DRAFT VERSION
difference in the size of the two groups, PIO being near a majority, the Igbo being large
but not even a fifth of the population, this does not fully explain the difference. PIO have
been able to help construct (or reconstruct) a nationalism that included them as a group
because the Afro-Caribbean group could not refute the PIO claims of right to participate
because neither group could claim primacy. This made accommodation of PIO politically
acceptable. Trinidad’s nationalism formation follows the second model.
Nigeria more closely follows the first model, high fractionalization with primacy
among groups. In Nigeria, the Hausa, Fulani, and Yoruba could not deny the Igbo
entirely, since all three groups had claim to primacy, but could deny them politically
because the two groups could form a majority government with out the Igbo. It is
interesting to note that despite coming close to doing so in the early 1970s the two groups
have also not eradicated the Igbo either. Nigeria has somewhat resolved this intractable
problem with federalism. Further studies of states that have experience genocide would
help explain if Nigeria is an outlier or if federalism is a workable solution the problem of
diversity in the modern state.
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