Effect and Causes of Political Apathy in Nigeria; A Case Study of the 2019 Governorship Election

Effect and Causes of Political Apathy in Nigeria; A Case Study of the 2019 Governorship Election

Chapter One

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The fundamental objective of the study is to investigate the effects and causes of political apathy in Nigeria; A case study of the 2019 election. The specific objectives of the study include;

To determine the nature of political apathy.

To determine the causes of political apathy.

To determine the effect of political apathy.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

Democracy And Political Apathy: Conceptual Clarifications

Democracy is popularly conceived as government of the people, for the people and by the people (sees Hassan, 2003:31). According to Mikailu and Yaqub (Mikailu and Yaqub, 2003), “Democratic politics is always every where built on certain minimum principles. These principles include participation and inclusiveness, responsiveness and accountability, transparency and good governance, regular, free and fair elections, freedom and respect for human rights and the observance of rule of law. Where these principles are in general observed, one can pronounce a government constituted in such a polity as democratic. Thus, from the above, one can see that a democratic government ensures participation and inclusiveness and is also responsive and accountable to its people. Otherwise, there will be apathy in the political system.

What then is political apathy? For the purpose of this article, political apathy is the deficiency of love and devotion to a state. It is the indifference on the part of citizens of any state as regards their attitudes towards political activities such as elections, public opinions, and civic responsibilities. Political apathy is therefore absence of interest in, or concern about, socio-political life. Thus, an apathetic person lacks interest in the social and political affairs of his country.

CHAPTER THREE

THE 2019 ELECTIONS IN NIGERIA: AN OVERVIEW

March 28^th through April 11^th 2019 marked another shift in Nigeria’s pursuit history of a democratic based election devoid of any form of irregularities; but as the case has been with practically all previous elections, the chase has not been productive. On the different days of elections, Nigerian electorates took to the polls to elect the next set of leaders into different political offices ranging from Presidential to National Assembly, Governorship and then to State Assembly positions. The elections, conducted witnessed the emergence of the opposition party, the All Progressive Congress (APC) and its candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, as the new President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The winner of the Presidential election, General Muhammadu Buhari of the APC is a former military ruler and a Muslim from the Northwest region of the country. Marking his fourth attempt under a different political platform, Buhari emerged victorious with 15,424,921 votes; having him earned 54% of the total votes against the incumbent’s (President Goodluck Jonathan) 12,853,162 votes which made up 45%. Thus Buhari won with about 2.5 million votes. However, it is sufficed to note that this is not a wide margin when compared with past elections since the return of civil rule in 1999 (DSM publication, 2019).

CHAPTER FOUR

EFFECT AND CAUSES OF POLITICAL APATHY IN NIGERIA

Effects Of Political Apathy In Nigeria’s Democracy

It is not healthy for any state to have only few people who are willing to participate in civic activities. In Nigeria, political apathy has manifested itself from 19999 to 2011 in a number of forms. These include refusal to register in voter’s register; refusal to vote; refusal to protest against rigging; and refusal to assist the security agents with useful information. Registration of voters is necessary before an election can take place. In Nigeria in 1999, the total population was put at 108,258,35 (see table below). Out of this, the actual number that registered was 57,938,945.

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The purpose of this study was to empirically examine the fundamental reasons behind voter apathy, using the 2019 election. The dramatic decline in voter turnout in the 2019 governorship elections surprisingly despite its devastating state did not exert a pull on the interest of many Nigerians, as at the moment many are still euphoric about the outcome of the elections. The widespread low turnouts recorded in the elections are clear indications that great deals of things are still fundamentally wrong with the country’s overall electoral processes. The deteriorating significance of the electioneering processes has continued to force potential voters in their numbers away from elections in the country. This misfortune in actuality should call for a great concern primarily because while decline in voter turnout is a general phenomenon, persistent low voters’ turnout is threatening the survival of any country’s democratic paradigm under whatsoever political system. If the current declining trends in voter turnout are therefore not immediately mitigated against by relevant stakeholders, there will be a huge threat to the aspirations of the country in achieving a functioning democracy. To have thought that the country was going to experience a major low voters’ turnout in the 2019 governorship elections, in spite of the increase in the total population of the people, sends an impending state of vulnerability of the country’s so called democracy. It is against this background that this study has been able to identify the plausible factors responsible for voter apathy or the recorded low turnout, with utmost concentration on the 2019 elections. These factors in entirety touch upon all aspects of the country’s electoral cycle. From factors emanating from the management and administration of the electoral processes, also known as the contextual factors down to the systematic organization of political parties, modus operandi during electioneering periods, and also the social factors, voter turnout are usually been influenced either positively or negatively. As we have espoused in this study, the electioneering processes in the country instead of encouraging mass participation during elections have been responsible for discouraging potential voters in their lots. This is not coming as a total shock as investigations, reports have revealed that the 2019 governorship elections was characterized with voter apathy because issues like hectic voting and registration processes, pockets of violence, electoral frauds, nonfulfillment of electoral promises reared their ugly heads during the electioneering processes. Arising from the foregoing, the following recommendations have been proffered.

