Government Responses To Electoral Violence In Nigeria: Issues And Prospects

Adedayo. O. Adefemi¹ , A.B. Oyekunle²

1. Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Management and Commerce, University of Fort Hare, South Africa.
2. Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences/Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Isroset-Journal
Vol.4 , Issue.5 , pp.1-6, May-2018

Online published on May 31, 2018

Copyright © Adedayo. O. Adefemi, A.B. Oyekunle . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

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Abstract :
This Paper appraised government responses to electoral violence and evaluated the effectiveness of the responses to electoral violence in Nigeria. It also identified ways of strengthening government responses to electoral violence in Nigeria. The study was conducted using both primary and secondary data. Primary data were sourced through the conduct of in-depth interviews with 21 respondents consisting of purposively selected members of the leading political parties, officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), civil society organisations with interest in elections and security and academics. Using the old regional structure of the Nigerian Federation as a template Abuja the federal capital territory, Rivers and Oyo states were chosen as study areas. Data was analysed using both descriptive and content analysis method. Results showed that government responses to electoral violence have largely been setting up of panels and commissions to investigate direct and remote causes of electoral violence, militarisation of elections. Results also showed that government responses to electoral violence have been weak and largely ineffective due to weal legal and institutional frameworks to punish perpetrators of electoral violence. Results also suggested reform of existing laws and setting up of an electoral offences commission as ways of strengthening government responses to electoral violence.

Key-Words / Index Term :
Election, Government Responses, Violence, Democracy

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