Voting Behaviour in Nigeria

Voting Behaviour in NigeriaETHNICITY AND choose BEHAVIOUR IN NIGERIAABSTRACTThis paper tried to give a historical discourse about the blood between ethnicity and choose conduct using Nigeria as its case study. Looking at the early evolution of Nigeria, subsequently the amalgamation of twain the northern and southern protectorates during the era of colonialism, one issue that has been mind boggling in spite of appearance the historic-socio-political discourse of Nigeria is the paradigm of ethnicity which many from the academia tend to play it as having a great impact in the way and manner elections are conducting which ultimately affects the voting pattern of the peck as well. Using historic-descriptive method in which subsidiary data are mostly used in pasture to come up with this correlation between ethnicity and voting behaviour in Nigeria, the study noted that the former has significant impact in the way and manner political leaders are elected or recruited.Key actors line Ethnicity, Voting behaviour, Elections, Nigeria, Ethnic, Elites.INTRODUCTIONEthnicity has been said to have got had significant influence in the voting behaviour of individuals. This is mostly recorded in Africa and some part of Asia, where plurality tend to voting those who leave g all overn them based on certain pseudo-socio and cultural educate up. Hence this study will analyze to study the causal relationship between ethnicity which will be the independent variable and voting behaviour which is said to be the dependent variable and Nigeria will be the rural used as the case for this study.According to scholars, ethnicity defines inequalities in our societies which is crucial to capture ethnic identities. Its attempts lead to influence the bearings of another(prenominal)s and the course of events in the arrangement in put to protect their self-interests, main priority is their own needs. For instance a voter would have to been of age, a citizen, had to be register ed to vote and once their qualifications have been met. Then you have the honor to voting. Expanding on these ideas mickle assume that there candidate will just win even without leading their vote, which means if you do not vote dont have the right to criticize your leaders. Political efficiency can be defined as one time influence and effectivity on politics. So the lack of political efficiency is the thought that wont make a difference. And to widen their own goals. Behaviour may be seen as political. Naming behavior as political, instead, usually implies a judgment that certain people are gaining something at the expense of others or the institution/organization as a whole. However a balance understanding of political behaviour and its consequence is needed. People seem to be self-centered and biased when caespitose actions as political behaviour. Employees may justify their own political behavior as defending legitimate rights or interests, yet call similar behavior by others playing politics. research QUESTIONSThe study seeks to ask the following research questionsHow has ethnicity been able to influence voting behaviour?Are political parties ethnically adjust so as to influence voting behaviour?OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDYIt is the inclination of this study to be able to achieve the following objectivesTo explain the causal relationship between ethnicity and voting behaviour pattern.To also know whether ethnic factors tend to affect voting pattern of individuals in the study.As an academic exercise it is the desire of the study to contribute to existing literature about the subject matter which is the causal relationship between ethnicity and voting behaviour.RESEARCH METHODOLOGYIn other to come up with a causal relationship between these two variables, the study will rely on secondary data through which secondary sources such as books, articles, journals, reports from other think tank centers like freedom house, afro-barometer etc. in order to explain t he correlation between these two variables.RESEARCH HYPOTHESISTo examine the extent to which ethnicity can influence voting behavior in Nigerians the study has come up with the following hypothetical statementsH1- Whether Ethnicity influences voting behavior (Thesis Statement)H2- If it does not influence voting behavior (Anti-Thesis Statement)CONCEPTUALIZATION AND OPERATIONALIZATION OF TERMSEthnicityCan be seen as synonyms of races because the usual idea is biological category inherited from propagation to generation. Ethnicity is a basic form of identity, talking about were your ancestors came from and ethnicity can be seen as a cultural trade, believes and language, or a group of people who role a common history, language, culture, ethnicity is really culture component that people share and has been developed as identity over time. Also ethnicity refers to shared cultural practices that enclothe apart one group of people from another.Voting BehaviorAccording to Juma (201122) ex plains voting behaviour as a set of attitudes and beliefs towards elections at the topic as well as, at the local level.They are basically three source political scientist look at in order to analyse why people or voter behave the way they do, why they vote the way they do and why they chose the parties that they dolooking at the result of the election (seeing whose voting for what or women/men voting or generation voting for what)survey work aheaddoing some studies of political socialization which is the process by which people gain their political attitudes, political opinions of growing up process and how you want to be the people you areLTERATURE REVEWThe study will try to examine what other scholars have written about the two variables, i.e. Ethnicity and Voting behaviour.EthnicityBorrowing from Balliber and Wallerstein, who tried to examine the concept of ethnicity in their work regarding the surmise of state formation, Bonila Silva, looked at the term ethnicity as a process where by one assert certain distinct attribute aimed at creating and achieveing a awareness of communal way of life in the society.While Barth F. sees ethnicity as a situation in which people that live in a distinct association tend to create a distinct identity that differentiates them from other categories of people in the society as well.Horowitz, (1985) note that ethnicity is the core principle of politics within a state which either challenge or serve as a medium of cohesion amongst states in order to reduce the inherent accent within the international system.According Horowitz, ethnicity exerts a strong direct impact on electoral behavior in ethnically-segmented societies, through generating a long-term mental sense of party loyalty anchoring citizens to parties, where casting a vote becomes an expression of group identity. By implications, other social divisions become subsumed as secondary to ethnicity.VOTING BEHAVIOURAccording to Juma (201122), the term voting behaviour , connotes a collection of attitudes, values and beliefs in which individuals of a given society have towards elections both at the local, national and international level.While Harrop and Miller, using a constructivist paradigm, explained voting behaviour as a pattern of political participation mostly taking place in democratic societies where people react to certain laid down values, principles and beliefs how they choose their leaders. These set of beliefs could be based on age, sex, ethnicity, religion and education.THEORITICAL FRAMEWORKIn order for this study to be able to explain the causal relationship between ethnicity and voting behaviour, the study will adopt the theory of constructivism in order to be able to study this synergy between both the independent and dependent variables. This theory tries to analyse events, issues and phenomena via a sociological perspective and socio-cultural vantage point.Relating this theory to my study, since both variables tend to toe towar ds studying socio-cultural phenomena, the study would look at how this variants of ethnicity affects voting behaviour.DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONThis is the aspect of the study where the researcher will try to test his hypothesis in order to determine the degree of causality between his variables using relevant secondary data as well as information from think-tanks that can be able to measure his variables. After the analysis the researcher will be able to either vilify or keep going his hypothesis.SUMMARY/CONCLUSIONThis is the last phase of the study, where the researcher will be able to come out with a testable statement and conclusion about the findings of his research, make recommendations where necessary and also make suggestions for further study.Drawing from the available data largely drawn from the reports of Afro-barometer and Freedom house, there seem to be a causal relationship between ethnicity and voting behaviour in Nigeria. This is usually attributed to the dive rse nature of the Nigerian society in which there are over 450 local languages, in which each ethnic group, wants a stake in the body polity. This ethnic divisions, played a latent role even in the composition of the various political parties in the country in which right from independence to date, none of the political parties actually, have a national outlook, but kind of they are all structured and are operated towards ethnic and religious lines. Thus, with this type of party structures in the society, the ethnic factor most often influenced, voters choice, because most Nigerians, tend to opt for candidates that represent their ethnic origin rather than vote based on merit, ability or to a candidate that would volunteer the needed dividends of good governance.REFERENCESAllen, H. (2007), How do rules and institutions encourage vote buying, In Schaffer, (2007), The Causes and Consequences of Vote Buying, Lyinne Reiner Publishers, Colorado.Brusco, M. et al. (2004), Vote Buying in Argentina, Latin American Research Review, vol. 39, No. 2, pp. 65-88.Ibrahim, J. (2007), Nigerias 2007 Elections The fitful Path to Democracy, Institute for Peace, Washington D.C.Ifidon, (2003), Transition from Democracy in Nigeria Toward a Pre-emptive Analysis, African Journal of Political Science, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 109-128.Jega, A. (2007), Elections and the future of Democracy in Nigeria, NPSA, Lagos.Michael, B. Lewis, P. (2007), The Durability of Political Goods Evidence from Nigerias New Democracy, Cambridge University Press, New York.Michael B. (2007), Who Votes? Implications for new democracies, available at http//www.globalbarometer.net/publication.htm accessed 30th April, 2014.