The Right to Self-Determination: Its Application to Nigeria
Autor: | S. K. Panter-Brick |
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Rok vydání: | 1968 |
Předmět: | |
Zdroj: | International Affairs. 44:254-266 |
ISSN: | 1468-2346 0020-5850 |
DOI: | 10.2307/2613122 |
Popis: | T NHE tragic events in Nigeria strike a familiar chord-that of the right to self-determination. This plea brings those events into a realm of academic discourse which has a long history. Although each struggle of this kind poses its own special problems and finds its own practical resolution, usually by force of arms, old problems are revived for re-examination when appeals are made to a well-worn general principle-that of self-determination-in a context that is newthat of post-independence Africa. Maybe no new general conclusions emerge, but one cannot avoid making a new analysis in terms appropriate to contemporary Africa. The purpose of the present article is to discuss the issue of selfdetermination in its African setting and the terms in which that issue tends to be debated, and to assess, in the light of this general analysis, the particular situation that has arisen in Nigeria. The right to self-determination is posed in its African context in the following terms: (1) the degree of finality with which the right to self-determination was exercised at the time of achieving independence from colonial rule; (2) the size of the states resulting from, or likely to result from, its further exercise; (3) the tribalistic character of any later attempts to invoke this right; (4) the impossibility of admitting any revision of existing boundaries, for fear of starting a chain reaction, culminating in general chaos. I shall consider briefly each of these in turn. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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