The basic truth is that voter mobilization is a fundamental antidote for voter apathy. But this will not be possible without the coming together of relevant stakeholders to get organized to ensure maximum mass participation in electioneering processes. The seemingly stakeholders under this context are the electoral body, INEC, politicians, the media and the government. There is no doubt that there is a need to restructure, empower INEC for the purpose of ensuring improvement in the administration of the electoral processes. This is very germane, for if the confidence of the people is to be attracted INEC must as a matter of fact effect in house changes that have the tendencies of having it commanding public respect as an electoral body. Some of the urgently needed areas for changes include;

The electoral body should be independent from the influence of the head of the executive arm of government, which is the President. The President power to appoint and dissolve the head of the electoral body has to be abolished. This is important in ensuring the maximum autonomy of the body in discharging its management and administration duties over electoral processes.
The electoral body for the purpose of efficiency has to break the burden of having to depend on the political elites for funding before discharging its duties and obligations. This is very fundamental in ensuring the self-reliance of the body as this has way of having the electoral officers owing allegiance to the politicians.
There is need for well-planned, comprehensive training programmes for the electoral staff. In order to ensure competence, INEC must as a matter of fact be awash with permanent staff. Some competent NYSC staff periodically could be employed permanently.
The electoral body has to device means of always engaging the citizenries periodically on relevant issues having to do with knowing their political rights. Voters’ education should be intensified.
INEC relevance must not only be felt during elections, adequate structures must be put in place to encourage prospective voters by ensuring that politicians and their political parties are accountable to the masses.
Voter registration and voting exercises are meant to be stress free in order to attract the attention of potential voters. Early arrival of election materials is also a way of enticing the general public.
To further improve the electioneering processes the electoral body has to rise to the occasion of setting the electioneering guidelines for the political parties in order to prevent the outbreak of pre-election, election and post-election violence.
INEC as a way of attracting en masse participation has to not only urge political parties but also set the rules of campaigning, which should be based on ideological issues and not on pettiness, which consequently has intensified voter apathy in the country.
INEC should devise measures to ensure internal democracy among the existing political parties on aspect having to do with party primaries.
For proper correspondence, INEC should ensure a great deal of compliance with electoral procedures throughout the country during electioneering processes.
Because of the level of backwardness of many of the political parties, INEC has to insist on the distribution of their manifestoes among the rank and file of the Nigerian society in order to reduce voter apathy.
INEC in order to further encourage en masse participation have to allow independent candidacy in the electioneering processes.

Political parties and politicians as we have rightly pointed out in this study play one of the fundamental contributory roles towards voter apathy in the country. Besides it has been allude by many of our respondents that the politicians played the most instigating roles towards their failure to participate in the 2019 elections. This study has revealed that the existing political parties in the country lack well-articulated polices, programmes because they are devoid of any ideological conviction, as such a great chunk of Nigerians perceives many of these parties as the same. This factor has affected the interests of Nigerian youths, despite the fact that they are the most populated, as many are uninterested in the country’s elections because of the failure of the political class. It is against this background that a good number of this study’s respondents failed to perform their civic duties. Reforms have to be made under this context in order to mitigate the increasing feeling of apathy by the people.

