AN EVALUATION OF ELECTORAL VIOLENCE IN NIGERIA: THE CASE OF ANAMBRA STATE GUBERNATORIAL ELECTIONS

AN EVALUATION OF ELECTORAL VIOLENCE IN NIGERIA: THE CASE OF ANAMBRA STATE GUBERNATORIAL ELECTIONS

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BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The unbridled quest for power by man in his ever unstoppable search for relevance and advantage has indeed, generated so much tensions and hostilities. Thus, for most developing democracies of the Third World especially, Nigeria, electoral violence is not only a recurrent decimal, its frequency, character and dimension are quite frightening. It is now becoming a national character of the Nigerian state in such a way that both the Nigerian state and her citizens are held hostage by this smashing political reality in which both are unfortunate willing conspirators. From independence to date, electoral violence in Nigeria has improved in sophistry just as the politicians and their cohorts have remained resolute in this destructive enterprise. According to IFES Reports (2007), there were 967 incidents of electoral violence in the 2007 elections. Cases of abduction and kidnapping, murder and killing protest, disruption, intimidation and physical attack and well as poster defacing all featured in the incidents. 300 people were killed on issues relating to 2007 elections. Deadly election-related and communal violence in northern Nigeria following the April 2011 Presidential voting left more than 800 people dead (Human Rights Watch (2011). With the benefit of hindsight and after a pain-staking research, CLEEN Foundation, in its ‘Third Security Threat Assessment’, projected that electoral violence is most likely to occur in 15 Nigerian most volatile and high security risk states during the 2015 general elections (CLEEN in Ibe, 2014). Interestingly, all the violence linked to elections is mostly perpetrated by the youth who are not only in the service of the politicians but financed by them so long as they do their biddings. With the benefits of their vigour, seeming lawlessness and lackadaisical attitude to the Nigeria Project, the youth are willing ready-made weapons in the hands of the political leaders who think less of the development of the state and more of their parochial interests. Little wonder why the recurrent destruction of the state through electoral violence is of less concern to them. Electoral violence could be regarded as elections-motivated-crisis employed to alter, change or influence by force or coercion, the electoral behaviour of voters or voting patterns or possibly reverse electoral decision in favour of particular individual, groups or political party. It could be seen as any violence (harm) or threat of violence (harm) that is aimed at any person or property involved in the election process, or at disrupting any part of the electoral or political process during the election period” (International Foundation for Election Systems, 2011). Electoral violence could be before the election, thus involving all such activities that inflict any form of injury to the democratic system and its constituent and could be during voter registrations, campaigns and actual voting. Such violence could also be a post-election phenomenon which comes consequent on the manipulation of election results, rejection of results, etc. Election-related violence according to Ladan (2006) could be categorised into physical and psychological. Physical election violence including physical attack, resulting into assault, battery, grievous bodily harm or death, disruption and other campaign, use of abusive language and other forms of violence inflicted on individuals and groups. Psychological election violence, including indiscriminate pasting of campaign posters, chanting slogans (particularly the use of local poets and singers to attack and abuse opponents), intimidation of public servants and businessmen for opposing the status quo or the incumbent administration, use of the media (especially state-owned) to inflict psychological violence on the opposition and the denial of access to such media by the opposition parties, reckless driving by those in a procession to campaign rallies, which intimidate other road users and the use of traditional ruler to intimidate the masses into electing particular preferred candidates. Conceptually, one is worried by the prevailing animalistic attitude of the Nigerian politicians who go all out for power with all the arsenals within their reach. This could be situated in the power analysis which sees the struggle for power as consistent, persistent and a desideratum. The struggle for power therefore, remains a battle for the strong and like in every war situation, nothing is spared. The situation is not helped by the Nigerian situation where wielders of political power are not only above the law, but loot state treasury without qualms. They also allocate state resources as they want and move around unchecked as demigods. This really serves as motivation to violent political behaviours because political office must be won at all cost. The prevailing Nigerian political culture is not helping matters as well.
1.2 Statement of Problem

Nigeria joined the comity of democratically governed countries, it has continued to experience an unprecedented rise in political violence ranging from increases crime wave,armed robbery, political assassination, and religious riots .The grave political development crisis has generated a growing body of analyses and prescriptions on what has gone wrong and what should be done (Gideons,2010). The dominant strands of analytical expositions have appeared that prominent in the political and intellectual circle, giving rise to diametrically oppressed interrogation of the injection of electoral violence in Nigeria’s political dispensation.

