HOW ETHNICITY AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE THREATENS DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA

Ethnicity is a phenomenon used by the colonial masters the British, as a divide and conquers tactics for their administrative conveniences which later becomes a weapon of destruction by the Nigerian political actors in their bid to acquire economic and political power in order to sustain personal interest. This article explores the theoretical perspective on ethnicity and highlight on the concept of political violence with Lijphart’s convocational democracy models, in addition, the nature of ethno-political identities in Nigeria are discussed, the article therefore argues that the factors of ethno-political disparities in Nigeria causes the risen incident of violence and threaten its nascent democracy, because ethnicity in Nigeria is viewed as an element of acquiring wealth and power struggle.