Word: nigerias
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...army has been more merciful than might have been expected. The regions, coalitions, parties, tribes and all but four or five of the top leaders remain. We need only change the epithet, which was grossly inaccurate in the first place. How much better now to recite: "Nigeria, unwieldy African giant groping for a manageable form of government...
...Federal Constitution of 1960 was, of course, inspired by the experts of the British Colonial Office, who have established unworkable federations on which the sun never sets. It provided for the division of Nigeria into self-governing regions, one of which, the North, contained a majority of the population and more than half the area of the country. Since this region was also an oriental despotism and a one-party state, it was clear that a single band of scheming dynasts, the Northern People's Congress, could command at will a working majority in the Federal Parliament and dictate...
...very little else has been settled. Nigeria is too big a country to be governed against its will by an insubordinate army of 8000 men drawn from several quarrelsome tribes. Had the hot-headed young Ibo officers who staged the assassinations won out, they would have soon discovered this. Now the less messianic, older men who have regained control of the army must quickly submit to the laws of Nigerian politics or else be faced with widespread local rioting...
...major civilian interests must still be placated: the Muslim part of the North must still be ruled by a Muslim Northerner--and in that part of Nigeria, there are always spare emirs and wazirs eager to take the place of an assassinated Premier; the West must have a popular Yoruba and the East a popular Ibo Premier; in the Midwest a balance of power among several tribes must the kept. Each region, each major tribe must be given a sufficient stake in the Federation to make the idea of secession unthinkable...
...scarcity of sophisticated military governors in Nigeria and the surfeit of lawyers, Cabinet ministers, journalists and savvy tribal chieftains would suggest that a constitutional structure may be the best means for carrying out this political task. So perhaps in time President Azikiwe will be recalled from London, Chief Obafemi Awolowo (the West's most popular Yoruba leader), will be released from Federal prison, and a new Federal Constitution will be drawn up to meet civilian demands...