1.3 Objective of Study

The general objective of the study is electoral violence in Nigeria: the case of Anambra state gubernatorial elections. Specifically, the study will be guided under the following;

1. History Of Electoral Violence In Nigeria
2. Electoral Violence During Governorship Elections In Anambra State
3. Factors Responsible For Electoral Violence During Governorship Election In Anambra State
   1.4 Significance of Study

It is believed that at the completion of the study, the findings of this study will be of great benefit in ameliorating the menace of electoral violence in Anambra state, the study will also be of great importance to the care givers and parents on the need to educate their children on the nemesis of electoral violence,

The study will also be of great importance to the department of political science as the findings of this study will contribute to the pool of existing literature in the subject matter.

The study will be significant to the academic community as it will contribute to the existing literature.
1.5 Scope of Study

This study will examine history of electoral violence in Nigeria. The study will also investigate electoral violence during governorship elections in Anambra State. Lastly, the study will find out  factors responsible for electoral violence during governorship election in Anambra state. Hence this study will be delimited to Anambra state.
1.6 Literature Review

Political violence and political crisis have been favorite topics for some social scientists, who wish to know why citizens result to political violence. This is why scholars posit explanations on political crisis and analyze political actors (Ted Gur, 1970; Lucian Pye, 1962; Charles Tilly, 1978) But election crisis, particularly in developing countries, in spite of its being the root cause of some of the political crises that have been studied, have not been related to the nature of the problem that characterize a society in state formation process. The reason for the so much attention on political crisis and not specifically on election crisis stem from the approach with which social scientists adopt in explaining political problems, such as psychological factor and the functionalist theory with little or no cognizance of the role of history in the determination of the specific problems that are attendant to specific stages of the development of a society (Anifowoshe, 1982; Smith, 2010) Thus, studies on political problems in Nigeria have not departed from the above pattern; namely attention on political violence and political crisis without due attention on election crisis as one of the attendant problems of state formation. We now have some ideas why people rig election in Nigeria, ideas we can collate from available works on theories of political violence.
1.6.1 Electoral Violence in Nigeria

Nigeria has the largest population in Africa. It is projected to grow from more than 186 million people in 2016 to 392 million in 2050, becoming the world’s fourth most populous country (CIA, world factbook, 2019). It also has one of the youngest populations in the world, with 51.1 per cent of registered voters between 18 and 35. With high proportion involved in electoral violence but disproportionate in electoral office. Nigeria has passed through different phases of political development all impaired with violence and insecurity traced from the colonial era, post-independent, then from first to the fourth republic. Trigger by hate speeches, ethnoreligious colouration, social and economic inequality among others. Although Nigeria is religiously mixed, the two dominant religions are Christianity and Islam with some statistics claiming that each accounting for around 49 per cent of the population (EU, EMO, 2019a). The narrative is that christianity is generally predominant in the south, and Islam in the north. To what extent does this dichotomy influences voting behaviour? Knowing fully well that man is first a social animal and by that means a political animal claiming territorialism. This must-have informed the political behaviour of the citizenry, to adopt a convention, but an unwritten constitution of power rotation between zones in the appointment and elected positions, to reflect the federal character of the country. A scenario if not followed, by either an act of design, the aggrieved group often claimed being marginalized. Most often claims, tint toward either ethnicity or religion marginalization than political marginalization as it expected. To varying degrees, every election in Nigeria’s modern history has experienced violence (Onwudiwe, E. & Berwind-Dart, C. 2010; Omotola, J.S. 2010), to the extent in which this violence has been religiously motivated has been elusive in the literature discussed. The 2019 general election was conducted amidst insecurity and tense political environment. The elections were held against the backdrop of growing insecurity fuelled by activities of the terrorism (Akanle. Olorunlana & Shittu), cattle herders, banditry, kidnappings, threats by the separatist group, and activities of secret cults. Not excluding religion and ethnicity as the possible initiator of electoral Violence in the 2019 general election in Nigeria. According to Emeaku (2019), one of the greatest problems that impede socio-economic and political development is the politicization of religion and the ethnicity of politics in Nigeria. Given the important role Nigeria play in the comity of African Sub-region and the continent, the need for socioeconomic and political development cannot be overemphasized. Indeed, all social institutions are expected to operate within their mandate. There seems to exist the interplay of politics, religion and ethnicity in the intensification of numerous ethno religious struggles in Nigeria. And this intensification may be seen as the main source of on-going discrimination, subordination and domination in the country. There are claims that religion is often employed among politicians, policymakers and religious leaders, as a determining factor in who gets what, when and how, in public and private offices and, a major influence on the policy direction of government (Omilusi, 2015; Emeaku, 2019). Omilusi (2015) attest to the fact that the intrigue and nuances that usually go into this process, more often than not, lead to a compromise of public interests by the religious stakeholders and political gladiators, especially after elections (Omilusi, 2015). The Nigerian society is religiously, ethnically and politically polarized and, this has impacted negatively on developmental policies of the country.
1.6.2 Political Class and Electoral Violence

