Addressing the Ways for Sustaining Peace after Elections in Nigeria

Abstract

The thrust of the paper is on addressing the ways for sustaining peace after Elections in Nigeria. There is no denying the fact that Nigeria’s elections are characterised by violence before, during and after the elections. This is no surprising because of the apparent failure of the country’s electoral body to conduct free, fair, transparent and credible elections. The end result of this is
agitation by some segments of the country who feel cheated by the outcome of elections. Those who perpetrate this seem to be enjoying these anomalies because it gives them the avenue to continue to loot the nation’s treasury and use same to by the conscience of the poor during elections (vote buying). This high level of anomalies has made the masses to be disillusioned and
disenchanted. The negative effect of this is the truncating off the country’s peace before, during and after elections. This has led to the formation of groups such as Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Yoruba Nation Agitation and Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) among others. The paper used the qualitative research method. As a way
forward of these challenges, the paper suggests among others that there should be free, fair and credible elections, as well as reconciling of winners and losers in elections.