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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008
The omnipresence of ethnic factors as a determinant in Nigerian politics during the first republic appears almost as a truism for Africansts today. The fragmentation of Nigeria into two units with the secession of Biafra on 30 May 1967 constitutes the most tragic and vivid manifestation of the consequences of ethnic confrontation. But in addition to these well-known ethnic-bloc politics at the macropolitical— Federal—level, competition based on ethnic groups also characterised the regional and local political systems. After all, the separate identities of such ethnic groups as the Ibo, the Yoruba, and the Hausa—Fulani only became relevant and generally accepted subsequent to the Introduction of a representative political system after World War II.
Page 21 note 1 According to the 1953 population census, the total population of the Mbaise County ouncil area was 186,274 persons. The individual clans constituting Mbaise were estimated's follows: Ezinihitte 57,600, Agbaja 49,418, Ekwerazu 29,501, Oke-Ovoro 25,611, and Khiara 24,144. The figures for the 1963 census show a doubling in population for the Mbaise rea. When I questioned the politicians, they advised me that the population estimates had been grossly inflated as a result of various political manoeuvres (as was the case throughout ligeria). They believed that the 1953 figures were more accurate. The population of Mbaise 1 1966 when this research was undertaken was probably between 220,000 and 250,000.
Page 22 note 1 Prior to the administrative reorganisation of the Eastern Region into native Courts based on clans, which the British undertook after the 1929 riots, the administration sponsored a series of investigations to ascertain the boundaries of traditional ethnic groupings. Considering the administrative officers' lack of anthropological training, their inability to speak fluent Ibo, and the brevity of their investigations, which often took only a few days, it is not surprising that their conclusions were incorrect.
Page 23 note 1 Eastern Nigeria Local Government Estimates for 1965–1966 (Enugu, 1966).Google Scholar
Page 23 note 2 Donatus Onu, ‘Address to the Conference of Mbaise Leaders of Thought on Behalf of the Mbaise County Council, November 25, 1965’ (mimeo.).