Scholars have argued that the politics and political class in Nigeria during the early period of the struggle for the nation’s independence showcased a completely different and more promising situation than what is present in today’s politics. In displaying their political dedication, the leaders of those days were able to win the confidence and complete support of the people. In light of this, the generally accepted position is that the struggle against ethnic sectionalist and parochial politics is seen as something instituted by the colonial regime that started in the early 1930s. A. Abba noted that this environment of strife began to manifest in earnest in 1938, when young and radical educated elites in Lagos came together to establish a new political party which they called the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM). Established in 1923 under the leadership of Herbert Macaulay(Alemika, 2013), this new party, unlike its rivals, the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), aimed in accordance to its primary objective, to mobilize all Nigerians from all walks of life to struggle against British colonial rule. Abba argues that: “The youth were angry with the NNDP because it had confined its activities to Lagos even though it called itself the Nigerian National Democratic Party. It did not open even a single office, or branch outside Lagos. The youth therefore wanted to reach out to all Nigerians irrespective of where they were... They went out in full force to establish branches in every urban centre throughout Nigeria. This was the first time Nigerians from all over were brought together into the nationalist fold. Indeed with the extensive media support from the newspapers owned by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, like West African Pilot, the NYM was able to reach out to many more Nigerians”(Alemika, 2013).
1.6.3 Law Enforcement Agencies and Electoral Violence

