Electoral Violence in Nigerian Polity: Causes and Consequences

Nigerian polity over the years has witnessed several electoral processes and elections which have been characterized by various forms of violence. These have equally resulted into negative indices such as political apathy among the electorates, loss of lives and properties, low economic growth, poor standard of living and stunted political development. The paper examines electoral violence and its prevalence in Nigerian polity. The paper focuses on the factors behind the continuous occurrences of electoral violence in almost all the elections conducted in Nigeria at the federal, state and local government levels since independence. The study is a qualitative research which relied on secondary sources of information and anchored on elite theory as its theoretical framework of analysis. The paper finds that poverty, unemployment, financial inducement of elective positions, bad governance and loose security architecture among others are the causes of electoral violence in Nigeria. The paper further reveals that electoral violence creates fear among the electorates and some interested candidates which hinders their political participation and interests resulting in political apathy. The paper posits that electoral violence is an obstacle to good governance, peaceful coexistence and political development in Nigeria. The paper therefore recommends among others, that political education, public enlightenment, eradication of poverty through people oriented government policies and creation of jobs for the idle youths will help to ameliorate the occurrences of electoral violence in Nigeria polity.