Keypoints:
- Nigeria must shift politics from identity to competence, policy and performance
- Stronger institutions, civic education and responsible journalism can weaken ethnic and religious mobilisation
- Economic inclusion and youth participation are vital to building a more issue-based democracy
NIGERIA’S democratic journey has been shaped by resilience, diversity and enduring public aspiration. Since the return to civilian rule in 1999, the country has strengthened important democratic institutions and sustained successive electoral cycles. Yet one of the most persistent challenges confronting its democracy remains identity politics.
Electoral behaviour, political mobilisation and public debate are still frequently influenced by ethnic, regional and religious considerations. Diversity itself is not the problem. Nigeria’s multiplicity of cultures, languages, histories and faith traditions should be regarded as a national strength.
The difficulty arises when these identities become the primary measure by which political leadership is judged.
When competence, integrity, ideas and performance are pushed aside by ethnic or religious loyalty, democratic accountability suffers. Elections risk becoming competitions between communities rather than contests between competing visions of national development.
Nigeria does not need to erase identity. It needs to build a political culture in which citizenship carries greater democratic weight than tribe, region or faith.
Why identity politics endures
Identity politics persists partly because many Nigerians have historically depended on ethnic, religious and communal networks for protection, opportunity and representation.
Where institutions are perceived as weak, inaccessible or unfair, citizens are more likely to place their trust in groups with which they share an identity. When people lack confidence that national institutions will protect their interests impartially, support for political figures who appear to represent their community can become an understandable response.
Political actors have also learnt that identity mobilisation can be an effective route to power.
Appeals to ethnic solidarity, regional entitlement or religious affiliation can sometimes generate political loyalty without requiring candidates to offer detailed solutions to economic, social or governance problems. The result is a political environment in which belonging may carry greater electoral weight than performance.
Identity influences politics in many democracies. Race and religion affect political behaviour in the United States, while caste, religion and regional affiliation remain important in India. Linguistic and regional identities also shape political debate in countries such as Belgium and Canada.
The important question is not whether identity exists in politics, but whether institutions, civic culture and democratic norms prevent it from overwhelming citizenship and accountability.
That is where Nigeria must make progress.
Building stronger civic consciousness
Reducing identity politics requires a deeper culture of citizenship.
Democracy cannot function effectively when citizens understand politics mainly through communal allegiance. Nigerians must increasingly see democratic participation as an exercise in rights, responsibilities and accountability.
Schools, universities, civil society organisations, professional bodies and faith communities all have important roles to play in strengthening democratic literacy.
Civic education should extend beyond memorising constitutional principles. It should teach citizens how institutions work, how elected officials can be held accountable, how public resources are managed and how political promises can be evaluated.
Citizens should be encouraged to retain pride in their cultural identities while recognising that they also share responsibilities within one political community.
A politically informed electorate is more likely to ask practical questions.
Has a government improved education? Has it expanded economic opportunity? Has it strengthened security? Has it managed public money responsibly? Has it created an environment in which businesses can grow? Has it upheld the rule of law?
These questions can gradually become more politically powerful than the question of where a candidate comes from.
Move political debate towards policy
Nigeria’s political conversation must also become more firmly rooted in policy.
Election campaigns and national debates should focus more consistently on economic growth, employment, security, healthcare, education, infrastructure, technology, energy and institutional reform.
The media has a particularly important responsibility.
Journalists should resist allowing provocative ethnic or religious rhetoric to dominate political coverage when more consequential questions about governance remain unanswered.
Candidates should be pressed to explain their programmes. Manifestos should be interrogated. Promises should be compared with previous performance. Public officials should be required to defend their records with evidence.
Universities, think tanks, professional organisations and civic groups can reinforce this culture by organising substantive debates in which candidates and parties are assessed primarily on policy.
Political competition becomes healthier when citizens are presented with genuine choices about how the country should be governed.
Journalism must serve the public interest
The press occupies a central position in any democracy, but its responsibility becomes even greater in a country as diverse as Nigeria.
Journalism can deepen social division or help citizens rise above it.
Responsible journalism — grounded in accuracy, fairness, verification and the public interest — can redirect political attention from ethnic and religious loyalties towards policy, competence and governance outcomes.
Nigeria has a vibrant media environment, encompassing newspapers, broadcasters, online publications and an expanding digital ecosystem. Yet the pressure to attract audiences can sometimes reward sensationalism, polarisation and emotionally charged identity narratives.
That approach may generate attention, but it does little to strengthen democracy.
The alternative is journalism that investigates how public resources are managed, examines whether reforms are delivering results, scrutinises corruption and tests the credibility of political promises.
Rather than concentrating on which ethnic group or religious community a politician belongs to, journalists should devote greater attention to how that politician has performed in office and what policies he or she proposes.
Such reporting can gradually change what citizens expect from political leadership.
Press freedom is equally important. Journalists must be able to investigate those in power without intimidation, harassment or political interference. At the same time, media organisations must strengthen professional standards and ensure that accuracy is not sacrificed for speed or partisan advantage.
