Poverty And Electoral Violence In Nigeria

Poverty And Electoral Violence In Nigeria

Abstract

This study focuses substantially on the felonious instantiations of the youth Donga megalopolis under the Fourth Republic, which has come a nuisance to the effective workings of popular values, especially, in the conduct of free and fair choices. Since there-emergence of popular rule, in Nigeria and Donga megalopolis in particular, in 1999, political violence has being playing a prominent part in political processes that threatens the emergence of people acquainted government. It’s against this background that the paperx-rays the relationship between poverty and political violence among youth in the politics of Donga megalopolis. Using the relative privation proposition, the paper discovers that poverty and political violence can not be separated. This is as a result of the fact that the youth are in a serious condition of poverty which make them to embrace lawless behaviours especially political violence. The paper eventually suggest that in as important as the politicians would continue to assume politics as a do or die affair, political violence would really remain perpetual in Donga megalopolis and Nigeria in general. To this end, thus, the rule of law must be rigorously observed, to discipline the actors and their masters who finance them.

Chapter One

Preface

Background of the study

mortal beings must be made citizens before they can be made men, but in order that they be made citizens government must give liberty under the law, must give for material weal and remove gross inequality in distribution of wealth.( Rousseau, 1762 cited in Alan & Conway 1998 143). Nigeria is Africa’s most vibrant country with over 153million people( FGN, 2006). It’s home to one- sixth of the world’s black population( Chukwuemeka, 2009405). A country naturally abundantly bless with mortal and natural coffers. As at 2004 the International Monetary Fund reported that the country has an estimated crude oil painting reserve of 24 billion barrels( See USAID, 20071), with over N29.8 trillion in profit from sake of carafe oil painting only( Tell, 2008). Paradoxically, over 70 of its population lives in menial poverty( Sanusi, 2011). It’s classified by UNDP as 141 poorest nations on the Human Development Index. Poverty in Nigeria from all empirically empirical fact is a deliberate creation of the Nigeria’s political class; it acts as a clog in the wheel of the country movement to a true, people’s republic. therefore state poverty in Nigeria is compounded by the widening class polarization politically and economically, where over “ 95 of the country wealth is controlled by about0.01 percent of population ”( Oshewolo 2010267). Transition to the Nigeria’s current popular division appertained to as the Fourth Republic began in 1998. This transition to what could duly be described as civil rule elicited and was eased by the massive rallying of “ the rich ” and “ the poor ”. This was apparent in the enthusiasm and pomp which the transition was entered. Sooner than anticipated, there surfaced a post honeymoon effect of the entire process; which “ effect ” is presumed on the failure of the popular government to deliver on its promised popular( goods) tips. It was the stopgap of the people that republic not only provides liberty, but it also improves social and profitable condition of the people. These are the motivating factors of popular participation. Rather than perfecting the socio- profitable well- being of the people, Nigeria’s republic has turned a burden on the poor. But rather than furnishing popular good, poverty is farther created and corruption nearly institutionalized, the net result being the retreating of the swoon that before accompanied the country’s democratization and a sharp decline in popular participation. Mass poverty is a robotization of the political class to count the maturity of the people from the political process and shrink the political space for their selfish interest. mistrustfulness thus remains about how firm republic’s root can come settled in a country where over 70 percent of the population are poverty externalized. It’s our position that mass poverty poses a trouble to popular participation and popular connection than all other variables put together. While there’s a putatively general agreement that mass poverty undermine popular participation, the ‘ how ’ isn’t much less clear. This is the task of this undertaking. Poverty is a social problem that leads to other social, profitable and political disturbances. Poverty is a global miracle but it’s more common among developing countries, Nigeria inclusive. Nigeria is the Africa’s most vibrant country. As contended by Mukhtar, Mukhtar & Mukhtar( 2015 3), piecemeal from being oil painting rich, “ the country also has large corner and a lot of mineral coffers which if used wisely, the country will achieve rapid-fire political and socio- profitable development ”. But the reverse is the case in the country because large scale corruption, poor profitable programs and bad governance have rendered maturity of the country’s population poor. Three months after assuming his office, the Nigerian Vice President, Osinbajo( in the Vanguard, August 20th 2015), expressed concern that over 110 million Nigerians lived below poverty line. The consequences of poverty are numerous and notable among the goods of poverty is violence. That’s why Nigeria has been passing numerous security challenges in forms of felonious conditioning, violence and conflicts over the times( Omotor, 2009; Adenrele, 2012; Afegbua, 2010; Onuoha, 2014; Mukhtar, Isyaku, & Sani, 2016). The conformation of youth violent groups like the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta( MEND) and the Niger Delta punishers in the south- south, Bakassi Boys, in the south- east, Yandaba in the north- west, Yan- kalare and Yan- sara- suka in north- east, as well as the most notorious terrorist group, known as Boko Haram, also in the north- east( Mukhtar, etal. 2016) are all but instantiations of high rate of severance among bulging youths and poverty frequentness in the country. While the major cause for the conformation of the below violent groups in colorful corridor of Nigeria is either poverty or severance among the youth population, these violent groups have numerous serious counteraccusations on the fate of the popular governance in the country. Violence has taken a severe risk on Nigerian frugality, its peoples ’ political, social, and indeed spiritual lives. Crime and violence are so palpable, so pervasive and so ruinous to numerous Nigerians( Nwosu, 2002). It’s indeed more disturbing to find that, the country’s political leaders are using retirement and poor living conditions of the youths to employ them as political goons. This manner in which members of our political class in Nigeria engage the services of unemployed youths as goons for the purpose of bogarting political opponents and their sympathizers during choices is growing. These youths, who are substantially uninstructed orsemi-literate, are frequently encouraged to unleash violence, beget electoral violence, break the law at will, in which nearly nothing can be done to stop them once they’ve made up their mind to unleash these havocs on their intended targets( Usman, 2010). Violence has come so common in the Nigerian society; at domestic, community and public situations and it has the tendency for causing public insecurity. For illustration, when there’s instability in a nation, similar as those expiring from the Boko Haram and the Niger- Delta punishers, the prospect of democratization is hovered , as the leaders will shift attention from weal services and division of popular tip to resolving the violence expiring from the conditioning of these groups, indeed if it’ll affect the good of the citizens. Hence, the ban of okada lifts, curfews, and too important check points are authority’s response to the. In addition, election processes have been suspended in places like Gombe State and political administrations in Yobe State, Borno State, and Adamawa State, have suffered reversal in the towards the end of the time 2015.

