ideas. The states have tended to undergo through what I refer to as a triple-linear trajectory of development as shown in fig (5)

Source: Author, 2015.

Figure 5: Triple-linear trajectoy of Western ideas driving nation building in the South colonial

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Yet, the results of these endeavour as reflected in much of new capital cites of the South and the South generally, do not tend to be working. This again opens another opportunity deserving attention which the thesis questions too - beyond just exploring policy implementation and focusing only on the problems of implementation.