IDENTITY POLITICS AS OBSTACLE TO DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION IN NIGERIA
Linus Ugwu Odo
Department of Public Administration
Federal University, Gashua, Yobe State
E-mail dr.odolinus1@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Historically, identity politics in Nigeria has its origin in the British colonial system of indirect rule anchored on the policy of divide-and-rule. The system had survived the colonial rule and today poses serious challenges to the democratization process in the post-independence Nigeria. The paper is an investigation of the impact of identity politics on the country’s attempt at consolidating its fledgling democracy. The study relied on secondary source of data and adopted David Easton’s systems theory as its framework of analysis. The paper found that Nigerian elites employ ethnic, religious, regional and other differences to provoke conflict as a strategy for the acquisition of political influence in the process of power brokerage. In the same vein, the faction of the elites that gains political power also relies on the manipulation of the major fault-lines in the country’s political history to perpetuate their control of the state power. The practice has seriously undermined the efforts of government towards achieving democratic consolidation in the country as Nigerians come to think of themselves more in terms of ethnic, religious or other primordial attachments than as Nigerians with one nation, one destiny. The paper recommended the total and complete shut-down of the identity consciousness in the Nigerian body politics and the enthronement of patriotism and nationalism in order to build a solid democratic culture.
Keywords: Identity politics, democratization, indirect-rule, consolidation, post-independence, elites.
