Influence of Ethnicity and Religion in Nigerian Elections and the Imperative of Media Intervention

Nigerian Government has successfully conducted the 2015 presidential elections despite the failure the country recorded in the use of card reader that was initially acquired by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that only the registered and accredited electorate voted in the elections. Nevertheless, it is very easy for anyone to blame the federal government for failing to conduct very credible elections except for those that understood the influence of ethnicity and religion in the Nigerian politics. It could be recalled that the present Nigerian political system evolved from the British colonialist constitutions. So, when the European guided political philosophy was eventually formulated as a paradigm for development in Nigeria, the leaders soon discovered that the model was essentially abstract in nature as it paid no attention to the historical specificity of the people, but treated development as something that was no way connected to the Nigerian peoples and culture [1]. In the series of the colonialist constitutions, the Clifford Constitution of 1922 made it possible for Nigerian citizens to elect their own representatives into the legislative council in Lagos, the Bourdillion Constitution of 1939 created the platform for regional government, the Richard Constitution of 1945 offered Nigerians a better platform to participate and discuss their own affairs, the Macpherson Constitution of 1951 established a central Legislative and Executive council for the entire country, the Lyttleton Constitution of 1954 made Nigeria a federal state, while the 1960 Constitution granted political independence to Nigeria [2]. Although ethnicity has always been a major impediment to the peace and development of Nigeria, its effect was not as pronounced as it is today.