Ethnicity capital and nation-building

Abstract

This paper investigates 'Ethnicity Capital and Nation-building'. Its objectives are to examine the various ways by which ethnicity capital could be harnessed as a productive instrument for nation building, and to identify other dysfunctional consequences of ethnicity capital apart from being a productive instrument for nation building as well as to propose policy-based recommendations towards harnessing ethnicity capital as a necessary tool for nation building. To achieve these tasks, the paper reviewed the concept of ethnicity capital as a tool for nation building, investigating further its antinomies in a praxis situation (Nigerian situation); it adopted a comparative analysis on U.S and Nigeria to gain more insight on how a multi-ethnic nationality can thrive without conflicts in spite of ethnic divergence as well delineating preconditions for the process of nation building in a multi-ethnic society. The method used was purely descriptive. The paper reviewed a few relevant theoretical orientations, namely the Functionalist Theory and Robert K. Merton nuanced Functionalist perspective. The major findings include: Ethnicity capital could function as a productive instrument for nation building in various ways; a few of these ways include: it promotes national consciousness and national integration; it provokes a common political culture that incorporates the divergent groups. The findings also reveal that ethnicity capital could be a destructive force that pulls down the process of nation building as it is conflict-oriented if not positively harnessed etc. The paper therefore recommended thus: that political leadership should discountenance feelings of ethnic affiliations in governance and embrace the interest of all; inter-ethnic group languages to be introduced in schools for adoption by students to promote cultural tolerance and national consciousness; government to proscribe all so called democratic movements that promote ethnic consciousness rather than national consciousness and encourage movements that are nationally oriented etc.

Keywords: Ethnicity, capital, nation, nation-building.