Voters’ Turnout and Democratisation in Nigeria: Interrogating the 2023 Presidential Election
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
The persistent trend of voters’ apathy in Nigeria remains an issue of concern to advocates of democracy and its sustenance in the country. Democracy is inherently dependent on the will of the people. The acceptability of a democratically instituted government is (to a large extent) measured by the popular support given by the people through periodic elections. This presupposes that elected representatives must regularly face the voters to seek or renew their mandates. Be that as it may, citizens’ participation in the election of their representatives underscores the substance of representative democracy. The legitimacy of emerging governments in a democratic political system is therefore hinged on the extent to which eligible voters come out to vote for them during elections. However, a worrisome phenomenon in Nigeria’s electoral history, most especially since the re-democratisation of the polity in 1999, is the declivity of voters’ turnout in both general and off-season elections. Specifically, voters’ turnout during the 2023 general elections was abysmally low. Of the 87.2 million Nigerians who collected their permanent voter’s card (PVC) out of 93.4 million who registered to vote, only 24.9 million (26.74%) actually voted during the presidential election. It is on the premise of this factuality that this paper interrogates the causes and implications of voters’ apathy for democracy and democratisation in Nigeria. Using qualitative approach, the paper examines the historical dynamics of voters’ turnout in Nigeria and its implications on democratisation, with specific reference to the 2023 presidential election.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors hold the copyright of all published articles except otherwise stated.
References
Adebayo, A. (2023, March 23). Nigeria’s curious voter turnout problem. African Arguments, https://africanarguments.org/2023/03/nigerias-curious-voter-turnout-problem/
Almond, G. and Verba. S. (1963). The civic culture: Political attitudes and democracy in five nations. Princeton University Press.
Bell. D. (1999). The coming of post-industrial society: A venture in social forecasting. Basic Books.
Blais, A. and Dobrzynska, A. (1998). Turnout in electoral democracies. European Journal of Political Research, 33(2): 239–261.
Chatham House (2023, March 31). Nigeria: Trust and turnout define 2023 elections (Expert Comment). www.chathamhouse.org/2023/03/nigeria-trust-and-turnout-define-2023- elections.
Dalton. R. (2002). Citizen politics: Public opinion and political parties in advanced industrialised democracies. 3rd Edition. Chatham House.
Diamond, L. (2005). Democracy, development and good governance: The inseparable links. Paper presented at the Annual Democracy and Good Governance Lecture, Centre for Democratic Development, British Council Hall, Accra, Ghana, March 1.
Downs. A. (1957). An economic theory of democracy. Harper Row.
Dudley, B. (1973). Instability and political order: Politics and crisis in Nigeria. University Press.
Edelman Trust Barometer (2019). https://www.edelman.com/trust-barometer
EU Election Observation Mission (2023). Nigeria’s 2023 general elections final report, https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/nigeria/european-union-election-observation-mission- presents-its-final-report_en?s=114.
Farber, H. S. (2009). Rational choice and voters’ turnout: Evidence from Union Representation Elections. CEPS Working Paper No. 196. https://gceps.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/196farber.pdf.
Franklin, M. (2003). The dynamics of voters’ turnout in established democracies since 1945. Cambridge University Press.
Habib, G. (2022, October 12). INEC deletes 2.7 million for double registration. Punch, https://punchng.com/inec-deletes-2-7-million-for-double-registration/
Hassan, M. B. (2014). Election management and legitimacy crisis in Nigeria. Dutse Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 1: 125-148.
Heywood, A. (2007). Politics. Palgrave Macmillan.
Inglehart. R. (1997). Modernisations and postmodernisation. Princeton University Press.
International Republican Institute (IRI) and National Democratic Institute (NDI) Election Observation Mission to Nigeria (2023). Final report of the 2023 general elections, https://www.iri.org/news/ndi-iri-joint-international-election-observation-mission- releases-final-report-on-2023-nigerian-general-elections/
Jackman, R. W. and Miller, R. A. (1995). Voters’ turnout in the industrial democracies during the 1980s. Comparative Political Studies, 27(4): 467–492.
