This study examines how Nigerians’ experience of ethnic discrimination relates to their sense of national identification vs. ethnic identification. A regression analysis reveals that the experience of discrimination prompts Nigerians to prioritise their ethnic identity over their national identity.
The regressions also show that the negative effect of discrimination on an exclusive feeling of national identification is larger than its positive effect on an exclusive feeling of ethnic identification.
These findings are robust to different operationalisations of discrimination and to the use of individual level survey data covering 36 African countries. Among the Nigerian population, Igbo ethnicity increased the likelihood of individuals prioritising their ethnic identity over their national identity, while Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani ethnicities had the opposite effect.
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