Ethnic Identity and Nation-Building in Nigeria: A Study of the Bassa and their Neighbours in Toto, Nasarawa State

Nigeria is a multi-ethnic nation with hundreds of diverse cultural groups that are about three hundred and fifty in number and Toto is a replica of these polyglot nationalities in the country. The experience in the area is that rather than harnessing these diversities towards viable national development, it has become entangled in ethnic conflicts, which is to the detriment of nation building. The paper illustrates how and what specific ways the advent of colonialism impacted on the dynamics of group contacts and interactions, and the significance of this in the understanding of the nationality question in post­ colonial Toto area. This paper highlights some of the factors needed in nation building and how Toto polities have fallen short in meeting them due to competitive ethnicity. The paper uses both library and oral sources to recommend on how diverse groups could co-exist peacefully and bring about virile nation.