Political Violence and the Sustenance of Democracy In Nigeria (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Research in Social Science and Humanities, 2022
Nigerian polity over the years has witnessed several electoral processes and elections which have been characterized by various forms of violence. These have equally resulted into negative indices such as political apathy among the electorates, loss of lives and properties, low economic growth, poor standard of living and stunted political development. The paper examines electoral violence and its prevalence in Nigerian polity. The paper focuses on the factors behind the continuous occurrences of electoral violence in almost all the elections conducted in Nigeria at the federal, state and local government levels since independence. The study is a qualitative research which relied on secondary sources of information and anchored on elite theory as its theoretical framework of analysis. The paper finds that poverty, unemployment, financial inducement of elective positions, bad governance and loose security architecture among others are the causes of electoral violence in Nigeria. The paper further reveals that electoral violence creates fear among the electorates and some interested candidates which hinders their political participation and interests resulting in political apathy. The paper posits that electoral violence is an obstacle to good governance, peaceful coexistence and political development in Nigeria. The paper therefore recommends among others, that political education, public enlightenment, eradication of poverty through people oriented government policies and creation of jobs for the idle youths will help to ameliorate the occurrences of electoral violence in Nigeria polity.
Electoral Violence as Bane of Democratic Development in Nigeria
African Political Science Review, 2021
This paper interrogated the interrelations between electoral violence and democratic consolidation in Nigeria between 1999 and 2019. Free, fair, and credible elections are hallmarks of participatory democracy. Developmental states in the world have, through legislation, enactment of relevant laws, application of technology, and establishment of strong institutions, managed to eradicate incidence of violence in elections. In Nigeria, however, the case is not the same. Elections have been held in Nigeria every four years starting from 1999, but it is worrisome that each one seems to be progressively more violent than the previous. The study is anchored on prebendalism theory to explicate electoral violence as a phenomenon. Qualitative research design is applied to gain insight into electoral violence in Nigeria. Data collection emanated from previous studies carried out by scholars utilizing the content analysis method. The paper concluded that electoral violence only serves as a mirror of the larger Nigerian society, which is hamstrung by systemic failure as a result of corruption. Also, ethnic, religious, sectional considerations and not popular policies give rise to electoral violence in Nigeria. Recommendations in the study include that: rampant and widespread public corruption should be nipped in the bud by legislation to drastically reduce salaries and wages of elected and appointed office holders to the level accruable to civil servants in Nigeria; meritocracy should be enthroned in all government businesses by prioritizing merit rather than such policies as the federal character in Nigeria. Keywords: Democratic consolidation, Election, Electoral violence, Politics, Prebendalism.
Effects of Political Violence on the Contemporary Nigerian Democratic Process
Al-Hikmah University Journal of Education.2 (2); 115-123.Official publication of the Faculty of Education, 2015
Violence is human and it is as well present in the political process in contemporary Nigeria. This paper seeks to address the effects of political violence on the democratic process in Nigeria. The paper investigates the overview of political violence in Nigeria and also discusses the nexus between political violence and the democratic process. The psychological theoretical perspective is adopted for the study to determine the problem. It is discovered that political violence has brought series of military interventions in Nigeria. And other vices like killing innocent and maiming innocent Nigerians, stealing, social unrest, among others, always accompany political violence. The paper, therefore, recommends that there should be a need to de-emphasize the premium placed on the acquisition of political power. It also calls for an effective investigation by the relevant authorities to look into several cases of political violence and related human rights abuse in the process of elections. It is part of our recommendations that all stakeholders in the political process should be mandated to sign a treaty of peace which they must maintain before, during, and after the political process, particularly during the electioneering period.
Political Violence and the Sustainability of Nigerian Democracy
The Journal of Social Sciences Research, 2015
This paper titled Political Violence and The Sustainability of Nigerian Democracy seeks to establish the causes of political violence in Nigerian democratic experiment and possibly suggest how to surmount the pathologies with a view to ensuring the survival of the nation’s fledgling democracy. The study adopted elite theory as a theoretical framework of analysis. The study established that greed, struggle for supremacy between godfathers and godsons have often led to political violence in the country’s party system. The implication of the study is that if the above factors are not assuaged, the polity will continue to elect and nominate mediocre to occupy positions of responsibilities. Similarly, the country polity will keep witnessing wanton destruction of lives and properties. The study therefore recommended that the existing sentiments and parochial cleavages such as ethnicity and religion should not be a pre-requisite when it comes to attracting the suitable qualified candidates...
2018
This paper examines election violence and democracy in Nigeria with focus on the 2011 and 2015 general elections in Lagos State. The study adopts a qualitative method basically from primary data (oral interview) and secondary data, using observations, journal articles, newspaper reports and report of INEC obtained online. The study was anchored on the Frustration Aggression Theory in understanding the rational for engaging in electoral violence. It reveals that election violence was caused by many factors including; lack of internal democracy within political parties, inefficiency of the electoral commissions, inadequate security personnel, inadequate voter education, voters’ bribery, rumour of rigging, among others. Therefore, the paper recommends among others that political leaders should play positive roles in building effective government through their constitutional duties and mandates. All political parties in Nigeria should endeavour to make internal democracy within the part...
