POLITICAL VIOLENCE AND THE ELECTORAL PROCESS IN NIGERIA AN OVERVIEW OF THE 2006 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
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POLITICAL VIOLENCE AND THE ELECTORAL
PROCESS IN NIGERIA AN OVERVIEW OF THE 2006 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
ABSTRACT
One of the
basic Machineries of any Representative democratic system is the Electoral
Process. The Experience of the western representative democracy in Nigeria can
be traced from the Clifford and Mcpherson Constitutions for 1922 and 1951
respectively. This was elaborated at independence in the first and second
republic and subsequent periods.
Very Ugly
Experiences have characterized the activities with the Electoral Process that
constitutes the burning questions in this work with malpractice, fraud and
therefore violence.
The Election
of the first republic displayed Ethnicity in the second Republic Presidential
Election (2006) records it ugly tendencies but in and refined form. This time,
money and corruption led to Race in electoral malpractice of the past and
present on the political system. The study finally traces these political
problems of the country to basic socio-institutional origins of the ethnicity class,
material consciousness and others.
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The
significance of election has an instrument for regime change has been
recognized in most part of the world. Its importance in a democratic society
has been acknowledge by democratic means in highly cherished by the populace.
Election of course can be the basic tool of democratic development.
Political
violence in Nigeria as a matter of fact cannot be over emphasized. Political
violence is a process that gave room for political instability or unrest. That
is political violence encompasses, political assassinations, killings, thuggery,
stealing of ballot boxes and papers, intimidation, riggings and fund. Political
violence according to Ojiaka (1981) gave an account of political violence and
fraud as intense in the western region election held on October 11, 1965. The
political violence took the following shape.
i. Ten houses were burnt
ii. Two people were killed
iii. About 24 people were arrested for
allegedly in possession of large quantity of ballot papers
iv. Twelve ballot boxes containing papers
were discovered at twelve different filling stations in Ondo-State.
Electoral
fraud being parts and parcel of political violence is an act of decert involved
in a elections by a persons or group of persons in order to have an advantage
over a person or group of persons.
Fraud
association with successive elections seems more sophisticated than previous
ones. In the election that ushered in the second republic government in 2006,
Gargantuan fraud was alleged to have accrued, heading to litigation by the
opposition parties against the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) that won at the
federal level. The level of sophistication in the election that returned
Shehu-Shargi of NPN to Shagari’s presidential elections made a shame of
elections in Nigeria.
The ill
fated third republic that lasted from 1991-1993 was not free from social
democratic party (SDP) and Bashiri Tofa of national republican convention (NRC)
has been adjudged the free and fair election in Nigeria. Rather than
improvement on the 1993 elections, things went even worst in the 1999 elections
that ushered in the fourth republic.
The
beneficiary of the 2006 electoral fraud, Olusegun Obasanjo surprised Nigerians
when he brazenly introduced high level of irregularities in the 2006 elections
in order to secure victory for himself and his party.
The fraud in
2006 elections is perhaps, jokingly referred to us as electronic rigging owing
to the fail that electronic voting system was used in many quarters because of
the magnituble of alleged irregularities involved.
The fraud in
the presidential election was so brazen that many Nigeria’s called for its
cancellation for another election to be conducted by the United Nations.
Reading to the suggestion, Ekpu (2007) states this: those who think that the
United Nations can conduct perfect elections in Nigeria are suffering from the
illusion belief that the global is a magician. The united nation would need
election officers, who will be Nigerians, all of these Nigerians have their
interest, many, geography, tribe and that is why elections hardly work.
However,
over the years the desire and task of building a stable democracy in Nigeria
has remained a mirage and part of this unfulfilled dream as peaceful change of
government ostensibly, through the electoral process. It is a common pattern
that election in the third world countries are mined by violence and
malpractice and therefore never free and fair as unlike the case in advanced
industrial countries.
Electioneering
and the conduct of supposedly democratic elections seems to highlight the most
traits in the characters of Nigeria particularly those of them who are
prominent members of the political class as well as those of them who are
active participants in electoral process. The national problem stems from the
fact that Nigeria fits Thomas Hobbes description of man in his state of nature.
He is basically self seeking and self-centered.
This
determines the greed in Nigerian man. This greed manifest itself on daily ways
of life. Hence the cultural or a cultural flat has become part of our socio
politically economic organizations.
