CHAPTER ONE

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background to the Study

Nigeria has witnessed the transition from the military regime for a quite long time to a democratic system of government since the year 1999, Nigeria failed to resolve its ethnoreligious and political violence which contributed to the weakening of democratic governance and national integration. As a multi-ethnic nation, with diverse religious and cultural background the political system is expected to cope with and control both human and natural resources effectively, but in contrast this diversity becomes the source of ethno-religious and political violence. The issue of ethno-religious violence has tended to occur constantly in Nigeria since during the period of fourth republic 1999 where organized ethnically based actions with their ethnic and regional agenda escalate into series of violent conflict (Edlyne 2002). Studying ethnicity as a political characteristic one has to consider the following questions: Does the concept of ethnicity be regarded as a means for the political actors to depend their political interest? Why then any political struggle in Nigeria is often misinterpreted as an ethnic or religious struggle? Is there any empirical findings outline a relationship between the social construction of ethnic identities and the probability of ethnic violence?  

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