Electoral Violence And Vote Buying Syndrome In Nigeria
BY MARY AMABI
Since her independence in 1960, the electoral transition process in Nigeria has been tainted and torn by political turmoil and upheavals orchestrated by select persons who manipulate the process to their advantage and desire to attain and retain power and authority, and bequeath these to successors of their own choosing who will abide by their dictates and act according to their whims and caprices. Over the years, various tools which include but not limited to military coup, poll rigging, vote buying, religious politicisation and electoral violence have been sufficiently employed to perpetuate this. However, we shall focus on electoral violence and vote buying as these two seem to be the most predominant tools especially in our recent elections (Umana, 2018)
Electoral violence can be said to be a sub-type of political violence in which actors employ coercion as an instrument to advance their interest or achieve specific political ends. Electoral violence includes acts, such as assassination of opponents or spontaneous fisticuffs between rival groups of supporters, threats, coercion and intimidation of opponents, voters or election officials etc.
Vote buying occurs when a political party or candidate seeks to purchase the vote of the electorate during an election. It takes the form of exchanging votes for money, staple food and other pecuniary gains. Electoral violence exacerbates tension in oppressed and conflict prone societies like Nigeria. It further fans the embers of violence and disrupts peace.
Nigerian legal philosopher Olufemi Taiwo argues that although post-independence politicians have sought to create a common citizenship, they have neglected to engage the people in a discussion of citizenship and “what citizenship involves in terms of rights, duties, immunities, privileges and forbearance for its partners “. As observed by Taiwo, for citizenship to have meaning and value, “It must prevail over the entire territory of the country for which it exists, without forbearance or regard to how many ethnicities are to be found therein.”
CAUSES
The causes of this menace are not far-fetched and not unconnected to the greed, selfishness and the politicians’ insatiable lust for power. Elections can sow the seeds of good governance when adequately managed. But as reverse is the case in Nigeria, election triggers widespread political violence no thanks to fear of ethnic and religious dominance. International organizations have recognized these risks since World War II as reflected in their historically strong engagement in democratic support.
These vices should worry well-meaning Nigerians who seek and desire peace and progress for our dear country. Causes of electoral violence in Nigeria include but are not necessarily limited to;
1- CORRUPTION: This is a foul character that has permeated virtually all strata of the Nigerian society. Indeed the electoral system is not free of this menace as monies change hand to induce and ensure manipulation of electoral process.
2- MISINTERPRETATION OF POLITICS: politics and its intrigues has been greatly miss-understood by the politicians in our society who always recruit thugs to ferment discord and wreak havoc should it not go in their favour. The populace has now taken this as a norm. Sadly it has now become a strange phenomenon to have election take place without violence.
3- FAILURE OF THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM: The fact that the system is slow to dispense justice, and the justice is in most cases not true and fair, has not helped. A situation where politicians are indicted for electoral violence in the past and still roam the streets free promotes impunity in no small measure among the political class.
4- INADEQUATE VOTER SENSITIZATION: The electoral umpire has a major task to carry out in educating the voters on the norms of the electoral process, their do’s, don’ts, rights and obligations within the ambits of the law.
5- LACK OF INTEGRITY FROM ELECTORAL UMPIRES: Those charged with the organisation and supervision of the electoral process now are at the fore front of electoral malpractices, donning the hat of bias and the badge of partiality, this ultimately leads to reactions from the populace and most times these reactions are violent.
In the same vein, electoral violence and vote buying do share some similar causes. Despite the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) criminalizing bribery and corruption relating to voting during elections as well as sections 124, 126, 129 and 130 of the Act providing strong sanctions against anyone found to be involved in such actions, this has not stopped these politicians from diving head long into these muddy pools.
Some of the peculiar causes of vote buying include but are not limited to ;
1- The inability to write results and snatch ballot boxes ungainly as these would lead to immediate and automatic cancellation of the results
2- The inability to subvert the administrative process of the electoral commission has now led to vote buying as it is now the only way to subvert the integrity of the electoral process.
CONSEQUENCES
1- Voter apathy: Electoral violence scares away a good number of the electorate who refuse to participate in the process. Hence, voter apathy ensues. This is the worst thing that can happen to any democratic system. It will not only scare the populace away from exercising their civic rights, it will also allow the group with the highest political will power and money to throw around to impose their candidate on the people hence defeating the true essence of election.
2- The loss of lives and properties due to electoral violence are unquantifiable, a typical example is the April 2011 presidential election in Northern Nigeria that left more than 800 people dead and many properties worth millions destroyed.
3- Post-election violence has the undeniable power of throwing the nation into an uncontrollable anarchy. Electoral violence if not curtailed could ultimately be the undoing of Nigeria.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1- The need to promote and enforce campaigns and bills targeted at anti-hate campaigns and speeches before, during and after electioneering. The campaigns must be issued based and not hate laced.
2- The creation of institutional framework charged with the sole responsibility of prosecuting perpetrators and sponsors of electoral violence. This could be in the form of a tribunal.
3- The need for Nigerian youths to be properly sensitized and productively engaged bearing in mind that over 97% of electoral violence is perpetrated by youths.
Mary Amabi is a political scientist based in Abuja. She can be reached on amabimary@yahoo.com
REFERENCE
Sisk, T.D, Elections in Fragile States: Between Voice and Violence. Paper prepared for the International Studies Association Annual Meeting. San Francisco, California. March 24-28, 2018.
Mwangi S. Kimenyi, Ethnic Diversity and Liberty: The African Dilemma (Alder shot, UK: Edward Elgar, 1997).
www.premiumtimesng.com – Agency Report – July 23, 2018
Kubiat Umana- Electoral violence in Nigeria: Causes, Consequences and Solutions (2018)
JerryWright Ukwu – 10 Reasons for political violence in Nigeria (2017)
