IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 22, Issue 8, Ver. 16 (August. 2017) PP 25-34 e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845. www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/0837-2208162534 www.iosrjournals.org 25 | Page Nigeria’s Ethnic Pluralism: a Challenge to Political Participation and Nation Building Lanre Olu-Adeyemi Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Adekunle Ajasin University, PMB 01, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo state, Nigeria. Corresponding Author: Lanre Olu-Adeyemi ABSTRACT: Ethnic pluralism is an albatross to political participation and Nation Building in Nigeria. It has negatively impacted on the country’s democratisation and Nation Building process in a way that political platforms now reflect ethno-national characters while the elites manipulate ethnicity in the quest for political power. Primary and Secondary data were used to show the tendency towards separatist political orientation among key political actors. The paper argued that the various crises generally associated with political participation and competition reflects the fear of possible perpetration of a situation of permanent majority and permanent minorities. It concludes that the above tendencies have greatly hampered political participation and the process of Nation Building in Nigeria and therefore, recommend the restructuring of Nigeria’s governance process; tackling indigenship crisis as well as a Conference of ethnic nationalities as the panacea to the problems that ethnicity have constituted. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date of Submission: 14-08-2017 Date of acceptance: 28-08-2017 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. INTRODUCTION In Nigeria’s post-independence democratic experience, political participation has been greatly influenced by ethno-national considerations. Some of the issues that have affected political participation in Nigeria and which in turn have reflected on aspects of the country’s crisis of democracy and nation building includes ethno-national identity of political platforms and their loss of ideology. They also include lack of understanding or commitment to the principle and functions of an opposition as well as the inability of elites to consciously strive to build a Nigerian nation. Yet, there is a strong feeling in Nigeria that political platforms must be national, rather than locally based. Those who espouse the philosophy of national structures argue that this is the only way of ensuring full representation and participation of all sections of the country at the central level of the country’s polity and governance. In spite of this, it has hardly been possible to determine how truly national parties could be organized in Nigeria. Some have advocated a one-party or even no-party government as the solution. At the same time, advocates of multi-party democracy have continued to maintain very strong views that multi-party arrangement is the best option that can guarantee durable political participation and Nation building. On the whole, this paper seeks to show that ethnic identities and its mobilisations have increased in Nigeria with negative impacts on the socio-economic and political circumstances of Nigerians thereby hampering the process of nation building. II. METHODOLOGY This paper is partly an extract from my unpublished PhD thesis titled: Ethno-national Identities and the crisis of Nation Building in Nigeria. There are two major sources of data for this study. They are (1) Primary sources and (2) Secondary sources. 1000 questionnaires were used as the main measuring instrument into the distinguishing aspects of Nigeria’s ethno-national experience. The following States were purposively sampled from four of Nigeria’s Geo-Political zones. i. Lagos State in South-western Geo-Political Zone of Nigeria; ii. Bayelsa State in South-south Geo-Political Zone of Nigeria; iii. Kano and Kaduna States in Northern Geo-Political Zone of Nigeria; iv. Anambra and Enugu States in South-eastern Geo-Political Zone of Nigeria. In the realm of secondary data, relevant textbooks, articles and book reviews were consulted. Although it has not been our concern in this study to be involved in the construction of indices or the translation of questions into abstract statistical concepts; both the descriptive and analytical methods were employed to analyse the data generated from the questionnaire in a manner that reflect our concern for relevance and consistency with our research objectives. The presentation and analysis of our empirical data mainly involved