Breakdown and Reconstitution analyzes the interplay between democratization, nation-state building, and ethnicity in Nigeria as well as the challenges of transforming a post-colonial multiethnic state into a stable democracy. This work draws attention to the intrinsic relation between the breakdown of quasi-democracy and the reconstitution of a more inclusive democracy and nation-state. Breakdown and Reconstitution is an essential source for scholars of politics in Africa.

"The author's focus is clearly stated: 'In Nigeria, ethnicity has been a prime cause of political instability and the breakdown of law and order.' Readers in search of a carefully crafted analytical account of Nigeria's political development will find this relatively brief study rewarding and refreshing. . . .The bibliography includes an extensive collection of Nigerian government documents as well as the substantial literature on African political development. . . . Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate and graduate collections." - CHOICE

"This book goes a long way towards redirecting the often unhelpful literature on ethnicity in Nigeria." - African Affairs, October 2008

"[Bah] strives to understand the place of ethnicity in the breakdown and reconstitution of democracy and the nation-state, which he largely accomplishes through an historically grounded approach tracing Nigeria's conundrums to their colonial antecedents. Bah kills two birds with the same stone: providing a panoramic overview of the Nigerian state and the travails of democracy and nation-building." - Journal of Political and Military Sociology