POLITICAL MARGINALIZATION AND POLITICS OF ROTATIONAL SYSTEM IN NIGERIA’S FOURTH REPUBLIC

Abstract

This paper examined the phenomenon of political marginalization and politics of the rotational system in Nigeria's Fourth Republic. The concept of marginalization in relation to politics has been widely studied in both the literature and empirical studies. The study was guided by three objectives and three research questions. John Rawl’s theory of justice which emph on procedural method of distributing political rights and economic benefits was adopted. Descriptive quantitative survey was used for the study while one (1) Senatorial zone each was chosen – from Kwara and Kaduna States for the population of the study. Probability proportionate cluster sampling technique were used in distributing the questionnaire two hundred and fifty (250) research participants were sampled. Data were collected using both primary and secondary sources.  The instrument for data collection were validated by team of supervisors and experts in Language and Statistics for content, face and construct validity. The reliability of the instrument was conducted through the use of Cronbach Alpha with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0.data collected from respondents were analyzed by the descriptive and inferential statistical methods. The findings of the study revealed that: the political marginalization has not significantly motivated the politics of rotational system in Nigeria. Also, there are unequal distribution of public resources and economic benefits across the selected zones compared to the advantaged zones in Kwara and Kaduna States respectively. And that, population has no significant impact on the rotational system in Nigeria’s Fourth (4th) Republic The study made the following recommendation among others: Government at all levels should promote a comprehensive democratic culture with all its intricacies that can take Nigeria closer to the emergence of stable, meaningful, purposeful and beneficial polity. And also, No ethnic group in the country should be marginalized as political position should not the monopoly of one section.