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Youth Involvement In Political Violence And Thuggery In Nigeria
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In
contemporary democracies, elections are acceptable means of electing
leaders, an important process that strengthens democratic institutions
and facilitate peaceful transition of power (Ugiagbe, 2010). However, in
Nigeria all elections conducted since her independence in 1960 have
been characterized by widespread violence, intimidation, bribery and
corruption. Muhammed (2010) reported that the prevalence of one
political violence or the other has been the mainstay of elections in
Nigeria with youths as the major actors in the theatre of electoral
violence and that such violence has assumed a serious dimension.
Electoral
violence according to the International Foundation for Electoral System
(IFES) is any act or threat of physical or psychological harm to a
person or damage to property, directed at anyone directly involved in an
electoral process (voters, candidates, party officers, election
workers, election monitors, journalists, etc.) which may disrupt or
attempt to disrupt any aspect of the electoral process (Fischer, 2002).
Electoral violence could therefore be described as a pre- meditated act
that intends to influence the electoral process using foul language,
verbal intimidation, blackmail, dangerous weapons, arson and
assassination. (Bamfo 2008). At the receiving end of political violence
are human beings.Ugiagbe (2010) submits that acts associated with
electoral violence include physical harm, (homicide, torture,
assault),threats (physical, verbal, intimidation; destruction of
property), arson, damage from dangerous objects, forced displacement and
ballot box snatching.
Usman (2009) identified five major common
grounds of electoral violence; these are during registration, during
political campaigns on Election Day, when results are announced, winner
takes all syndrome. In their own study, Onwudiweand Bernard (2010)
describe the pattern of electoral violence in Nigeria as intra party
crisis, inter-party crisis, electoral crisis, violence and community
unrest while Ugbaigbe (2010) opines that electoral violence do manifest
in the three electoral stages namely, pre-election, during election and
postelection stages. The objective of electoral violence is to influence
the electoral process with the sole aim to win political competition or
power through violence or subverting the ends of the electoral and
democratic process through intimidation and disempowerment of political
opponents. The increased involvement of Nigerian youths in electoral
violence should be of concern to all. Defining youths has been a little
bit controversial, different authors define it in the context in which
the word-youth is used. United Nations Children Education Fund UNICEF
(1972) sees youth as those within age bracket 15-25years Johnson cited
in Abhuere (2000) asserts that while leadership programmes have no upper
age limit, their membership covers people of over 35-45years old, for
the purpose of this study youth refers to anyone between the ages of 18
and 45 years.
Most of the world’s development strategies largely
depend on the youth. This societal segment is believed toassist in
producing sustained economy, social justice and stable democracy of a
nation. It is therefore veryimportant if the society could produce a
qualitative youth to make these a reality. The primary aim of
theresearch is to understand the relationship between drug abuse among
the youth and political thuggery in Nigeria. The problem is made complex
by a series of problem which is climaxed in the failure of the Nigerian
state to solve its internal differences.
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