Civil Society and the Challenges of Development and Nation Building in the Postcolonial African State

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War, there has been a global ubiquity to accepting the concept of civil society among researchers and activists, and a widespread assumption among many policy makers in different parts of the world of its global relevance to strengthening development and democracy.¹ This, in many ways, is understandable. Yet, the pervasiveness notwithstanding, the very concept of civil society, its antecedents and the implications thereof, its scope, relevance, and utility, have generated significant discursive controversies, especially in relation to the internal processes of, and in the environment of, the postcolonial African state. Does civil society in a multinational postcolonial state such as Nigeria promote state building and national development or is it an impediment that renders the state fragile? Given the structural complexity and the double instrumental character of the postcolonial state,² an interrogation of the concept of civil society in the context of, and in defining the locus of conventional civil society organizations (CSOs) vis-à-vis other competing associations in the postcolonial state setting, is a compelling imperative. These clarifications are keys to unraveling how the structure of society and its configuration as civil society facilitate or impede the process of state and nation building. What is the nexus between the structure and character of civil society and the strengthening or “fragilizing” of an African postcolonial state such as Nigeria?