What have witnessed over the past thirty years, is the unraveling of the "Post-Civil War Settlement".
1. The Niger Delta refusing to be a bystander, as its oil wealth was used to sustain the rest of the nation. They demanded, and obtained, a greater share of oil wealth - and political power.
2. The unravelling of the "One North" consensus, and Ahmadu Bello's legacy. Fault lines emerged a long time ago, but the Political Sharia Movement further widened the cracks between the "Core North" and the "Middle Belt". The insecurity crisis is doing more damage to this relationship.
3. The Post-Civil War Consensus, was built on the unquestioned monopoly of organised violence of the Nigerian State - but this has been challenged, in a variety of ways, by a variety of actors, since the return of democratic rule.
4. Then there's the prospect of malign foreign actors, actively and openly interfering in Nigeria's internal affairs.