AN APPRAISAL OF THE EFFECT ETHNIC CONFLICT AND ON NATIONAL STABILITY IN NIGERIA

Abstract
The study postulates that true nationalism and stability cannot be attained in the face of conflict involving various ethnic group in the society. The Nigerian post-colony is, presently, confronted by the challenges pose by ethnicity/ethnic nationalism with negative consequences of political ethnicity, ethnic conflicts, etc. It is argued that the entrenchment of plural democracy has the capacity to address the lopsided policies of the central state that are at the peril of the weak federating states and most importantly, the oil-bearing ethnic minorities of Nigeria’s Niger Delta. In addendum, the article argues and demonstrates that democracy in the real sense of has the potency of democratising the Nigerian nation-state; strengthening of mediatory and regulatory institutions; promoting intra- and inter-ethnic relations; etc. The agitations and activities of the oil-bearing ethnicities and various ethnic social movements of the Nigeria’s Fourth Republic for autonomy and social justice were used to buttress this article’s basic augments and concludes with the government’s efforts in addressing Africa’s most popular country’s multilayered ethnic problems.