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Party Politics And Electoral Violence In Nigeria
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1.2 Statement of the Problem
Consolidating Nigerian democracy
through the conduct of credible elections has remained an albatross. The
history of Nigeria’s democratic experiments demonstrates that elections
and party politics have generated so much animosity which has, in some
cases, threatened the corporate existence of the country (such as
happened after the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election)
and in other cases instigated military incursion into political
governance, most notably in 1966 and 1983.
At the heart of electoral
process in Nigeria is the problem of lack of credibility for the
official results of elections leading to the rejection of such results
by a sizeable portion of the Nigerian voting public. Since the 1964
general election, the first to be conducted by the post-colonial
Nigerian government, elections in Nigeria have consistently been
characterized by the contestation of results and organized violence.
While
there is a plethora of factors that account for electoral violence in
Nigeria, the institutional factor (designing a credible electoral
system) appears to be the most salient (Animashaun, 2010). In addition,
the process of implementing such an efficient electoral regime is
challenged by sociological variables such as the pluralist character of
the Nigerian nation, underdeveloped political culture and irrational
party politics (Animashaun, 2010).
Since the inauguration of the
Fourth Republic, a pattern is already emerging which points to the fact
that political elites have not learnt much from the mistakes of the
past. The high level of political abduction, harassment, arson, and
assassinations, withdrawal of credible and qualified professionals in
the race all lay credence to this fact (Jegede, 2003). It is against
this backdrop that this study seeks to examine party politics and
electoral violence in Nigeria.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The study is being conducted with the following objectives:
1) To investigate the relationship between party politics and electoral violence in Nigeria.
2) To examine the effect of intra-party crisis on democratic process in Nigeria.
3) To investigate the effect of political parties on democratic consolidation in Nigeria.
4) To find out the challenges of political parties in Nigeria.
5) To recommend policy options on party politics and violence in Nigeria.
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