This book is the first attempt at a scholarly historicisation of the African crisis of development. It interrogates the problem of national integration within the context of ethno-religious and cultural pluralism. Drawing on the experiences of other organic “federal societies” across the globe, it explores similarities and differences in the tortuous trajectory of nation-building and presents exciting prospects for the resolution of the National Question. Here top scholars offer refreshing insight into the prospects for transforming Africa into the super-power of the third millennium. The breadth and depth of coverage and analytical rigor unite the essays, culminating in one the most comprehensive and authoritative treatment of the subject in recent years.

Compelling and indispensable, this work will be of interest to all scholars, teachers, and journalists in search of authentic and empirical materials on Africa and to a wide range of policymakers engaged in foreign policy toward Africa.

Contributors to the volume include Aaron T. Gana, Mahmood Mamdani, Samuel G. Egwu, Alexander Gboyega, Onje Gye-Wado, R. A. Akindele, Bishnu Mohapatra, J. Kayode Fayemi, Etannibi E. O. Alemika, Abubakar Momoh, Julius Ihonvbere, Pita Agbese, Pat Williams, and Charmaine Pereira

“In spite of the centralizing and unitarist tendencies of military rule, Nigeria is a country in which commitment to federalism within both the political class and civil society has remained very high. This book is an important collection of scholarly papers on the theory and practice of federalism in Nigeria, with comparative case studies on India, Yugoslavia, Ethiopia and other African countries, including the debate over the federal option in South Africa and Sudan. It is an outstanding contribution to the study of federalism as a conflict-preventing mode of governance and a system of power sharing among regional and nationality groups”.

– Professor Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja
Past President, African Association of PoliticalScience(AAPS) and African StudiesAssociation of the United States of America)

ABOUT THE EDITORS
AARON T. GANA is the executive director of African Centre for Democratic Governance, a research and advocacy organization in Abuja, Nigeria. He has taught at Ahmadu Bello University, the City University of New York, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Jos, where he was the chair of the political science department and dean of social sciences before retiring in 1996.

SAMUEL G. EGWU is currently a senior lecturer of political science at the University of Jos, Nigeria. He has been a visiting scholar at Northwestern University Program on African Studies, the Nordic African Institute in Upsala, Sweden, and the Port Harcourt-based Centre for Advanced Social Science. He has published extensively on the impact of structural adjustment and agrarian change in rural communities.

CATEGORY
Political Science/AFRICA