A CRITICAL STUDY ON THE CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTORAL CRISIS IN RIVERS AND EDO STATES, 1999-201

1. INTRODUCTION

Nigeria like many other African states has a chequered history of conflicts. The cause of these conflicts could be traced to primordial factors associated with ethnic chauvinism, religious bigotry, structural imbalance of its federalism, bad governance, political intolerance and electoral brouhaha. Nigeria can be rightly described as one of the most deeply divided states in Africa. From its inception as a colonial state, Nigeria has faced a perennial crisis of territorial or state legitimacy, which has often challenged its efforts at national cohesion, democratization, stability and economic transformation [2]. The politicians in Nigeria have over the years ‘become more desperate and daring in taking and retaining power: more reckless and greed in their use and abuse of power; and more intolerant of opposition, criticism and efforts at replacing them’ [3]. These conflicts orchestrated by political elites and their allies, have been for selfish actualization of primitive accumulation anchored on regional sentimentalism, ethnic chauvinism, religious bigotry, economic materialism, political domination of the State. To achieve their inordinate interest, these politicians manipulate the youth to accepting them as the corner stone for their survival in the State. They arm these youths with dangerous weapons to prosecute the elections in their favour. Those already in government use the men of the Nigeria Police to chase their opponent and protect them in order to use the youths to unleash mayhem against their perceived enemies. These youths are hardly arrested nor detained for the havoc they may have caused. The youths therefore, are at the heart of most violent conflicts in the country. A recent study suggests that the youths are prosecutors of 90-95% of violent conflicts in Nigeria [4]. Commenting on the forgoing, Human Rights Watch, noted: ‘Many of Nigeria’s ostensibly elected leaders obtained their positions by demonstrating an ability to use corruption and political violence to prevail in sham elections. In violent and brazenly rigged polls, government officials have denied millions of Nigerians any real voice in selecting their political leaders. In place of democratic competition struggles for political office have often been waged violently in the streets by gangs of thugs- youths – recruited by politicians to help them seize control of power’ [5]. At the heart of Nigeria’s crisis of governance particularly as manifested in electoral violence is a complex linkage between the State and the Youth, as well as Security apparatus especially, the men of the Nigeria Police that are constantly used to chase the opposition. The action of the men of the Nigeria Police in Rivers State, Edo State and Ekiti State preceding the 2015 general election defines the role of the Police in violence as well as electoral conflicts in Nigeria. Some of the youth leaders who are allies to the powerful politicians now dictate and control what happens in their various Communities. The Niger Delta Ex Militants are not left out; some of them sponsor and impose candidates for election. In other cases, in an attempt to win election at all cost, some of the Ex militants perceived to have the capacity to cause violence through the barrel of guns are sponsored for election as flag bearers of major Political Parties. These Ex Militants who have been given amnesty by the Nigerian Government see politics as a legitimate source of primitive accumulation thus; they lord over everybody in their locality, where possible, they maim to win elections for the parties that sponsor them, just for selfish economic aggrandizement. These heinous activities of the political gladiators, the youth and the Police have continued to fan the embers of electoral violence in Nigeria. The critical question that comes to mind at this juncture is ‘what role has the State played in either averting or encouraging the high incidence of electoral violence within the past fifteen years in Nigeria?’ Through a critical examination of the theoretical underpinnings of electoral violence in democratic contexts and from empirical analysis of pre, during and post electoral violence in Fourth Republic of Nigeria (1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015), this research would provide answers to these questions.

2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

In this research, we are adopting the conflict theory as our conceptual analysis in the context of the contemporary capitalist state, where the political class has created weak institutions in order to continue to control the resources of the State. To begin with, we locate our explanation in the theoretical writings of Prussian politica