DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2020.v08i12.002

Pages: 572-577

In Nigeria, citizens negate moral values by acts of political disengagement which reflect a retrogressed sense of personal responsibility to nationhood owing to perceived corruption. We argue that both the leaders and the led, reinforce these undemocratic behaviors rather than challenge them collectively and individually. Our position therefore is that the participation or non-participation of individuals in Nigerian party politics is a function of moral confusion whereby the individual is unable to decipher right from wrong but depends on real or imagined hunger and or resource-backed signals from others to act. Data collection using Political Participation Scale and Ethical Moral Self Inventory, and data analyses using Pearson Correlation yielded significant negative correlation between ethical moral self and partisan political participation, p< .05. The results were discussed in terms of their relevance in building strong political institutions in Nigeria and Africa in general.