The conventional role of the police is to maintain peace and order in the society for people to have a sense of safety and order as earlier discussed, for people to go about their lawful businesses and other meaningful engagements for progress in all spheres of human endeavor. It is in line with this that Alemika (2013) describes police as the trusted public guardians, the custodians of the public peace, and the guarantors of public safety and order. In achieving this goal, the police have several duties to perform. For example, it must enforce all laws and regulations, detect and investigate crime, apprehend and prosecute offender, control crime and limit disorder, gather secret and intelligence information around the community, respond to crime and disorder, as well as preserve law and order. It is also the role of the police to liaise with the community members to know every development within the neighborhood to ensure that everyone lives within the ambit of the law, the functioning of things in the community and social life is a recap of the role of the police in Nigeria’s democratic governance. Succinctly put, the police remain critical for public safety and order (Okotoni, 2017). For the avoidance of doubt, section 214 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria recognizes the Nigeria Police Force as the lead agency for internal security in the country (CFRN, 1999). It prohibits the existence of a parallel police force in any part of the federation. Section 4 of the Police Act and Regulations reinforces the provision of the constitution as it specifies the general functions of the police. According to the Act, the police are employed to prevent and detect crime, protect life and property, preserve laws and order, apprehend and prosecute offenders, enforce all laws and rules as well as performing other military duties within and outside the country as may be directed by the Act of National Assembly or any other relevant authority (Police Act, 2004). Apart from the statutory functions of the Nigeria Police, there are specific functions which the law expected the Nigeria Police Force to perform primarily in the electoral process. These are contained in the legal instruments for elections in Nigeria already referred to. In ensuring that rule of law prevails, and the electoral process in Nigeria are conducted peacefully and orderly, the Nigeria Police Force has some specific roles that are not different from the routine policing functions already discussed. These include: Making sure that all persons and property that will be involved, before, during, and after the voting exercise without bias or prejudice are safe Traffic and crowd management at the venue of political party congresses, conventions, campaigns rallies, and other activities relating to the elections. Strict enforcement of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the criminal and penal codes as well as the electoral law. Section 24 of the 2010 Electoral Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) as amended directed the Nigeria Police Force to provide security in ensuring smooth conduct of election without any disturbance at polling units/stations, collation centres, counting of ballots, collations, and declaration of results. In precise terms, the police are expected to provide security and order within a political system which is conducive enough to guarantee hitch free and threat-free to people and the entire electoral processes before, during, and after the actual conduct of elections. In Nigeria like other countries, one of the critical and primary activities of the election process is the delineation of constituencies. In preparation for the conduct of elections, the first task of the electoral body, that is, the INEC is to delineate the country into a reasonable number of constituencies properly. The nomination of candidates usually follows this exercise. Nearly in all the democratic nations, candidates are meant to contest elections on the platform of political parties though in some climes provisions are made for independent candidacy It is the role of each political party to nominate candidates to contest an election in each electoral constituency. In cases or situations where two or more members of the same party are aspiring to contest the election, an intra-party poll called primary-election is usually conducted by the party for members to choose the right candidate to contest the general elections. Nomination of candidates is usually followed by campaign whereby political parties are permitted to publicize their manifestoes and inform the electorate about what they intend to do for the voters and why their candidates should be preferred to others. In doing this, each party canvasses to win the sympathy and admiration of the masses with a full basket of sweet promises. Voting follows the campaign, and it is the climax of the electoral activity. Voters go to their polling units to cast their votes for candidates of their choice on the day slated for the actual voting. In doing this, electoral officers at all the polling units are provided with the voting material required for the exercise such as ballot papers, ballot boxes, ink and pad among others. Counting of votes takes place after voting. At each polling units after voting, the ballot boxes are opened for the counting of the ballot papers and party agents representing various aspirants at the polling unit are expected to witness and expected to attest to the results before conveying them to the final collation centre. The final stage is the announcement of election results and declaration of the winner. This stage is very crucial as all results from every polling station are collated and computed to ascertain the overall winner. When this is done, the electoral returning officer will announce the election results; declare the winner and issue certificate of return to the winner. It is usually at this stage that losers generally resort to unconventional means to register their grievances and displeasures about the outcome of the election and in most cases leading to violence. In each of the stages discussed above, it is glaring that the presence of security agencies is needed to maintain law and order, protect the election materials, protect electoral officers and provide an environment that would enable them to carry out their responsibilities.
1.6.4 The Management of Elections By Electoral Body (INEC) and
Electoral Violence

Political parties have become veritable instrument of democracy and governance. They are sources of political identify and channels of control of political leaders. A party is defined by Alemika, (2013), as"an organized group of citizens who hold similar political opinions and who work to get control of the government in order that the policies in which they are interested may be carried into effect". Alemika, (2013) on the other hand defines "a political party as a group of officials or would be officials who are linked with a sizeable group of citizens into an organization: the chief object of this organization is to ensure that its officials attain power or are maintained in power". Nigeria had a rich and long history of political parties, formed hurriedly for the purposes of elections, after which they fizzled into oblivion until the next election. The discussion here is however based on the parties of the fourth Republic (1998 to date) that contested the 2003 general elections. Thirty political parties were registered by INEC before the April 2003 general elections. Three parties (PDP, AD and ANPP) were registered in 1998 by the military INEC while three (NDP, UNPP and APGA were registered in June 2002 and another twenty-four in December 2002. This liberalisation of party formation was achieved through the process of judicial review. Attempts made by INEC to exceed the constitutional provisions for party registration was resisted by political associations and challenged in the court While INEC was battling to put infrastructures on ground for a free and fair elections, the political class was heating up the polity by a number of negative behaviours. The problem of insecurity of life and property has been an endemic issue in Nigeria. The approach of the 2003 general elections increased the tempo of conflicts such as communal crises, political violence culminating in political motivated assassinations. Political violence seemed to be a part of the Nigerian political culture. It occurred in the first and second republics (1960- 1966) and (1979 - 83) respectively and it contributed to the demise of those republics. Today, in the fourth Republic, the story of communal, ethnic, religious, political violence has remained unabated and even appeared to be on the increase. The advent of democracy in 1999 appeared to have let loose bottled anger during the military, although some of these crises were due to unpalatible political decisions of government.
1.7 Theoretical Perspective

