ETHNO-RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS AND POLITICAL INSTABILITY IN NIGERIA: WHEN PEACE TOOK FLIGHT

The focus of this paper is to critically examine the phenomenon of ethno-religious conflict and political instability in Nigeria. Therefore, class interest, religious diversity and the manipulation in the phenomena of the struggle for the control of resources and power associated with the concept have led to escalation of conflict. Frustration aggression theory holds that aggression is always the result of frustration instead of an absolute standard of deprivation, a gap between expected and achieved welfare leads men to political instability. My research examines whether levels of social expectations, aspirations and needs that reflect frustration aggression correspond with an increase in ethno-religious conflict and political instability. This study models social system gap model analysis by examining the political instability which identified as aggressive behaviour have results from situations on unrelieved, socially experienced frustration. The results of my study suggest that there is a social relationship between the level of expectation gap and that of frustration, which means that there is a difference between what is received and what is expected. However, the level of frustration clearly indicates how the level of ethno-religious conflict and political instability is.