Ethnic politics as an eternal clog in the wheels of politics: a Nigerian assessment

The thrust of this paper is an examination into an essential and perhaps an overly underplayed character of Nigerian politics. Following a vast multi-cultural diversity crisscrossing Nigeria’s society, ethnic/divisional politics has saddled Nigeria's over 50 years of statehood, dictating and in...

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Main Authors: Nwauba, Tochukwu, Chieji, Vincent Chukwudi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2019
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14163/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14163/1/29007-96217-1-PB.pdf
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author Nwauba, Tochukwu
Chieji, Vincent Chukwudi
author_facet Nwauba, Tochukwu
Chieji, Vincent Chukwudi
author_sort Nwauba, Tochukwu
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The thrust of this paper is an examination into an essential and perhaps an overly underplayed character of Nigerian politics. Following a vast multi-cultural diversity crisscrossing Nigeria’s society, ethnic/divisional politics has saddled Nigeria's over 50 years of statehood, dictating and influencing dynamics in and around socio-political and economic spheres. Like in most developing states, this has dramatically undermined Nigeria’s politics overall growth and development, while limiting Nigeria’s potentials and national power. Adopting the Instrumentalist paradigm, this survey finds that although colonial legacies among other structures, entrenched and sustain ethnic politics in Nigeria, on the whole, politicians and personal interests stand as principal exploiters of the ever-growing defect in Nigeria’s polity. Current antecedents show that ethnic politics like in the past only holds more grave and dangerous spirals of conflict, political crises etc., of great magnitude going forward. Thus, robust and bold moves toward mitigating ethnic politics in Nigeria is of critical importance. Given this reality, this piece advocates more sincerity and commitment from all stakeholders: the government, individuals and the civil society. Also, qualitative investments must be made into political socialisation/education; while strengthening the institutions and activities that emphasise unity across the country.
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spelling oai:generic.eprints.org:141632020-02-07T11:18:20Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14163/ Ethnic politics as an eternal clog in the wheels of politics: a Nigerian assessment Nwauba, Tochukwu Chieji, Vincent Chukwudi The thrust of this paper is an examination into an essential and perhaps an overly underplayed character of Nigerian politics. Following a vast multi-cultural diversity crisscrossing Nigeria’s society, ethnic/divisional politics has saddled Nigeria's over 50 years of statehood, dictating and influencing dynamics in and around socio-political and economic spheres. Like in most developing states, this has dramatically undermined Nigeria’s politics overall growth and development, while limiting Nigeria’s potentials and national power. Adopting the Instrumentalist paradigm, this survey finds that although colonial legacies among other structures, entrenched and sustain ethnic politics in Nigeria, on the whole, politicians and personal interests stand as principal exploiters of the ever-growing defect in Nigeria’s polity. Current antecedents show that ethnic politics like in the past only holds more grave and dangerous spirals of conflict, political crises etc., of great magnitude going forward. Thus, robust and bold moves toward mitigating ethnic politics in Nigeria is of critical importance. Given this reality, this piece advocates more sincerity and commitment from all stakeholders: the government, individuals and the civil society. Also, qualitative investments must be made into political socialisation/education; while strengthening the institutions and activities that emphasise unity across the country. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2019-02 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14163/1/29007-96217-1-PB.pdf Nwauba, Tochukwu and Chieji, Vincent Chukwudi (2019) Ethnic politics as an eternal clog in the wheels of politics: a Nigerian assessment. Geografia : Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 15 (1). pp. 1-11. ISSN 2180-2491 http://ejournal.ukm.my/gmjss/issue/view/1169
spellingShingle Nwauba, Tochukwu
Chieji, Vincent Chukwudi
Ethnic politics as an eternal clog in the wheels of politics: a Nigerian assessment
title Ethnic politics as an eternal clog in the wheels of politics: a Nigerian assessment
title_full Ethnic politics as an eternal clog in the wheels of politics: a Nigerian assessment
title_fullStr Ethnic politics as an eternal clog in the wheels of politics: a Nigerian assessment
title_full_unstemmed Ethnic politics as an eternal clog in the wheels of politics: a Nigerian assessment
title_short Ethnic politics as an eternal clog in the wheels of politics: a Nigerian assessment
title_sort ethnic politics as an eternal clog in the wheels of politics: a nigerian assessment
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14163/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14163/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14163/1/29007-96217-1-PB.pdf