Abstract

This study examined the influence of ethnicity and religion on the Nigerian politics. The paper noted that between October 1960 when the country attained its political independence and May 2015 when General Muhammadu Buhari assumed office as the President of Nigeria, the country had produced 15 heads of government, who were majorly citizens from the Northern and the Western Regions. The study employed the content analysis approach to review the 2015 presidential election and the profiles of the past and present Nigerian leaders, and found that the Igbo community had least representation in the office of the president of Nigeria. Since democracy is a game of numbers, it might be difficult ever having a Nigerian President of an Igbo origin without the support of the other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. Therefore, to create the platform for both the members of the major and the minority ethnic groups in the country to occupy the office of the president of Nigeria, the paper recommends that Nigerian presidency be rotated among the six geo political zones as recommended earlier by Chief Anthony Enaharo.

Key Words: Media, Ethnicity, Religion, Culture, Elections

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*Dr. Godwin Ehiarekhian Oboh, Ph.D., is Associate Professor and Head, Department of Mass Communication, Benson Idahosa University, Benin City, Edo-State, Nigeria.

^JCMRJournal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 8, No. 1, April 2016, 87 – 106