The digital environment makes this task more urgent.
Social media has broadened political participation, particularly among younger Nigerians, but it has also made misinformation, manipulated narratives and divisive content easier to circulate.
News organisations must therefore invest more heavily in fact-checking, verification and digital literacy.
Authentic journalism is not merely about recording political events. At its best, it helps shape the democratic imagination by giving citizens reliable information with which to judge those who seek power.
Political parties must become institutions
Political parties are equally central to the transformation Nigeria needs.
Too often, parties are viewed less as institutions built around coherent political philosophies and more as vehicles for individuals, factions or electoral coalitions.
That weakens issue-based politics.
Parties should strengthen internal democracy, make candidate selection more transparent and develop credible policy platforms that distinguish them from their competitors.
Political affiliation should increasingly mean supporting a recognisable programme for governing the country rather than following personalities or communal alliances.
When parties are organised around ideas, voters have clearer choices.
When they are organised mainly around personalities and access to power, identity becomes easier to exploit.
Nigeria therefore needs political parties capable of surviving individual leaders and developing lasting positions on economic management, social welfare, national security, federalism, technology, education and other major issues.
Economic security can strengthen citizenship
Political reform cannot be separated from economic conditions.
Poverty, unemployment and economic insecurity can make citizens more vulnerable to patronage networks. A person struggling for survival may understandably prioritise immediate communal assistance over abstract democratic principles.
That creates fertile ground for politicians who distribute benefits through ethnic, religious or regional networks.
Economic inclusion can help weaken this dependency.
Citizens with stable livelihoods and greater economic independence are better positioned to make political choices based on policy and performance rather than access to patronage.
Job creation, entrepreneurship, skills development, access to finance and more equitable economic opportunity should therefore be understood not only as development priorities but also as democratic reforms.
Economic empowerment can strengthen political independence.
Restore confidence in institutions
Strong institutions provide one of the most effective safeguards against identity politics.
Citizens are less likely to retreat into communal loyalties when they trust the judiciary, electoral institutions, security agencies and anti-corruption bodies to treat them fairly.
Institutional reform must therefore focus on professionalism, transparency, competence and accountability.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, in particular, must continually strengthen public confidence in electoral administration. Transparent procedures, credible technology, clear communication and consistent application of electoral rules are essential.
The same principle applies to the courts, security agencies and public service.
When institutions are seen as serving every citizen equally, political identity becomes less necessary as a form of protection.
National integration requires deliberate action
National cohesion does not emerge automatically from sharing a flag or constitution. It has to be nurtured.
Educational exchanges, national service, community partnerships, interfaith initiatives and cultural programmes can expose Nigerians to people whose backgrounds differ from their own.
Political leaders also have a responsibility to use language that unites rather than divides.
Nigeria’s diversity should not be treated as a permanent political fault line. It should become a resource for national development.
Federalism itself can help accommodate diversity when institutions distribute power fairly and citizens believe that every part of the country has a meaningful stake in the national project.
The objective should not be uniformity. It should be belonging.
A new generation can change politics
Nigeria’s younger generation presents an important opportunity.
Young Nigerians are increasingly connected through technology, entrepreneurship, popular culture, education and civic activism in ways that often cut across traditional identity boundaries.
Many are concerned with employment, economic opportunity, accountability, technology, insecurity, education and the quality of public services.
Digital platforms have given this generation new ways to organise, challenge authority and participate in political debate.
That energy must be channelled into durable democratic institutions.
Young people should be encouraged not merely to participate in elections but to join political parties, build civic organisations, scrutinise budgets, contest public office and contribute to policy development.
A generational change in political expectations could prove decisive.
If younger citizens increasingly demand measurable results rather than symbolic representation, political parties and candidates will eventually have to respond.
Citizenship must matter more
Reducing identity politics is ultimately a national democratic necessity.
Nigeria cannot fully realise its political and developmental potential if elections remain heavily shaped by ethnic, regional and religious calculations.
Democracy becomes stronger when citizens judge political leaders by competence, integrity, policy, accountability and performance.
Identity will always remain part of Nigerian life, as it does in democracies around the world. The objective should not be to suppress legitimate cultural, ethnic or religious affiliation.
The task is to prevent those affiliations from becoming the dominant currency of political competition.
Stronger institutions, meaningful civic education, responsible journalism, economic inclusion, credible political parties and deliberate national integration can help achieve that transformation.
Nigeria’s diversity should enrich its democracy rather than define its limits.
The deeper democratic promise is a country in which a citizen can retain pride in tribe, region and faith while entering the polling booth with a larger question in mind: who has the ideas, integrity and ability to govern well?
That is the political culture Nigeria must build.
Professor Ojo Emmanuel Ademola is a Professor of Cybersecurity and Information Technology Management, global education advocate, Chartered Manager, UK digital journalist and Contributing Editor to Africa Briefing, strategic adviser, public intellectual, African governance thinker and General Evangelist of Christ Apostolic Church Nigeria and Overseas