Electoral Violence in Nigerian Polity: Causes and Consequences
International Journal of Research in Social Science and Humanities
Nigerian polity over the years has witnessed several electoral processes and elections which have been characterized by various forms of violence. These have equally resulted into negative indices such as political apathy among the electorates, loss of lives and properties, low economic growth, poor standard of living and stunted political development. The paper examines electoral violence and its prevalence in Nigerian polity. The paper focuses on the factors behind the continuous occurrences of electoral violence in almost all the elections conducted in Nigeria at the federal, state and local government levels since independence. The study is a qualitative research which relied on secondary sources of information and anchored on elite theory as its theoretical framework of analysis. The paper finds that poverty, unemployment, financial inducement of elective positions, bad governance and loose security architecture among others are the causes of electoral violence in Nigeria. The ...
Electoral Violence as a Threat to Consolidation of Nigeria's Democracy
Journal of Policy and Development Studies, 2016
It should be emphasized that the trend of violence in Nigeria under the country's nascent democracy is a paradox, especially when viewed from the fact that democracy and its attendant ingredients of freedom, justice, peace and good governance is supposed to curb violence in all its ramifications. However, the situations in Nigeria as available evidence reveals do not conform to this little opportunity is taken for violence. That which concerns this paper is electoral violence. Since political power is taken as an avenue to amass wealth for selfish interest rather than-national, state, Local or community development, people go to any length to-grab the power. As a result, peace which is a prerequisite to the survival of democracy is lacking. The paper examines electoral violence under Nigeria's nascent democracy. It is revealed that issues such as poverty, unemployment, age-long conflicts, rigging, poor security system, lack of well defined ideology by Political parties and political intolerance are threatening the survival-of Nigeria's-democracy. Unless these issues are adequately addressed, the chances that Nigeria's nascent democracy with survive are very slim.
This paper examines the political violence and democratic stability in Nigeria. The paper is written against the backdrop that, periodic elections are fundamental to the principles of democracy. Thus, political violence has been a major roadblock to democratic stability in Nigeria. The paper argues that the Nigerian democratic project has been under perpetual threat since 1999 when the country returned to democratic governance. However, the excitement and euphoria that greeted the country's return to democracy in 1999 has drastically waned creating fear in the polity. The methodology adopted focuses on the secondary data and insights were drawn extensively from the conflict theorists. The paper revealed that the realization of democratic objective or stability depends solely on free, fair and credible elections. The paper therefore recommends among others, that politicians should not use ethnicity and religion to galvanize support and polarize the populace through politics of religious deception and ethnic chauvinism which have stirred up sentiments and sparked communal violence perennially in Nigeria. Fundamentally too, the federal and state governments should publicly condemn discrimination on the basis of 'indigene' or 'non-indigene' status and accord all Nigerians full citizenship status and make them eligible to enjoy all political and ultimately dissuade inclinations for political violence. Introduction It is apposite to state that political violence is the hallmarks of weakly institutionalize politics. The starkest manifestation of such violence is armed conflict in the form of civil war. Though elections which are supposed to be a significant pillar in the democratic process of a country with the twin principles of political participation and accountability is precisely in the greatest and most notable violations of the occurrence of this principles. Everyone wants to win, and
Indian Journal of Economics and Development, 2017
This paper is focused towards establishing the causes of electoral violence in Nigeria’s democracy, with BAYELSA and KOGI State 2015 general elections as study areas.The study pin pointed frustration, aggression, greed, poverty (hunger) and selfishness among the people (electorates) and contestants as some of the factors that gave rise to electoral violence in Nigeria’s political activities. Recommendations were made that; elected representatives should live up to their campaign promises to avert the frustration and aggressions noticed among the electorates,
ELCTORAL VIOLENCE AND DEMOCRATIC PROCESS IN NIGERIA
LABAR: JOURNAL OF MILITARY HISTORY & PEACE STUDIES (LJMHPS), 2024
Nigeria's political history reveals a longstanding trend of electoral fraud which has escalated so much so that violence is employed to ensure the smooth progress and process of rigging. Since the first election in 1922, there has been an uninterrupted case of rigging with subsequent ones being more organized that the previous ones. Between independence in 1960 and 1991, Nigeria produced only two elected governments both later overthrown in military coups. After nearly 30 years, in 1999, Nigeria made a transition to civilian rule. This paper is titled e violence and democratic process in Nigeria. The research used secondary data. Elites theory of democracy was adopted because it explains the causes of electoral violence which is rooted on elites. The found out that electoral violence was caused by elites who are desperately hungry for power. The research also found out that the offenders of electoral violence are not been punish by the authority concern. Therefore, the research recommends establishment of electoral offence tribunal to deal with such cases, The research also recommend proper education of electorate on the danger of electoral violence in our society.