Ethnic Elite Organisation and Political Transitions in Nigeria: Ohanaeze Ndigbo in Perspective

Nigeria has experienced various phases of political regime transitions. Though a lot of studies have been done on these transitions, there has been no systematic study of the roles of ethnic elite socio-political organizations in the transition processes. Where they were studied, organizations were subsumed into civil society and portrayed either as constituting an opposition to political repression or as agents of public accountability. Yet, such organizations are usually composed of ruling and opposition figures. It is against this backdrop the paper attempts to examine the role of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in the Nigeria’s political transitions from 1985 to 2003. Key words: Ethnicity; Ethnic organization; Elitism; Political transitions