Final answer:
The information presented in the passage is that "Overstates the extent to which Northern Nigerians were responsible for undermining the united Nigerian state." Option D is correct.
Step-by-step explanation:
The passage might offer a perspective that, while acknowledging the role of Northern Nigerians in contributing to certain challenges faced by the united Nigerian state, might emphasize their responsibility beyond what might be fully accurate. It might highlight their influence but could potentially neglect other contributing factors such as historical, political, and socioeconomic complexities that played significant roles in the state's challenges.
The author's argument might lean toward attributing a disproportionate level of responsibility to Northern Nigerians, possibly overlooking the multifaceted nature of the issues faced by the Nigerian state. This perspective might lack a comprehensive analysis of the intricate dynamics involving various regions, ethnicities, and historical contexts that collectively influenced Nigeria's unity and challenges.
The correct answer: Option D
Complete question:
"Throughout the period of Nigeria's short and precarious existence as a single political entity, we Eastern Nigerians have always believed in fundamental human rights as they are accepted and enjoyed in civilized countries. Impelled by our belief in these rights and our sense of common citizenship with other Nigerians, we contributed our ideas and skills, our resourcefulness and dynamism, in the development of areas of Nigeria outside the East. We set up businesses and industries throughout the country, overlooked the neglect of our homeland in the division of national institutions, development projects, and financial resources, made our region's abundant natural resources available to the rest of the country, and confidently invested in the general economic and social development of Nigeria. . . .We used to oppose those who told us that what our former colonial masters made into 'Nigeria' was merely an agglomeration of different peoples, distinct in every way except in the color of their skin, and organized in as a unit solely for the commercial interests and administrative convenience of the colonists. . . .
But we have come to realize that national unity is no longer possible. The Nigerian constitution that was adopted after independence in 1960 installed the North in perpetual dominance over Nigeria. Thus were sown, by design or by default, the seeds of factionalism and hate, of struggle for power, and the worst type of political deception. National independence was followed by successive crises, each leading to the near disintegration of the country. Last year alone, tens of thousands of Eastern and Southern Nigerians were killed in pogroms by Northerners in all parts of the country, including the capital, Lagos. We are now facing a situation in which there are only two possible outcomes: either perpetual domination of the rest of the country by the North, not by consent but by force and fraud, or a dissolution of the [Nigerian] federation bond." Lieutenant Colonel C. Odumegwu Ojukwu, Nigerian army officer, proclamation of the breakaway Republic of Biafra [Eastern Nigeria], 19.
Based on the author's point of view, it is most likely that the information presented in the passage:
- A. Understates the economic contributions Eastern Nigerians had made to the unified Nigerian state
- B. Inadvertently misrepresents the extent of regional differences and identities in Nigerian society
- C. Glosses over the responsibility of corrupt politicians in creating the problems facing the unified Nigerian state
- D. Overstates the extent to which Northern Nigerians were responsible for undermining the united Nigerian state