VOTING SHOULD NOT BE BASED ON ETHNICITY 

       Voting is a method by which a group such as a meeting or an electorate can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussion or campaigns. Every citizen has the right to vote during election. By voting, citizens are participating in the democratic process. Citizens vote for leaders to represent them and their ideas, and the leaders have to support the citizens interest. In most part of the world, Nigeria for example, the practice of ethnic voting is rampant.

        Ethnic voting is seen as the degree to which individual from different ethnic groups support co ethnic candidates. 

       Nigeria, a Nation faced by thousand of challenges from bad governance may be called an ailed nation that need urgent cure. Or what do we call a nation with such insecurity and high unemployment rate? but to mention a few. Hopelessness amongst youths have become severe. As much as Nigerian need good governance and leadership, people still make it tradition to vote based on ethnics. 

       Moreover, for a long time in Nigeria, citizens have been deprived of their civil rights; safety and other right that is meant to be enjoyed by citizens. Kidnapping for ransom, herdsmen killing and police brutality continue to be cankerworm to the development of the country.   

       Citizens have to move past the primordial consideration. The best person should be voted, irrespective of their ethnics. Avoiding ethnicity in deciding who becomes the next leader would be the first step to take to enthrone viable leadership for the growth of the country. Every citizen must think deeply and ruminate on who is best suited for the leadership position. Successive governments have failed in providing basic needs of life for the majority of Nigerians. Majority now live in abject poverty, graduates are unemployed resulting in fraudulent engagements such as internet scams and armed robbery.        

      Moreover, the strong support that Nigerian leaders retain among voters of their own ethnicity, despite clear evidence of shirking and corruption has prompted numerous empirical investigations into whether an incumbent's ethnicity or performance is more important to Nigerian voters. The model of votes choice underlying almost all of these studies is additive and implies that either co ethnicity or good performance can increase a candidate's vote share. 

      In conclusion, though voters always prefer good performers, this analysis shows that voters are indifferent to the performance of non co ethnic candidates. This article provides evidence that this pattern is in fact a result of voters' belief that they will only receive future goods from co ethnics, making a demonstrated ability to provide such goods relevant for the electability of co ethnic candidates, but not for non- co ethnics. Voters should stop taking ethnics into consideration while choosing their leaders because, a leader from a different ethnic group may be the one with more potential.

    - Shonubi Modupe Ruth