Ethnic Politics and Democratization in Nigeria; A Conscious Pursuit of Negative Political Culture

It is a truism that ethnicity and its existence in any society have its positive and negative sides. However, the trajectory of political democratization and development in Nigeria has appeared to be influenced by negative understanding and misrepresentation, thereby consciously creating negative political culture. The objective of this paper is to examine the place of ethnic politics in the Nigeria democratization process and formation of adverse political culture. The historical research design was adopted to elicit and analyze the relevant data because of the qualitative nature of the paper. The linkage theory was adopted to explain the natural relationship between ethnicity and political democratization in Nigeria. The paper relied on the findings that arose from the careful analysis and discussion of the complex nature of ethnic politics and democratization quagmire and suggests possible template to ensure that ethnic politics is not allowed to adversely affect Nigeria’s democratization process. The paper recommends re-structuring and constitutional amendment to correct the imbalance in the political structure and power. The paper contributed to knowledge by demonstrating that ethnicity is indispensible in the life of human, but its positive sides can be harnessed in such a manner to facilitate political democratization and development in Nigeria