Electoral Violence and the Growth of Democracy in Nigeria

Abstract

Democracy offers the citizens the opportunity to actively participate in the governance of their countries. In some advanced democracies, there are minimal occurrence of violence during elections, unlike Nigeria where electoral violence held sway in all her elections. The study used secondary data and content analysis method. The findings of the study revealed killings, arson, snatching of ballot boxes and thuggery among others as some forms of violence that characterized the electoral process in Nigeria. The causes of electoral violence in Nigeria according to the study include: poverty/unemployment, bribery/corruption, manipulation of electoral results and lack of political will by political leaderships to prosecute perpetrators of electoral violence. The paper recommends attitudinal change on the path of the citizens to desist from the culture of electoral violence. The paper also recommended that further studies should be conducted on the reasons behind the inability of security agencies to prevent electoral violence in Nigeria.