Abstract
The 2019 Elections marked Nigeria’s sixth General/Presidential election since the return to Civilian rule in 1999. Some anticipated the keenly contested election to replicate the 2015 Presidential election, which saw, for the first time, the demise of a sitting President in an election. Although this was not the case, the election nonetheless saw the reproduction of the evil that has bedeviled Nigeria’s unity, nationhood, and federalism since the 1914 amalgamation — ethnicity. According to Chinua Achebe, ethnicity is the “discrimination against a citizen because of his place of birth.” For Okwudiba Nnoli, it is a social group within a cultural and social system that claims or is accorded special status based on complex, often variable traits, including religious, linguistic, ancestral, or physical characteristics. Thus, Nigeria, as one of the most heterogeneous countries in the world with over 250 ethnic groups and several subgroups, is a victim of the partisan factor. Therefore, the issue of ethnicity is not a novel phenomenon in the Nigerian state, nor is it unfamiliar to elections in Nigeria. Instead, the Nigerian state experience is replete with prolific and very significant manifestations of ethnicity. The darkest was the Nigeria/Biafra War. This saw the cataclysmic severing of potential ethnic bonding that has, until today, suffered continuous abuse and abortions under insensitive political leadership and governments since 1970. With the growing cry of marginalization by some ethnic groups who believe that others are preponderant over them, and the rise of various forms of ethno-nationalistic activism in the Nigerian federation. Significantly, this dramatic outcome is a smear on the concept of true federalism, which Nigeria adopted to avert this impending danger that could ruin efforts to build nationhood.