Politicians and the political parties they represent have to begin to articulate the essence of their existence to the rank and file of the Nigerian society, in form of stating clearly their ideologies, if they have any, and their distinctive policies and programmes.
Politicians during campaigns for the purpose of attracting the attention of the potential voters have to raise concrete, lofty issues devoid of hate-speeches, thus furthering preventing the outburst of any violence.
One crucial issue that has long detached an amazing number of eligible Nigerians from both the politicians and the political parties they represent is the persistent failure of these politicians to fulfill their electoral promises. Politicians for the purpose of encouraging voters’ turnout as a matter of fact must all time fulfill their promises.
Over the years the inability of the Nigerian political parties to embrace internal democracy has estranged them from a good number of Nigerians. Political parties have to embrace and promote intra-party democracy as this has its own way of projecting them well in the eyes of the people. The masses as a matter fact must not be alienated from the so called party primaries activities.
The inability of many of these political parties to accept defeat, most especially the two well-known political parties, whenever they lose has caused the country many lives. Parties have to therefore learn ways to accept election results without any form of manipulation. The concept of politics of “do or die” has to be jettisoned.
Political parties and politicians to encourage en masse participation during electioneering processes have to be responsible by obeying the rules and regulations of the electoral body, INEC. Parties have to desist from attempting to bribe both the electorates and the electoral officers during voting exercise.

The media no doubts plays unprecedented roles during electioneering processes, as they are in fact the most closest to the people. In Nigeria, most media outlets however, are yet to grasp their significances during electioneering processes, as many are often cajoled to be the mouthpiece of distinctive political parties, thus depriving the masses of unbiased, fair reportage on the contesting political parties. The 2019 elections witnessed several media outlets playing the propagators for major aspirants by airing hate documentaries against their opponents, this which in actual sense can lead to violence. It is therefore of our candid suggestion that the following reforms must be made;

With regard to the state-owned media outlets, it is fundamental that the President or the Governors, as the case might be, refrains from appointing the Director General and the Board, as this is basically ridiculous, for these media outlets activities will always be progovernment in power, thus misinforming the public about several issues.
In addition, the state-owned media outlets have to be financially independent from the government in order to be able to ensure unbiased coverage or reportage.
The media outlets in order to ensure en masse participation during electioneering processes must work with the electoral body, INEC, in sharing reports about paid advertisements and nature of advertisements for the purpose of not hindering the people’s participation.
The media outlets during electioneering period have the responsibility of educating potential voters about the elections in order to elevate their interests.
Media outlets in respect of their journalistic ethics have to refrain from accepting bribes from the politicians and the political parties they represent, as this is detrimental to fair hearing in the course of the electoral processes.

Government roles in ensuring en masse participation during the electioneering processes cannot be overemphasized. This is so against the backdrop that in fact the legitimacy of any government largely depends on the numbers of votes that brought such government into power. Since democracy is a game of numbers and electioneering is also a game of numbers, it is therefore germane for all governments to try as much as they can in their various countries to ensure utmost participation from the people during elections. Quite depressing, the Nigerian governments over the years have failed and continue to fail in this aspect by refusing to create a level playground for all contesting political parties whenever an election is on course. What has been in vogue is that because of the overambitious nature of many of these governments and their loyalty to their distinct political parties, against Nigerians, state resources are usually monopolized by the government in power at the disadvantage of their opponents. Federal, State security services, media outlets, to mention a few, are usually monopolized by the government in power, thus instead of promoting voters’ turnout, governments over the years have been aggravating voter apathy in the best possible ways. Perhaps these reforms will be of relevance;

In order to promote voters’ turnout by abating voter apathy, government will be required to support INEC over the course of becoming independent. Genuine electoral reforms have to be allowed by the government to take due course for the purpose of salvaging the country’s so called democracy.
It is the duty of the government to solicit for en masse participation in electioneering processes by creating platforms for general public enlightenment on the need to vote.
Because violence and insecurity have always bedeviled Nigerian elections many eligible Nigerians more than often keep their distance during elections, it will be expected from governments to provide adequate security during electoral processes.
It is germane also for government in the most possible way to stay away from any form of interference in the electoral processes.
Governments as a way of encouraging voters’ turnout, day in day out have to persistently fulfill their electoral promises, for it is only through this the citizenry can have confidence in the system.

REFERENCES

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