Voting Behaviour in Nigeria

Voting Behaviour in NigeriaETHNICITY AND VOTING demeanour IN NIGERIAABSTRACTThis paper tried to give a historical discourse close the affinity in the midst of culturality and ballot demeanor utilize Nigeria as its case debate. Looking at the early evolution of Nigeria, afterwards the amalgamation of some(prenominal) the northern and southern protectorates during the era of colonialism, one ignore that has been mind boggling within the historic-socio- policy-making discourse of Nigeria is the paradigm of ethnicity which many from the academia run to see it as having a great sham in the expressive style and manner elections argon conducting which ultimately affects the ballot pattern of the state as well. Using historic-descriptive method in which secondary data are largely used in order to come up with this correlation amongst ethnicity and suffrage deportment in Nigeria, the study noted that the former has substantive impact in the way and manner political lead ers are elected or recruited.Key Words Ethnicity, Voting doings, Elections, Nigeria, Ethnic, Elites.INTRODUCTIONEthnicity has been utter to boast had significant influence in the voting behaviour of individuals. This is in general recorded in Africa and some part of Asia, where peck tend to select those who forget g all overn them ground on certain pseudo-socio and cultural hasten up. Hence this study willing try to study the causal human relationship between ethnicity which will be the independent vari competent and voting behaviour which is said to be the dependent variable and Nigeria will be the unsophisticated used as the case for this study.According to scholars, ethnicity defines inequalities in our societies which is crucial to get ethnic identities. Its attempts lead to influence the behaviours of others and the course of events in the organization in order to protect their self-interests, main priority is their own needs. For instance a respectable to voter would wipe out to been of age, a citizen, had to be registered to vote and once their qualifications have been met. Then you have the honor to voting. Expanding on these ideas people assume that on that point candidate will just win even without leading their vote, which marrow if you do not vote dont have the cover to criticize your leaders. governmental efficiency can be defined as one time influence and effectiveness on politics. So the lack of political efficiency is the thought that wont imprint a difference. And to widen their own goals. Behaviour may be seen as political. designation 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 plumy actions as political behaviour. Employees may justify their own political behav ior as defending legitimate rights or interests, yet call corresponding behavior by others playing politics. investigate QUESTIONSThe study seeks to ask the chase research questionsHow has ethnicity been able to influence voting behaviour?Are political parties ethnically aligned so as to influence voting behaviour?OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDYIt is the desire of this study to be able to achieve the pursuance objectivesTo explain the causal relationship between ethnicity and voting behaviour pattern.To in like manner 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 contri besidese to alert 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(prenominal) as books, article s, journals, reports from other think tank centers like freedom house, afro-barometer etcetera in order to explain the 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 legal injuryEthnicityCan be seen as synonyms of races because the usual idea is biological kinfolk inherited from generation 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 multitude of people who share a common history, language, farming, ethnicity is really culture component that people share and has been developed as identity over time. Also ethnicity refer s to shared cultural practices that set apart one group of people from another.Voting BehaviorAccording to Juma (201122) explains voting behaviour as a set of attitudes and beliefs towards elections at the national as well as, at the local anaesthetic level.They are basically three source political scientist matter 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) discipline work aheaddoing some studies of political socialization which is the physical 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 force verbally about the two variables, i.e. Ethnicity and Voting behaviour.EthnicityBorrowing from Balliber and Waller stein, who tried to examine the innovation of ethnicity in their work regarding the hypothesis of state formation, Bonila Silva, looked at the term ethnicity as a process where by one assert certain straightforward attribute aimed at creating and achieveing a sense of communal way of brio in the association.While Barth F. sees ethnicity as a situation in which people that live in a distinct community 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 focus within the international system.According Horowitz, ethnicity exerts a strong direct impact on electoral behavior in ethnically-segmented societies, through generating a long-run psychological 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 exponentiation 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 t heory 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 towards 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 pointedness of causality between his variables using relevant secondary data as well as information from think-tanks that can be able to valuate his variables. After the analysis the researcher will be able to either vilify or corroborate his hypothesis.SUMMARY/CONCLUSIONThis is the last configuration 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 availab le data largely drawn from the reports of Afro-barometer and license house, there seem to be a causal relationship between ethnicity and voting behaviour in Nigeria. This is usually attributed to the diverse nature of the Nigerian society in which there are over 450 local languages, in which each ethnic group, wants a stake in the remains 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 rather they are all structured and are operated towards ethnic and sacred lines. Thus, with this type of party structures in the society, the ethnic factor most lots 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 provide the needed dividends of good governance.REFERENCESAllen, H. (2007), How do rules and institutions upgrade 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, appoint for Peace, Washington D.C.Ifidon, (2003), Transition from Democracy in Nigeria Toward a Pre-emptive Analysis, African daybook 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.