CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Election is an
integral part of a democratic process that enables the citizenry determine
fairly and freely who should lead them at every level of government
periodically and take decisions that shape their socio-economic and political
destiny; and in case they falter, still possess the power to recall them or
vote them out in the next election. This was Obakhedo, (2011) aptly defined
election thus: Election is a major instrument for the recruitment of political
leadership in democratic societies; the key to participation in a democracy;
and the way of giving consent to government (Dye, 2001); and allowing the
governed to choose and pass judgment on office holders who theoretically
represent the governed Obakhedo, (2011). In its strictest sense, there can never
be a democracy without election. Huntington is however quick to point out that,
a political system is democratic ‘to the extent that its most powerful
collective decision-makers are selected through fair, honest and periodic
elections in which candidates freely compete for votes, and in which virtually
all the adult population is eligible to vote’ (Huntington, 1991). In its proper
sense, election is a process of selecting the officers or representatives of an
organization or group by the vote of its qualified members (Nwolise, 2007).
Anifowose (2003) defined elections as the process of elite selection by the
mass of the population in any given political system, Bamgbose (2012).
Elections provide the medium by which the different interest groups within the
bourgeois nation state can stake and resolve their claims to power through
peaceful means (Iyayi, 2005). Elections therefore determine the rightful way of
ensuring that responsible leaders take over the mantle of power.
An election itself is a procedure by which the electorate, or part of it,
choose the people who hold public office and exercise some degree of control
over the elected officials. It is the process by which the people select and
control their representatives. The implication of this is that without
election, there can be no representative government. This assertion is, to a
large extent, correct as an election is, probably, the most reliable means
through which both the government and representatives can be made responsible
to the people who elect them. Eya (2003) however, sees election as the
selection of a person or persons for office as by ballot and making choice as
between alternatives. Ozor (2009) succinctly gives a more encompassing and
comprehensive definition of election when he noted that the term connotes the
procedure through which qualified adult voters elect their politically
preferred representatives to parliament legislature of a county (or any other
public positions) for the purpose of farming and running the government of the
country. Thus Osumah (2002) elucidates what the basic objective of election is
which is to select the official decision makers who are supposed to represent
citizens-interest. Elections, according to him extend and enhance the amount of
popular participation in the political system. However, elections in Nigeria
has always been marred by violence and heightened sense of national insecurity
because of the level of tribal and religion sentiments showed by the country
men.
Nigeria’s 2015 general elections the fifth since 1999, was scheduled for 14th
and 28th February 2015 respectively and later changed to 28th March and 11
April 2015 respectively. All 36 states held presidential, federal parliament
and House of Assemblies (state parliaments) elections. Gubernatorial polls were
held in 29 states. General elections in Nigeria have always been turbulent and
violent affairs. Indeed, the 2007 election polls was widely condemned as the
most violent, poorly and massively rigged in the history of Nigeria’s electoral
history. Even the winner of the presidential pool, a person of late President
Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, conceded flaws. Some analysts and observers considered the
April 2011 elections as the most credible since the return to democracy, unlike
2007 elections where over 1,000 people were killed in post-election protests.
Nigeria has had a checkered electoral history with successive elections being
marred by serious irregularities and controversy- particularly in the conduct
of its electoral commission. This has led in some cases to the collapsed of
democratic experiments as occurred in 1966 and 1983. The 2007 general elections
in Nigeria provided a good opportunity to occasion a break with the past and
rekindle public confidence in the electoral and democratic process of the
country. However, this was not to be as the elections, according to several
local and international observers turned out to be the worst in Nigeria’s
political history (European Union: 2007, Human Rights Watch: 2007, Transition
Monitoring Group: 2007). Like its predecessors, INEC was accused of not being
able to engender public confidence in the electoral process or organize
transparent and credible elections. Unfortunately, this position has scarcely
been demonstrated in a systematic manner.
March 28th and April 11th 2015 election marked another turn in Nigeria’s
democratic history as registered voters took to the polls to elect the next set
of leaders into the Presidential and National Assembly positions. The
elections, conducted in the thirty six states of the country and the Federal
Capital Territory, witnessed the emergence of the opposition party, the All
Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate. This outcome was also the first
time an opposition party would unseat the ruling party, People Democratic Party
(PDP) since Nigeria’s transition into civil rule in 1999.
This study is set within the period 1999 to 2015. Since the return to democracy in 1999 elections in the Niger Delta have been characterized with security threats notably electoral violence .it argues that despite nascent democracy, the intricate dynamics of the patterns of Nigeria‘s elections have been riddled with massive security threats which have not been given adequate scholarly attention, particularly in the context of the implications of the security threats on political and economic development of Nigeria. The research contends that the absence of adequate scholarly attention to the issues of election and security does not account for the political and economic realities of Nigeria‘s electoral processes and development .For instance, Garuba (2007) explains salient issues associated with instability in Nigeria‘s pattern of elections , encompassing massive electoral frauds, the conception and practice of politics as warfare, the lack of continuity in the political platforms used by members of the political class, high levels of opportunism and the mobilization of ethnic identities as the basis for defining the legitimacy of claims to political power, suggesting that this has resulted in ―transition without change‖. These issues which constitute security threats are some of the key factors this study seeks to examine. The rest of the paper is structured as follows; theoretical framework, conceptual issues, the Niger Delta experience, conclusion and recommendations.
