SECURITY, ELECTORAL VIOLENCE AND DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION CONSOLIDATION: EVALUATING THE TRAJECTORIES OF SOUTHWEST NIGERIA’S FOURTH REPUBLIC

Abstract

While the electoral process in established democracies has been characterised by relative peace due to the adequacy and effectiveness of their security arrangement, among others, what has been observed in the history of elections in developing countries in Africa, especially Southwest Nigeria is that, it has often been replete with security crises of serious magnitude, resulting in the loss of lives, destruction of election materials and invaluable properties thereby threatening the consolidation of democracy. This paper investigated how security lapses accentuated electoral violence thereby threatening democratic consolidation in Southwest Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. It made use of documentary data gathered through secondary data source. It observed that the consolidation of democracy in developed democracies to a large extent depends on the adequacy, effectiveness, discipline and non-partisanship of the security personnel. The paper contended that the nonchalant attitude of Nigerian leadership towards the security of the electoral process does not give room for the consolidation of democracy in the country. It further averred that these inadequacies of the security personnel, the politicisation, and manipulation of its deployment by the leadership as well as prevalent arms proliferation had posed challenges to peaceful conduct of elections. The various efforts made by stakeholders to strengthen security with a view to stemming the tide of electoral violence and ensuring democratic consolidation in the Southwest have yielded limited success. The paper concluded that in order to resolve the security challenges bedevilling the Southwest’s electoral process, with a view to attaining a violent-free election that will guarantee democratic consolidation, there is the need to reconstruct security architecture of the country, sanction political leaders, political parties and individuals that violate electoral laws, restructure Nigeria’s federal system, tackle the problem of arms proliferation and embark on political education and enlightenment that will encourage citizens to adhere strictly to democratic tenets.