THE ROLE OF HISTORY IN NIGERIAN NATIONALISTS STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE AND THE COMPLEXITY OF THE STRUGGLE

The British colonization of Nigeria necessitated the emergence of a new crop of people known as the “nationalists” on the nation’s political parlance who were targeted to liberate their fatherland from the doldrums of foreign rule that subdued their sovereignties politically, economically, and socially. In this regard, history proved to be pedagogical as it helped the nationalists to accomplish their dream. While it appears that myriads of intellectual works exist on Nigerian nationalism, most, if not all of such works have rather tended to generalise their scope without actually establishing the role of history in the trajectory and as such, the phenomenon beg for more scholarly attention. This paper thematically focuses on the role of history in Nigerian nationalist struggle for independence and the complexity of the struggle. Methodologically, the paper resorted to data provided by secondary sources in the form of textbooks, journals and internet with a discourse style that is quite historical, objective and analytical. Findings indicate that history provided a road map for the nationalists to stage the struggle, revealed to the nationalists how different societies had in the past been successfully liberated by some determined patriots, provided the wherewithal for women nationalists to participate in the struggle, arouse a sense of national consciousness and identity in the Nigerian nationalists, provided historians with the potency to contribute intellectually to the independence of Nigeria, and that it was used to discover the root causes of disunity that bedeviled the country in the struggle, The paper has however unraveled with vigour, that the said struggle was marred with complexity due principally to ethnicism, regionalism, and religion, instituted by the exploitative divide and rule tactic of the colonialists which became endemic scourges that raged the country; thereby creating the embers of disunity and suspicion among the nationalists. This has in turn impacted negatively, on the body polity of Nigeria up to the present postcolonial epoch. It finally notes that albeit this complexity, the nationalists’ eventually bridged theory with reality as independence was actualised, and advocates for more studies to be undertaken in this sphere for a proper appreciation of the inherent potentialities in the discipline especially at the very moment where its survival is seemingly threatened due to extinction.