Knowledge and support for political restructuring among youths in Nigeria: Are there ethnic and religious differences?

Abstract

Agitations for political restructuring have come from virtually all age groups, socio-ethnic and political configurations in Nigeria. However, little or nothing is known about the ethnic and religious differences in the entire agitations especially among the youths. This study examined ethnic and religious differences in the knowledge and support for political restructuring among the youths in Nigeria. Participants were 575 youths (372 males, 180 females, M = 25.62, SD = 5.51) drawn from Nigeria's six geopolitical zones. Data were collected using questionnaires assessing knowledge and support for political restructuring. One-way ANOVA was used to analyze the data. Results showed that youths from minority ethnic groups reported higher knowledge and support for political restructuring. For the various religious groups, Muslims have more knowledge and support for political restructuring. Relying on the issue-specific motivator model, the study highlighted the implications of these findings for research and policy.

Decentralization of South Eastern Nigeria’s Local Governments and Achievement of Mandates Enshrined in Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution

“…Although Nigeria LGs run the presidential system, there are shreds of evidence of under service (see, Doho et al, 2018). Several issues such as corruption, insecurity, and religious differences (George et al, 2020), poor service delivery, resource allocation, injustice (Othman et al, 2019) are raised to question the effectiveness of decentralization. On LG decentralization, issues of corruption, underfunding, and insecurity are also identified (see, Ikeanyibe et al, 2020; Michael & Rich, 2020; Nurudeen & Marcin, 2019).…”