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Volume 59, Issue 328, April 2023

Victory through the ballots or violence to victory? An assessment of electoral violence in post-independence Nigeria

Egobueze Anthony

Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Rivers State University, Nkpolu –Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

This paper investigated electoral violence in post-independence Nigeria and held that the most accepted means of changing government is through elections. The importance attached to elections globally suggests that its successful conduct is critical to the advancement of democracy. However, in Nigeria and many advancing democracies, elections rather being won through the ballots have been manipulated by some political elites and their cronies, leading to violence of all sorts. This paper therefore assesses the historicity of electoral violence in Nigeria from independence to date. Methodologically, data was sourced through secondary sources and analyzed through content analysis. The paper observed weak institution, desire of the elites to control the polity for economic advantage and mass poverty as the reasons for electoral violence in Nigeria and recommended the implementation of Justice Uwais Electoral Panel Report, amongst others as key panacea to curbing the violence.

Keywords: Assessment, Ballots, Election, Independence, Post, Victory, Violence