A review by Noo Saro-Wiwa:
More hereThe Nigerian nation was a concept “as manifest an absurdity as that there is, or can be, a European nation at all events until the arrival of the Millennium.” Those were the words of Sir Hugh Clifford, the then Governor-General of Nigeria, to the Nigeria Council in 1920.
With such shaky foundations it is remarkable that Nigeria (a hotch-potch confederation comprising hundreds of ethnic groups and various religions) has managed to stay together, stuck in this existential quandary.
One year after Africa’s most populated country celebrated its centenary, Richard Bourne, former deputy editor of the London Evening Standard and former deputy director of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, has written a fascinating and wide-ranging book charting the birth of this nation and its struggle to remain “One Nigeria.”