Kapsa, I. (2020). Political trust vs. turnout in modern democracies. Polish Political Science Handbook, 49(3): 151-160.
Madubuegwu, C. E., Agudiegwu, O. M., Onyia, V. O., Odoh, V. O, and Egbo, S. (2020). Democratic consolidation and voters’ apathy in Nigeria: Dynamics, trends and implications. Socialscientia Journal of the Social Sciences and Humanities, 5(2): 43-58
Mahmud, S. S. (n.d.). The 2015 general elections: Voters’ turnout, voting behaviour and democratic consolidation in Nigeria. Paper prepared for presentation at the Post Election Conference, the Electoral Institute, Abuja, https://inecnigeria.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Conference-Paper-by-Sakah-Saidu-Mahmud.pdf.
Manin, B. (2010). Principles of representative government. Cambridge University Press.
Mesfin, B. (2008). Democracy, elections and political parties: A conceptual overview with special emphasis on Africa. Issue Paper 166, Institute for Security Studies. https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/98951/PAPER166.pdf.
Ngara, C. O. and Udefuna, P. N. (2021). Democracy without the people: Interrogating low voters’ turnout in Nigeria’s 2019 general elections. NILDS Journal of Democratic Studies, (2)2: 44-68.
Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room. (2023). Report on Nigeria’s 2023 general elections, https://situationroomng.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Situation-Room-Report-onNigerias-2023-General-Election.pdf.
Nnadozie, U. I. (2005). History of elections in Nigeria. In G. Onu and A. Momoh (eds.) Elections and democratic consolidation in Nigeria (pp. 112-132). A-Triad Associate.
Norris, P. (2004). Electoral engineering: Voting rules and political behaviour. Cambridge University Press.
Okoko, K. (2019, July 24). Election and governance. Keynote paper presented at the NPSA 32nd Annual Conference, University of Calabar, Calabar, Cross River State, 22-25 July.
Oladipo, T.D. (2022). Local governance and politics of inclusiveness in a democracy. LASU Journal of Humanities, Education & Law, Vol. 5, No. 1. pp. 77- 84. https://lasujournals.ng/index.php/Jhel/article/view/12.
Omotola, J. S. and Aiyedogbon, G. (2012). Political participation and voters’ turnout in Nigeria’s 2011 elections. Journal of African Elections, (11)1: 54-73.
Pateman, C. (1970). Participation and democratic theory. Cambridge University Press.
Patterson, T. (2009). The vanishing voter: Public involvement in an age of uncertainty. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Powell, G. B. Jr. (1980). Voting turnout in thirty democracies: Partisan, legal and socioeconomic influences. In G. B. Powell (ed.) Electoral participation: A comparative analysis. Sage
Powell, G. B. Jr. (1982). Contemporary democracies: Participation, stability and violence. Harvard University Press.
Powell, G. B. Jr. (1986). American voters’ turnout in comparative perspective. American Political Science Review, 80(1): 17–43.
Sam-Duru, P. (2022, September 24). There are people older than Queen Elizabeth bearing teenage faces in INEC register, CUPP spokesman alleges. Vanguard, https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/09/there-are-people-older-than-queen-elizabeth- bearing-teenage-faces-in-inec-register-cupp-spokesman-alleges/
Solijonov, A. (2016). Voters’ turnout trends around the world. International IDEA. https://www.idea.int/sites/default/files/publications/voter-turnout-trends-around-the- world.pdf.
United Nations (2015). Universal Declaration of Human Rights. https://www.un.org/en/udhebook/pdf/udhr_booklet_en_web.pdf/
Verba, S. Schlozman, K. and Brady. H. E. (1995). Voice and equality: Civic voluntarism in American politics. Harvard University Press.
Zuhumnan, P. (2023, March 10). The lowest voters’ turnout in Nigeria’s election history: What happened? Daily Trust, https://www.dailytrust.com/the-lowest-voters-turnout-in-nigerias- election-history-what-happened-2/