2023 ELECTIONS IN NIGERIA: CHALLENGES AND WAY FORWARD

Abstract

Abstract

The history of elections in Nigeria is replete with intrigues, internal party crises, electoral violence, thuggery/hooliganism, rigging, pre- and post-election litigations, among others. However, the 2023 elections recorded a paradigm shift in the playing out of events. Focusing on the 2023 Presidential Election, the study argues that the New Electoral Law was and remains the defining law for the conduct of elections in Nigeria and holds better electoral prospects for the country. It further argues that the 2023 elections differed significantly and considerably despite its outcome and hold prospects for better conduct of future elections for the emergence of a better Nigerian State. The findings reveal that ethnicity, religion and institutional deceit championed by the electoral umpire; INEC rather than thuggery/hooliganism characterised the electoral process. The findings further reveal that the involvement of the youths changed the narrative while the deployment of technology by both state and non-state actors in the election was both a curse and a blessing. It remains a curse to the election riggers who in a digital era, continued to use crude means to manipulate the outcome of the election. In the same vein, it is a blessing as it exposed irregularities of the election and has capacity to redefine Nigeria’s future through the conduct of free, fair, transparent and credible elections. The paper is both descriptive and analytical and relied on both primary and secondary data. It concludes by submitting that hooliganism/thuggery in the election was less experienced and only in Lagos and Port Harcourt, with post-election crisis absent. By omission and commission, INEC and its electoral workers manipulated the election’s results in the collation centers rather than at the polling places. In general, INEC did not take the requirements of the New Electoral Law into account while declaring the outcome of the 2023 presidential election. These events produced post-election difficulties that the courts are expected to resolve with some diplomatic implications. The New Electoral Law must be strictly interpreted by the courts, and must be followed if Nigeria is to go forward.