Social Menace of Political Thuggery in the 2019 Election: A Case Study of Sokoto North Local Government Area
Chapter One
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The objectives of the study are;
- To ascertain the relationship between social menace and political thuggery in the 2019 elections
- To ascertain the impact of political thuggery on Nigeria’s democracy
- To examine the causes of political thuggery in the 2019 general elections in Nigeria
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Political Thuggery
The Oxford Dictionary of Current English (1998), defined thuggery as violent act or behaviour by ruffians. It is observed that thuggery has relationship with violence activities. Thuggery is an act which is associated with stealing, killing, rudeness, hooliganism, touting, intimidation and harassment. It is a behaviour that contradicts peace, harmony and co-existence among groups. Political thuggery is an illegitimate and violent means of seeking political power with a view to subverting national opinion for parochial ends through self imposition (Howell, 2004). Therefore, political thuggery is simply the criminalisation of politics. When politics is criminalized, it is left in the hands of ruffians, thugs and hooligans, because the good people are scared away. In fact, contemporary events, across the country have clearly demonstrated that Nigerian politics has been hijacked by political thugs (Asiegbu, 2011). The politicians recruit the youths comprising of men as their thugs and touts. These thugs compelled innocent people to vote against their wishes. The party agents at the polling booths were threatened to compromise, and INEC officials were forced to do what they would not have done ordinarily.
Violence
Violence is defined as “the illegitimate and unauthorized use of force to effect decisions against the will or desires of others” (Wolff, 1969). Karl (1968) posits that violence, particularly political violence, represents a disturbance to the political equilibrium system. According to Gurr (1970), political violence refers to all collective attacks within a political community against the political regime, its actors including competing political groups as well as incumbents – or its policies. From the foregoing, one can observe that there is a correlative relationship between the two concepts. As a matter of fact, they are complementary. The end-product of thuggery is violence. Violence is the means through which thugs achieve their aims
Threat
Threat according to the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary is: A statement in which you tell somebody that you will punish or harm them, especially if they do not do what you want. It is also the possibility of trouble, danger or disaster and lastly it can also mean a person or thing that is likely to cause trouble, danger, etc. Going by the above meaning of threat, it can be clearly seen that thuggery itself is a major source of threat to the security of a state or country. Importantly it should be noted that security or provision of it is the responsibility of responsive and responsible leadership which is one of the major qualities of good governance. Be that as it may, dastard activities of politicians particularly hiring of thugs threaten the security and well being of the citizens. When the intra-ruling class competition for power assumes a zero – sum level as Buluma (1989) says, it usually tends to threaten the survival of the government in office: Whenever such things occur it makes governance difficult if not impossible a situation which Ake (1994) calls “governmental instability.” Absence of peace and security disempowers the citizens thereby leaving them hopeless and cheated. Such a condition is an indication that the elites run the state in their own .interest. The citizens will lose confidence in the leadership when it fails to shoulder the very burden they are assigned to carry out. Thus, the question of good governance becomes long standing and problematic. Hence chaos will set in and the state will be insecure to live and also the possibility of military take over unfolds (Esew, 2003).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study social menace of political thuggery of 2019 election
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information on social menace of political thuggery of 2019 election. 200 residents in Sokoto North was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was social menace of political thuggery of 2019 election. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of social political thuggery of 2019 election
Summary
This study was on social menace of political thuggery of 2019 election. Three objectives were raised which included: To ascertain the relationship between social menace and political thuggery in 2019 elections, to ascertain the impact of political thuggery on Nigeria democracy, to examine the causes of political thuggery in 2019 general elections in Nigeria. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 residents of Sokoto North. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made civil servants, youths, elderly men and elderly women were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
Since Nigeria’s independence in 1960, political thuggery has constituted a recurring problem in attempts to organize free, fair and credible elections in the country. Although the 2019 General Elections were described as “a giant stride in terms of evolving a credible electoral process”, nevertheless, acts of thuggery manifested prominently during the elections. This clearly demonstrated that some desperate politicians often employ the services of thugs to harass and intimidate political opponents and to manipulate the electoral process in their favour. Besides, opportunistic politicians employ thugs to scare away the electorate and overwhelm opponents in the ding-dong war of Nigerian party primaries and general elections. The pervasive acts of thuggery in the body politic of Nigeria constitute a serious impediment in the effort of government to achieve democratic consolidation in the country
Recommendation
Government should discourage the politics of “do-or-die” and bitterness should be discouraged at all government levels through mass enlightenment campaigns, conferences and seminars. The youths should be enlightened, employed and be prosecuted if found wanting. Security agents should be well equipped, motivated and checked to avoid double dealing or short change. Drug dealers and abusers must be arrested and arraigned before the law.
REFERENCES
- Ake, C., 1994. Political economy of Africa. England: Longman Group Asiegbu, T., 2011. Nigerian youth and political thuggery htt://www.helium.com/knowledge/285548-nigeriayouths-and- political-thuggery.
- Buluma, M.B., 1989. The national security: Question in third word: A case study of Nigeria. Nigeria: Unpublished M.Sc dissertation submitted to the Department of Political Science and Administration, University of Maiduguri, Borno State.
- Esew, N., 2003. The mass media as a tool for achieving national integration in Nigeria. Politics and political power relations in Nigeria, Lagos Dat and Partners Logistics Ltd.
- Gboyega, A., 2004. Democracy in Nigeria: Dividends, prospects and problems. A Paper delivered at the event marking the fifth Anniversary of Return to Civil Democratic Governance in Oyo State.
- Gurr, T., 1970. Why men rebel. Princeton, Princeton University Press. Howell, R., 2004. Political thuggery in vogue.
- Chicago, L and T Press Ltd. Isa, A., 2008. Political thuggery and good governance in borno state (1999-2007). Being a dissertation submitted to the Department of Public Administration, University of Maiduguri, for the award of M.Sc Degree in Public Administration.
- Jega, M. and H. Wakili, 2002. The leadership question and the quest for unity in Nigeria. Centre for Democratic Research and Training CDRT, Mambayya House, Kano.
