Why violence mostly happens after elections in Nigeria

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Posted by Chidinma on Tuesday March 3, 2015 at 12:19:37:

Post election violence is now a norm or trend in Nigeria because after most general elections, there has been many cases of violence that has claimed hundreds of innocent lives. In fact, it was after the 2009 elections that the activities of a barbaric Islamic Fundamentailist sect called Boko haram became more prominent is historically violent prone areas in Northern Nigeria. However, the activities of Boko haram is not exactly as a result of elections but based on their selfish agenda to rule the country.

Nigeria's main problem has been the actions of politicians and political thugs who engage in rampage killing of people when they are dissatisfied with election results or they feel they've lost political power and so the only way to show their strength lies in killing people many of who are innocent victims. The last election that was held in Nigeria was a bloody one because after the election result was announced, innocent Youth Corps members who helped to conduct the election were killed.

Elections will also be held in Nigeria n 2015 by March 28 and some prominent people have also predicted it could turn out to be a violent post election, which from the looks of things may not be a lie, looking at the way our politicians are going about this election issue. There has never been a time when 2 major political parties in Nigeria have divided voters so closely as they have done now. People say that each party has a 50/50 chance of winning and the race seems dividend along religious and regional lines with the ruling party seeming to be favoured by Christians in Southern Nigeria and the opposition party seeming to be favoured mostly by Muslims in Northern Nigeria.

The question now is what are the causes of post election violence?

1. Inability To Accept Failure: most of these politicians spend hundreds of million doing there campaigns, and after they have spent that amount and fail to win, they resort to violence instead of accepting defeat. If politicians will learn not to spend a lot during the campaign period, and stop making this election thing a do or die affair, then they will accept their defeat easily and avoid violence.

2. Poverty: poverty and unemployment can also be another factor that aids violence after elections; these politicians are not the ones that carry out the actual violence, they get some jobless people and pay them peanuts to spearhead the violence.