BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Elections are an accepted method of choosing leaders in modern democracies. This is a crucial procedure that helps establish democratic institutions and facilitates the peaceful transfer of power (Abekhale, 2022). Nevertheless, all elections held in Nigeria since the country's independence in 1960 have been marked by pervasive acts of violence and intimidation, as well as extensive instances of bribery and corruption. According to Adeniyi, (2022), the presence of one kind of political violence or another has been the backbone of elections in Nigeria, with youths being the key performers in the theater of electoral violence, and that such violence has taken on a severe dimension in recent years.
According to the International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES), electoral violence is defined as 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.), that may disrupt or attempt to disrupt any aspect of the electoral process. Electoral violence can also be defined as any attempt to disrupt any aspect of the electoral process (Anderson, 2021). Therefore, electoral violence might be defined as an act that has been premeditated with the intention of influencing the political process via the use of bad language, verbal intimidation, extortion, hazardous weapons, arson, and assassination. (Anifowose, 2022) [Anifowose] Human beings are the ones who suffer the consequences of political violence. According to Asaju (2022), acts such as physical harm (such as homicide, torture, and assault), threats (including physical, verbal, and verbal intimidation; destruction of property), arson, damage from dangerous objects, forced displacement, and snatching ballot boxes are all associated with electoral violence.
Asaju, (2022) identified five primary common grounds of election violence. These include the following: during registration, throughout political campaigns on Election Day, when results are released, and the winner takes all mentality. According to their own research, Adeniyi and colleagues (2022) describe the pattern of electoral violence in Nigeria as intra-party crisis, inter-party crisis, electoral crisis, violence, and community unrest. On the other hand, Anderson and colleagues (2021) believe that electoral violence does manifest in all three stages of the electoral process: pre-election, during the election, and after the election. The purpose of electoral violence is to exert influence over the electoral process with the sole intention of winning political competition or power through the use of violence, or subverting the ends of the electoral and democratic process through the intimidation and disempowerment of political opponents. Electoral violence also has the potential to undermine democracy. Everyone need to be worried about the growing number of young people in Nigeria who are participating in election violence. The definition of youths has been the subject of some debate, and several writers have provided their own interpretations depending on the setting in which the term "youth" is used. Fund of the United Nations for the Education of Children According to UNICEF (1972), young people are considered to be between the ages of 15 and 25. According to Johnson, who is mentioned in Anifowose, (2022), who states that although leadership programs do not have an upper age restriction, their membership encompasses persons of over 35-45 years old, for the sake of this research, youth refers to anybody who is between the ages of 18 and 45 years old.
The success of the majority of the world's development policies is primarily contingent on the younger generation. It is widely held that this part of society contributes to the production of a country with a sustainable economy, social fairness, and a stable democracy. It is thus extremely vital for the society to be able to develop a young population that is of a certain standard in order to make these things a reality. The fundamental objective of this study is to get an understanding of the connection that exists in Nigeria between the use of illegal drugs by young people and political violence. The matter is made more complicated by a string of problems, the culmination of which is the inability of the Nigerian state to resolve the disagreements that exist inside its borders.
Even though they are employed, people who abuse drugs have a habit of abusing drugs, which in the long run leads to their involvement in political violence acts, which slows the chance of self-actualization and the chance of the country's present and long term development. Economic factors, such as the maximization of profits, encourage drug abuse habit among them. Another reason that drives young people to engage in substance misuse and, eventually, political crime is a lack of higher educational credentials. This is especially true in developing countries. Similar to the previous point, political thuggery is another aspect that contributes to the problem of drug usage among young people in every region of the Nigerian state.
It is often held that young people constitute the single most important resource for any kind of society progress. Every human civilization is dependent on them since they serve as the society's engines and cornerstones. The history of humanity demonstrated how youth served to rely on and develop their diverse societies, which always promoted and gave to the society economic equilibrium, political stability, and social fairness. According to Gessel (1956), in Anifowose, (2022), the term "youth" refers to children and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 16.
According to Abdullahi (2003), the report of the Political Bureau (2017) identified young people as those between the ages of 6 and 30. This second group corresponds to the years spent participating in formal schooling; any changes made to these years might put the life of a young person, and by extension, society as a whole, in jeopardy. According to the vision 2010 report, "youth" refers to anyone aged 12 to 30 years old. On the other hand, Abdullahi (1982) defined the young in Asaju, (2022) as any individual who is between the ages of early infancy and old age. These brief categorizations highlight the significance of young people to the continued existence and advancement of their distinct cultures. This is due to the fact that young people make significant contributions to the social, economic, and political growth of their communities as well as to the defense of such countries.
On the basis of the stance outlined above, the purpose of this research is to advocate the importance of young engagement in political violence, which not only hinders the personal fulfillment of youth but also the development of all aspects of the Nigerian state.
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