Border relations in Africa and the Impact on NationBuilding: A study of Nigeria and Her Limitrophe Neighbours Since the 1960s

Abstract

Across Africa, and especially in countries of heterogeneous composition and religious differences, forging a nation has been a major challenge to nation-building in the continent. Similarly, the colonial boundaries inherited by African states from their respective colonial masters at independence have equally frustrated nation-building efforts in different parts of the continent. For instance, there is ample evidence of irredentism and boundary disputes arising from the manner in which the countries were partitioned in Berlin Germany in 1884/1885. Post-independence Africa’s international boundaries, to a large extent, have served as a barrier to socio-economic cooperation and nation-building among shared ethnic groups abutting both sides of the international boundaries across the length and breadth of the continent. By foregrounding these issues, this paper examines the efforts by Nigeria and her immediate neighbours to promote nation-building through trans-border relations programmes. It interrogates the extent to which such programmes have encouraged nation-building across borders.