Constructing Nigeria's national character post-independence

Abstract

Theories of nationalism and globalization assume that the concept of the nation exists and is enacted uniformly, a phenomenon that world polity theory explains through the existence of a world culture, a global collection of norms and models that shapes institutional character. World culture has been widely studied its impacts, but its origins and mechanisms of transmission remain relatively under-explored. Nigeria’s case may therefore provide useful insights into how global norms and models are introduced and enacted.

Fifteen ascension speeches delivered by Nigerian heads of state following Nigeria’s independence from the British Empire in 1960 were analyzed in order to assesses how the rhetoric of a newly recognized state engages with the world cultural model of the ‘nation.’

Analysis of the speeches revealed that speakers constructed the concept of the ‘nation’ primarily through defining it and performing it, and it also emerged that two broad categories of speaker – heads of civilian administrations and heads of military administrations – engaged with these concepts in different ways. Both civilian and military heads of state appeared able to engage with normative models of the nation, but civilian leaders appeared more willing to do so, while most military leaders leveraged only those aspects of the models that would legitimate their non-democratic control. The differences between military and civilian speeches may indicate that world culture is felt even when it is not wholly internalized, and that local resistance to world cultural norms must still recognize their hierarchy in order to maintain legitimacy before other actors.