What was the "mistake of 1914," and how has it impacted modern-day Nigeria?

Answer 1

Nigeria is a good example of an ethnically complex, unnaturally assembled nation. On the political map, it appears as an integral unit, but its boundaries have no logical basis in physical or cultural geography. Some Nigerians still refer to the "mistake of 1914," when British colonial cartographers created the country, heedless of its ethnic rifts. The greatest divide is between poorer Muslim north and more prosperous Christian south, but there are at least 250 ethnic groups within the country. The British colonizers invested more in education and economic development in the south and built army ranks among northerners, whom they thought made better fighters; so the subsequent pattern is that the northern military leaders have tried to blunt the economic clout of southerners. Colonial administration and boundary drawing thus sowed seeds of modern conflict in Nigeria, a problem described in more detail in Section 9.6.