ETHNICITY AND DEMOCRACY: POLICY APPLICATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Nigeria is a product of the 1914 amalgamation of Northern and Southern protectorates by the colonialists led by the Governor General Lord Lugard. With diverse Nationalities of well over two hundred and fifty (250) ethnic groups, this false marriage of heterogeneous society is predominantly Hausa/Fulani in the North, the Yorubas in the South-West, the Igbos of the South-East and the oil/gas rich South-South with ethnic groups such as the Ijaws, Ogonis, Itsekiris, Urhobo, Ibibios, among others. With six (6) geo- political zones, the country has majorly two religions, Christianity and Islam. Nigeria is at present structured to self-destruct predicated on the presence of in-built ingredients of instability such as diverse conflictive ethnic, religious and cultural rivalries, political and regional dominance and tribalism. The main objective of the work is to examine ethnicity and democracy; policy implications for sustainable development in Nigeria. The historical descriptive methodology were used in gathering and collating information for this study.

Democratically, governance has tended to favour the North with three regions and has so far produced nine (9) Presidents whether civilian or military. The South-West three (3), South-East two (2), while the South-South has only one President. Using the Pluralists and Relative Deprivation Theories of Conflict, the study submits that the reactionary measures by subsisting stakeholders cannot guarantee lasting peace and security required for the stability of the country.

Therefore, the study recommends holistic conflict transformation initiative for addressing the excesses, restructuring of the country along ethnic or regional lines as well as harnessing all the positive attributes of diversity and redressing all the negative ones through political cum constitutional engineering that will tinker with extant  structural deficiencies.