This acknowledges a fundamental truth: Resources, power, and respect are scarce. Not everyone can get what they want. Because people have different interests (based on class, ethnicity, religion, or geography), there will always be tension.
When a president appoints ministers, they are not just filling jobs; they are (power and wealth) to specific ethnic or regional groups. When a budget is passed, it allocates value (development) to some areas over others.
It is the human struggle to answer the oldest question of all: Okwudiba Nnoli (1938–2021) was a pioneering political scientist whose work on ethnicity and social science methodology remains foundational in African universities.
Let’s unpack the three key pillars of this definition. The first key word is struggle . Nnoli does not say "cooperation" or "discussion." He says struggle .
But in advanced political science—particularly within African political scholarship—there is a much sharper, more revealing definition. You may have heard it referred to as the .