Ethnic Sentiments

Abstract: Voting behavior influences the electoral process and voting pattern in every democratic government. When it especially pertains to any multicultural society there is often this global applicability of similar tendency to have similar historical reality when it comes to voting behavior. The Africa societies specifically have these similar tendencies mostly. In Nigeria, the country's political and socio-economic surroundings, as well as its historical backdrop, affected electorates' behavior and voting patterns in the state's history-to-date national campaign. Ethnicity offers one leap of influence and adjusts the reality of each election. Especially in the presidential elections, Nigeria, being a multicultural nation, experiences this reality not only in presidential elections but also in governorship elections because of the diversity even within an ethnicity. However, the focus is on the presidential election because it offers a large set of statistics and a clearer motif to understand this peculiar situation. More so it allows for the global applicability of findings to other multicultural society around the world. This thesis investigated the influence of ethnicity in a multicultural society on voting behavior: A study of the Nigerian presidential election is the focus. Using the sociological theory and the constructivism approach the thesis utilized the data collected from 18 interviews of respondents along with historical data presentation to critically analyze the 2015 Presidential Election to understand information about the electorate's voting habits and voting patterns along the ethnic line. The thesis makes use of Thematic analysis and conclusively outlined and discovered essential themes that are applicable to the way ethnic influence were formed by voters. The study conclusively discovered that although other indicators are also responsible for voting behavior. Ethnicity encouraged by economic partiality among ethnic group groups remains a strong reason voters vote the way they do. Also, although ethnicity may exact a strong influence on voting behavior, communication, fair and equitable governance is discovered to be a sure way to greatly reduce ethnic voting. I further make recommendation as to the reality of my findings and conclusion, for further research.