Public Policy and Governance Issues in Multi-Ethnic Society: The Predicaments of Policy Agenda Setting in Nigeria

Abstract

It is an indisputable fact that Nigeria is a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious country. It is also widely recognized that the country has an abundance of material and human resources due to its diverse population. But what was once seen and considered as a blessing has turned into a serious problem for governance and politics in Nigeria. This is because the determination of ethnic entrepreneurs to invoke the common consciousness shared by individuals who identify with a specific ethnic or religious group lies at the heart of a lot of governance and policy challenges in the country. Symbolic ethnic pluralism has been an element in conflictual group relations whenever there is socioeconomic and political competition in the country. The objective of this paper is to examine how public policy agenda-setting and ethnoreligious consciousness intersect in Nigeria. The study used a qualitative approach, collecting data from the author’s observations as well as a comprehensive analysis of the body of existing literature. The findings imply that the overlapping roles of power, perception, potency, and proximity in political mobilization and policy-making in Nigeria have an impact on the intersection of ethnicity and religion as well as the reduction of complex geostrategic and historical conflicts to ethnic strife. The study recommended that the country’s current institutional arrangements and social norms be drastically altered.