POLITICAL VIOLENCE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AKWA IBOM STATE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The history of Nigeria has been characterized by a variety of political violence, socio economic development problems in Nigeria could be attributed to the coercions, imposition and tradition brought together by colonial era (Udokang 2006).
           However, apart from these traditional, leadership problem, ethnic crisis as well as living standard of the people have been identified as the causes of political violence. Development thrives enabling environment devoid of violence of any form, as no nation has ever sustained development in an atmosphere of political tension.
Consequently, violence is usually accompanied with wanton loss of lives, public instability, infrastructural destruction among others, while socio-economic development contributed to the advancement an improvement in the standard of living, increase in the life expectancy of the people, perhaps no nation can survive a test of time when it’s drown in the menace of violence and no nation can actually develop under the prevalence of crisis, violence and upheavals.
Therefore, in order for a nation to have a bit of development, it should do away with a violent like attitudes. However, political violence is a form of violent relations which has incompatibility of interest goals and ambitions between individual groups as political structures, in the process of attaining power and keeping it. To put differently, political violence emanate when elections are conducted. This action is usually accompanied with various act of violence in Nigeria which is not usually the same in advanced countries of the world.
Election violence refers to the use of threat or force against an opponent within the context of electoral competition for state power. It is inhibitive of democratic transition and consolidation. Acts of electoral violence include murder, arson, abduction, assault, rioting, seizing and destruction of electoral materials and psychological intimidation (Ademika 2011).
           The Nigeria politics runs deep on the fault line of ethnicity, region and religion, virtually every part of the country has memories of injuries or feeling of injustice, which they often feel will be best addressed if one of their own wield power at the center preferably as the president. This perception raises fear among other geo-political zones as the feeling that the president will abuse the power of his office to the advantage and privilege of his region, ethnic groups and regions at the detriment of others, all these sentiments are always whipped up making the electoral process in Nigeria acrimony as violent (Adibe 2015).
           Political scientists, as development theorists linked free, fair and credible elections to democratic governance, peace and development. In brief they opined that free, fair and credible election provide the basis for the emergence of domestic, accountable and legitimate government with the capacity to initiate and implement clearly articulated development programs (Ofii and Uzodi 2012). Before the attainment of Independence in 1960, Nigeria had recorded myriads of violence chiefly among them is political violence. The problem however could be traced to 1922 when the first election was conducted. Violence has done no nation any good as earlier observed rather its marks remain inextricable.
POLITICAL VIOLENCE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AKWA IBOM STATE
