THE DIALECTICS OF ETHNO-RELIGIOUS VOTING BEHAVIOUR IN NIGERIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS: AN EXPOSITORY ANALYSIS

A presidential election is an expedient process for the democratization of the office of the Executive President. It therefore represents a national-conscious exercise fundamental for governance and development. This paper examines the trends of voting behaviour in presidential elections of a plural democratizing polity, Nigeria. In reference to the methodology of this discourse, the paper explored the relevance of primary and secondary sources of data collection and, content-analyzed events and issues as regards identity politics and presidential elections in Nigeria. This discourse adopted the theory of Marxian historical dialectical materialism to establish that voter enthusiasm and preference of Nigeria electorate is a function of ethno-religious identity driven by the motive of materialism nurtured and advanced by the history of alienation and competition among the elite ethnic nationalities in fervent struggle for national power and resources. Hence, the discourse explicitly revealed that the dialectics of ethno-religious voting behaviour in 2011, 2015 and 2019 presidential elections varied in form and intensity critical for the permutation of 2023 presidential election. In credence to these findings, the discourse recommends for issue –based voting behaviour, advocacy for national consciousness among other measures imperative for visionary leadership for national transformation.