Article Details

Nigeria is a colonial creation. The foisting of the heterogenous groups together was never intended to build a united and economically viable country but to perpetual the economic exploitation of Nigeria. The railway one of the impacts of colonialism in Nigeria was established across the then existing regions (East, North, and West) to realize the economic mandate of the colonialists. It is the contention of this paper, that, although, this infrastructure was intended to exploit the economic resources of Nigeria and cart away to the coasts through the rails; this rail infrastructure by inadvertence became arteries of integration across creeds, ethnicities, and political affinities. Therefore, this study interrogates the integrative impact of the colonial railway infrastructure amidst the politics of division and insecurity in Nigeria. This paper adopts the internal colonial theory as a theoretical framework of analysis and the historical methodology. The study concludes that, among other things, a national rebirth is critical to national integration. Also, the Nigerian railway system should be overhauled to international best practices, and improvement in the security architecture, especially along rail lines.

Colonialism, Colonial infrastructure, Railway transport, National integration,