The conflict theory perspective

The conflict perspectives in sociology have many strands. The Marxian perspectives, the macro conflict theory perspectives of Dahrendorf, the micro conflict theory of Rossel and Collins, the feminist conflict theory, the Neo-Marxian theory, Hegelian Marxism and Post-Marxist theory among others. In this chapter, we do not want to belabour the reader with all the perspectives, but one will be explained and applied to the subject of our discussion. Like functionalist, conflict theories are oriented toward the study of social structure and institutions. Such as the family, education, politics, religion, economics and health. From the work of Ralf Dahrendorf (1958, 1959), he tried to juxtapose the tenets of conflict theory and functionalism. The tenets, to functionalist society, is statics or at best in a state of equilibrium, but to Conflict theorist, every society at every point is subject to processes of change. When functionalist emphasis the orderliness of society, conflict theorist sees dissension and conflict at every point in the social system. Functionalist argue that every element in society contributes to the stability; the proponents of conflict theory in the other hand see societal elements as contributing to the disintegration and change. For example, conflict theorist sees whatever order in society as coming from the coercion of some members at the top that emphasizes the role of power in maintaining order in society. Similar to the Nigeria general election, could it be that Dahrendorf macro conflict theorist of seeing the order in society as a product of coercion of people at the top? A little detail will be put forward in the examination of Dahrendorf conflict theory perspectives. Dahrendorf (1959, 1968), being the major exponent of the position that society has two faces (conflict and consensus) and that sociologic theory, therefore, should be divided into two parts, conflict theory and consensus theory. Consensus theorists should examine value integration in society, and conflict theorists should examine conflicts of interest and the coercion that holds society together in the face of these stresses. 79 Society could not exist without both conflict and consensus, which Dahrendorf, see as a prerequisite for one another. Thus we cannot have conflict unless there is some prior consensus. For example, The Chelsea Football Club are highly unlikely to conflict with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) because there is no contact between them, no prior integration to serve as a basis for conflict. Conversely, conflict can lead to consensus and integration. An example is an integration between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Eastern Region that developed after the Biafra Civil war. Differential distribution of authority invariably becomes the determining factors of systemic social conflict (Dahrendorf, 1959). He noted that authority does not reside in the individual but positions and that the structural origin of such conflicts must be sought in the arrangement of social role endowed with expectations of domination or subjection. The authority attached to the position is the key elements in Dahrendorf analysis. Authority always implies both superordination and subordination. Those who occupy positions of authority are expected to control subordinates; that is, they dominate because of the expectations of those who surround them, not because of their psychological characteristics. Like authority, these expectations are attached to the position, not to people. Groups on top and at the bottom are defined by common interests. Those in dominant positions seek to maintain the status quo while those in subordinate position seek change. A conflict of interest within any association is at least latent at all times, which means that the legitimacy of authority is always precarious. This conflict of interest need not be conscious of super ordinates or subordinates to act. The interest of super ordinates and subordinates are objectives in the sense that they are reflected in the expectations (role) attached to positions. If they occupy given positions, they will behave expectedly. Conflict and consensus in the 2019 general election in Nigeria is a fitting example of Dahrendorf perspectives of the conflict. We did have conflict because of the prior consensus of the need for an election. In Nigeria, INEC is the umpire of the electioneering game, between two dominate parties, with contact between the political parties and prior integration of the candidates which serve as a basis for conflict. Also, the differential distribution of authority becomes the determining factors of sociopolitical conflict. As noted earlier, authority resides in positions and sociopolitical conflicts is a product of role-taking either as a dominant group or subjective group. As expected, those in positions of authority are to control and dominate; while groups in subordinate position seek change as a result of the conflict of interest, conflict becomes a necessity.
1.8 Hypothesis

HO: There are no factors responsible for electoral violence.

HA: There are factors responsible for electoral violence.
1.9 Methodology
Research methodology deals with the different ways or methods the researcher applied in order to carry out the research as well as the instrument used for gathering the data. There are several research methodologies appropriate for answering the research questions. The type of research methodology used in this research to gather data and relevant information is the historical research and the study will adopt descriptive method of data collection. This will involve the collection of materials from secondary sources, such as books, journal articles, magazines, internet sources, international and national conference proceedings, published and unpublished articles.

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