All the
nation wide elections so far conducted by Nigerian for Nigerians have virtually
brought our country to the brink of civil way. This was true of the
presidential election of 2006, if we agreed that elections in basic tool of
democratic development its application becomes over more vital political
transition such as we have in this country since independence.
In fact,
nothing would have been more gratifying in those transition exercise than to
see this country match into a republic under a government elections such as
development would not only be cherished for building a stable democratic
society in the country. Electoral malpractices constitute a form of political
corruption.
Electoral
fraud is therefore politically stabilizing economically wasteful and
destructive to government capacity, it destroys the legitimacy of government
structures heightens problems of national integration and upsets ethnic balance
for the individual listener election are the means which enables him to
exercise his share of political power, no matter how small it may be.
Elections
thus are at the heart of the structure and functioning of modern democratic
state and accompanied by irregularities and discrepancies summarily known as
malpractice. The Nigeria second republic and politicians the pipe of ethnic
polities and political corruption.
Events of
the past here profoundly have shaken the confidence of the Nigerian people in
the process by which they select their governing officials. It is hand to
imagine how a nation can continue to function democratically, if most of its
citizens continue to believe that the electoral process is fraudulent.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The issue of
electoral malpractice has always been a source of untold worry to patriotic and
well-meaning Nigeria because of the destabilizing effects. It has on the
national body polity. A cursory glance at the annuals of our history reveals
that Nigerians that one in forced to Albert uneasily come to grapple with the
fact that this country as an entity might not after all survive for long.
With the
knowledge of elections having a common pattern of violence and practice in the
third world countries. It is easy to locate and situated the problem of
democratic transition through popular elections within the context of electoral
malpractice.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
Given that
all the elections in Nigeria have always had a common pattern of being
characterized by malpractice, it becomes clear that the objectives of this
study to conduct a survey of general nature of electoral malpractices in the
elections so far had in this country showing how these malpractices have
affected the Nigeria political system, the study aims among other things.
1. It will document various type of
electoral malpractice that has occurred during the first and second republican
elections.
2. The work will try find out why this
problem continues to flourish in the Nigerian political process.
3. It will proffer solutions to the
problem of electoral malpractice in order to move the country forward in the
areas of democratic political transition.
1.4 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF STUDY
The scope in
this research will deal mainly an electoral malpractice in Nigeria and its
cases. The study also fires to determine the possible solutions to the electoral
malpractice problems.
Limitations
to this research are the lack of sufficient literature on the key theoretical
concepts. Materials on electoral malpractices are not quite easy to source,
hence reliance on magazines journals and similar papers etc.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
Elections
are watershed in the political development of any country to the extent that
political stability of a country depends on the integrity development of any
country depends on the integrity of its electoral system.
This significance
of the study buys in the ability to highlight the constraints which electoral
malpractice posses on the electoral system and the political system in general,
as matter of fact a study of the factors which made this elections rough will
contribute to better understanding of the problems posed by malpractice in free
election in the new nations.
In this
regard, this study will go a long way to educate and inculcate the Nigerian
electorates on the ill of election malpractice. It is believed that this
research will not only add to existing literature on elections and electoral
malpractice, but will serve as a guide in planning and conducting future
elections in the country.
1.6 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The
identification of malpractice as a problem militating against successful free
and fair elections in Nigeria shall in the course of this work be affected
using Marxist political economy approach and class analysis. This approach has
been exposed and used, through different senses by scholars like walter
Rodenyi, Adre Gunder and clande etc to explain various phenomena in society.
The tenet of
political economy made up analysis derives from the interconnections between
the economic political and other facets of the substructure.
The
political economy method gives primary to the materials reality of life, hence
it sees society as a unit for the production and reproduction of social life,
in order to satisfy materials needs. As a matter of facts, economic need in
man’s most fundamental need and unless man is able to meet his needs, he cannot
exist in the first place. Further explanation means that political violence
approach basis its analysis on the dialectical and historical materialism. The
former deals with how a conflict resolution among the socio-economic classes
often leads to social change, a change that is often revolutionary in
character. Historical materialism on the other hand deals with the constantly
developing society.
In this
regards the political economy approach seek to understand what relationship
that exist between economic and political economy approach in the analysis of
the Nigerian social formation, we intend to explain the continuous influence of
electoral malpractice on free and fair election in the country. Why it has not
been quite possible to eliminate such influence from the material nature of the
Nigerian state. Nigeria as a peripheral capitalist formation has a very limited
autonomy.
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