ABSTRACT

          The study reveal the Ethno Regional Politics in Nigeria between the periods 1960-1966, of which politics at the domestic level was determined by ethnicity because the regions were carved along ethnic lines, the Yoruba of the West, the Hausa of the North and the Igbo of the East. This accounted for the power tussles among the various political parties that emerged immediately after independence. The study also showed that, despite the fact that the politics of Nigeria during the period was drawn along ethnic lines. Nigeria party politics has been polluted by ethnic chauvinism. This problem  is  one  of  the  major  qualms  confronting the  progress  of  liberal democracy in Nigeria since 1960, to the extent that ethnic sentiment has gradually crept in to find a place in every faced of Nigerian political activity. Ethnic sentiment has been one of the factors responsible for most of the inefficiencies and low productivity in Nigeria. The major focus of this paper is to trace the historical origin, growth and development of ethnicity and the effects it has had on post-colonial governance in Nigeria. In the findings of this paper, it was discovered that ethnic sentiment was deliberately introduced and propagated in the polity by the British colonial government to realize colonial and imperialist economic and political obj