"THE THREE HUMAN FORCES THAT KEPT NIGERIA TOGETHER FOR A CENTURY"

Nigeria was founded as a country on January 1, 1914 when the then Governor General Lord Lugard of the British Northern protectorate was directed from the colonial office in London to amalgamate the Northern and Southern protectorates together. This amalgamation officially forced more than 386 ethnic nationalities with diverse religious faiths, varied cultural identities and unique histories that ran separately for centuries as autonomous caliphates, kingdoms and empires to begin to live together under one nation without any political inputs from these ethnic groups.

How did Nigeria as a nation survive her first century despite all her enormous domestic crises for decades including a brutal civil war that claimed the life of over one million Nigerians? Many Nigerians believe religiously that Nigeria's continuos survival as a nation was totally divine in nature and this is beyond any human comprehension, knowledge and understanding. But the truth about the continuous existence of the Nigerian nation can be directly linked to the three unique human forces and strategies at the different times in the life of that nation for the last 100 years. These three human forces are the British colonial masters, the Nigerian military and her politicians.

The British colonial masters founded Nigeria as a nation primarily for their own economic benefits and kept it intact or together from 1914 to 1960 by using the diabolically political strategy of divide and rule. The Northern protectorate before the amalgamation of 1914 was no longer economically viable with its yearly budget deficits that continued at the onset of the 19th century until its amalgamation with the Southern protectorate in 1914. On the other hand, the Southern protectorate continued to enjoy budget surplus at the same period of time. For economic reason, the British colonial masters amalgamated the two protectorates together so that the excess money from the South can take care of the lack in the North. The divide and rule did not allow Nigerians to be united with one voice easily, but were divided as a country along deeply visible ethnic, religious and geopolitical lines under the British rule of the pre-independent Nigeria.

The Nigerian military is the second human force that played a major role in the keeping of the Nigerian nation intact in her first 100 years of existence. The military came into the governance of Nigeria in 1966 via a coup that overthrew the civilian government. They finally left the official governance of Nigeria in 1999 after ruling the independent Nigerian nation for about 29 years out of her 54 years of existence as a sovereign nation. The military kept Nigeria intact as one nation through the governance that was based on dictatorship, brutal force, press censorship, extra-judiciary justice, draconian rule and military decrees. The military also successfully caged and suppressed every political uprising, voices of oppositions and even survived a brutal Biafran civil war that claimed the life of the over one million plus Nigerians in the annals of the nation's troubled history
The last human force that has kept and it is still keeping Nigeria together is the Nigerian politicians that have governed Nigeria for a total of about 25 years to date. These politicians hold unto power by using electoral frauds, politics of corruption, ethnicity, religion, geopolitical zone and godfathers to govern Nigeria, to keep it intact and to share her national cake amongst themselves. In conclusion, Nigeria will likely survive into the future as long as her oil wells do not run dry too soon and thereby leaving these inept, corrupt, mediocre, visionless and inept politicians in charge of that country.