Statement Of The Problem

choices are the central processes of popular representative government because in any republic the authority of government derives solely from the concurrence of the governed. The top medium for rephrasing the concurrence into governmental authority immaculately is by holding free and fair choices. Nigeria ‘s fourth democracy appears to be veritably chaotic, ceaseless violent conflict ranges from religious, identity to collaborative. Elaigwu( 2005a) linked 17 major violent conflicts in Nigeria from May 1985 to May 1st 1999. still, from May 31, 1999 to June 2005 he linked at least 121 cases of conflicts in Nigeria. He attributed unforeseen increase in violent conflict in the country to a strong central government; popular agitation for decentralised structure; dissatisfaction with the distribution of available coffers; collaborative conflicts and demands by somesub-national groups for lesser tone- determination( Eliagwu, 2005b). He continued that the times of military rule suppressed these issues from exploding into willful conflagration. He likened the Nigerian polity as a bottle of wine, duly corked and airtight. With the dawn of republic and the opening of the bottle, the wine strongly popped up( Eliagwu, 2005b). It appears the dawn of republic handed the atmosphere to vent bottled-up frustrations, grievances and fears freehandedly and frequently times recklessly( Adebanwi, 2004). Though there are several workshop on conflicts in Nigeria, many appear to link violent conflict in Nigeria to republic with particular focus on the fourth democracy. For illustration, Haliru( 2012), concentrated on race, Onapajo( 2012), concentrated on religion and political violence, Saheed( 2012) emphasised profitable dimension of social conflicts in Nigeria. In Nigeria, choices have come an avenue for legitimization of bad governance. This assertion hinges on the fact that peremptory government holds on to power at all cost while opposition parties in a shot to capture state power, resort to all manner of irregularities. The result of this is generally violence of one sort or the other. Events which unfolded in Plateau State during the last election show that the most contentious issues about the election have to do with electoral violence which heretofore, is unheard of in Plateau State politics. The political atmosphere in the state came surprisingly strained while numerous interest groups surfaced with the intent to capture power. The result of these was a bitter warfare that replaced between these coalitions, leading to allegations, killings, hijackings , etc that were politically motivated, In fact a gubernatorial seeker, Jesse Aruku, of the Action Congress was assassinated on July 2nd 2006. It’s in view of the above that the experimenter intend to probe the effect of poverty and electoral violence in Nigeria with emphasis on Donga original government area.

Ideal Of The Study

The main ideal of this study is to ascertain the effect of poverty and electoral violence in Nigeria with emphasis on Donga original government area. But to prop the completion of the study, the experimenter intend to achieve the following specific ideal;

To examine the part of poverty in instigating electoral violence

To ascertain if there’s any significant relationship between poverty and electoral violence in Donga original government area

To examine the effect of electoral violence on the popular process of Nigeria

To ascertain impact of poverty as a catalyst to electoral violence in Nigeria

Research Suppositions

The following exploration suppositions were formulated by the experimenter to prop the successful completion of the study

H0 there’s no significant relationship between poverty and electoral violence in Donga original government area of Taraba state

H1 there’s a significant relationship between poverty and electoral violence in Donga original government area of Taraba state

H0 poverty isn’t a catalyst to electoral violence in Donga original government area of Taraba state Nigeria

H2 poverty is a catalyst to electoral violence in Donga original government area of Taraba state Nigeria

Significance Of The Study

It’s believed that at the completion of the study, the findings of this study will be of great benefit in upgrading the imminence of electoral violence in Donga original government area of Taraba state by proffering effective recommendation on the need to apply poverty relief programs in Nigeria, the study will also be of great significance to the care givers and parents on the need to educate their children on the nemesis of electoral violence,

The study will also be of great significance to the department of political wisdom as the findings of this study will contribute to the pool of being literature in the subject matter.

Scope And Limitation Of The Study

The compass of the study covers poverty and electoral violence in Nigeria, but in the cause of the study, the experimenter encountered some constrain which limited the compass of the study;

a) Vacuity OF RESEARCH MATERIAL The exploration material available to the experimenter is inadequate, thereby limiting the study

b) TIME The time frame allocated to the study doesn’t enhance wider content as the experimenter has to combine other academic conditioning and examinations with the study.

c) Organizational sequestration Limited Access to the named auditing establishment makes it delicate to get all the necessary and required information concerning the conditioning.