GNOSI: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Theory and Praxis, Vol.

1(1)
(2018) (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3491888)

O RIGINALARTICLE

Political Violence in Nigeria and Its Implication for

National Development
Anweting Kevin Ibok1 | Ogar Anthony Ogar2
1
Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, VERITAS University, Abuja, Nigeria.
,2
Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, University of Calabar, Cross River State.

Abstract: Political violence is a major impediment to Nigeria's national development. With

the restoration to democratic rule in May 1999, high expectations were raised that the new
democratic dispensation would resolve the risk of Nigeria's political violence, while speeding
the country' s economic and social transformation. It' s worrying that since democratic
rule returned, Nigeria has experienced a degree of unprecedented political violence that has
crippled the efforts of national development. The fundamental thrust of this paper is to
investigate the incidence of Nigeria's political violence and assess its national development
consequences. The paper shows that political violence dissuades domestic and foreign
investment in our economy, triggers government loss of revenue and resources, and results
in the election of unqualified representatives to the detriment of the country' s economic
and social progress. This paper proposes reducing wages paid to political office holders, and
politicians should strive to achieve national unity instead of growing religious and ethnic
tensions. Lastly, National resources should also be equitably distributed by the government.

Keywords: Political Violence, Development, National Development, Transformation.

Relations Relatio ns.

INTRODUCTION
Political violence has been identified as a common feature of the Nigerian political
system. An analysis of the Nigerian political journey has shown that “political violence has
been part and parcel of the country’s chequered history” . According to Nweke (2006, p.
41) “the emergence of political violence in Nigeria is sourced through the nature of party
formation, which was ethno-regionally based. This was followed by the regionalization of
Nigeria as created by Richard Constitution of 1946” . Since attainment of
independence Nigeria has witnessed unprecedented political violence which is a
serious impediment to National Development. Ani and Nwanaju (2011, p. 2) observed that
“at independence, political conflicts took over the centre stage of nation building in Nigeria
and its multiplier effect gave birth to factors that led to the Nigerian civil war of 1967- 1970” .
With the return of civilian government in May, 1999, hopes were high that the new
democratic order would tackle the incidence of political violence in the country thereby
facilitating economic and social progress. It is a sad commentary that since the return of civil
rule, political violence has reached a dangerous proportion. The Nigerian state and its
fledgling democracy have been beset with phenomenal violence and atrocities ranging from
those that come in the form ofreligious crises, like sharia. Niger-Delta militancy, ethno-
religious conflicts, Boko Haram insurgency, electoral violence, politically motorated
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(2018) (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3491888)
political undertones (Omodia, 2009; Omotola, 2010).
Therefore, the basic thrust of this paper is to examine the incidence of political
violence in Nigeria and determine its implication for national development. The paper also
suggests appropriate strategies to address the menace of political violence in Nigeria. The
paper is divided into six sections. Section one deal with introduction, section two is
concerned with conceptual clarification and section three dwells on theoretical framework.
Section four deals with the incidence of political violence in Nigeria. Section five focuses
on implication of political violence for national development. The last section dwells
on conclusion and recommendations.

CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION
Political Violence
Political violence is
“the use of threat or physical act carried out by an individual
or individuals within a political system against another
individual or individuals and/or property with the intention to
cause injury or death to persons and/or damage or
destruction to property and whose objective, choice of
target or victims, surrounding circumstances,
implementation and effects have political significance, that
tend to modify the behaviour of others in the existing
arrangement of power structure that has consequencesfor the
political system” (Anikawose 1984, p.4).
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. Political violence is form of violence relations and crisis
of interest, goals and ambitions between individuals, groups, and political structures in the
process of attaining power and keeping it (Johnmary 2012). The Institute of Peace and
Conflict Resolution (cited in Nweke, 2006, Pp. 40-41) observed that “political conflict
emanates from power struggles, within the political class and often involves the
manipulation of the people, who are inevitably less informed about the essence of the political
struggle” . Therefore, political violence “ takes place in the process of power struggle aimed
at certain very players in the political system. ”

Development
Scholars have defined development in various ways. Sapru (1997:5) defines
development as a process of improving the well being of the people. It is about raising the
standard of living of the people, improving their education and health and also opening out to
them new and equal opportunities for richer and more varied life. According to Akanji and
Akosile (2001) “it means the attainment of self governance, to others it signifies the provision
of essential infrastructure that create a healthy atmosphere, proper provision of education,
communication and ability to evolve an amiable business environment for its citizenry while
some even sees it as achievement in technological advancement” . Naomi (1995, p.67) believes
that development is usually taken to involve not only economic growth but also some notion
of equitable distribution, provision of healthcare, education, housing and other essential
services all with a view to improving the individual and collective quality of life. Chisman
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(cited in

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 GNOSI: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Theory and Praxis, Vol. 1(1)
(2018) (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3491888)
Lawal & Abe 2001, p. 237-241) views development “as a process of societal advancement,
where improvement in the well being of the people are generated through strong partnerships
between all sectors, corporate bodies and other groups in the society. It is reasonable to know
that development is not only economic exercise, but also involves both socio-economic and
political issues and pervades all aspects of societal life. ”

National Development
Evolving from the meaning of development, national development can be explained
to mean totality of improvement in collective and concrete terms across socio-economic,
political, technology as well as religion and is best achieved through strategies
mapped out by government as contained in the nation development plans (Akindele, Ogini
& Agada, 2013, p. 171).
In the opinion of Oluwatoyin (2001, p. 237) national development can be defined as
“ the overall development of collective socio-economic, political as well as religious
advancement of a country or a nation. This is best achieved through development planning,
which can be described as the country’s collection of strategies mapped out by government.”

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The importance of theories in political discourse cannot be overemphasized as it
proffers empirically based general explanatory laws through synthesizing and integrating
of empirical data for maximum clarification (Raphael, 1978, p.2). Many theories could be used
to explain political violence in Nigeria, but pluralist theory is more preferable in
Nigerian situation. The pluralist theory posits that conflict is inevitable in plural society
(Cohen 1996). Therefore, conflict generated by competition among plural groups in
democracies of the third world countries like Nigeria is a common phenomenon. Since
Nigeria is a plural society, composed of various ethnic groups, there is always competition
among these ethnic groups to capture political offices and control national wealth
(Bassey, 2016). This is because in variegated society like Nigeria, every ethnic group is
mobilizing support for its candidates during elections. This could result in election motivated
political violence.
Political violence in Nigeria could also be explained by using the psychological theories
especially Ted Gurr’s theory of relative deprivation (1980) and James Davies (1971) J-curve
hypothesis. The centrality of the theory rest on the fact that frustration-aggression mechanism
is analogous to the law of gravity; men who are frustrated have an innate disposition to do
violence to its source in proportion to the intensity of their frustration, just as objects are
attracted to one another in direct proportion to their relative masses (Dungan, 2004). According
to the theorist, the main cause of human capacity for violence is frustration- aggression
mechanism. This means that “unfulfilled expectations create relative deprivation gab between
expectations and capabilities” In other words, when someone or group of people have the
perception of their ability or right to something (goal), if prevented from attaining such goals,
the result is frustration which will in turn generate aggressive behaviour that will snowball to
violence (Ojo, 2014). Therefore, in Nigeria if an individual or group of people are prevented
from achieving their expected goals like joining public office, it could lead to frustration and
aggressive behaviour which may result in political violence (Ogar et el, 2016)

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(2018) (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3491888)
INCIDENCE OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE IN NIGERIA
Political violence has been endemic feature of many developing countries like Nigeria
( Ogar et al, 2018). It was a great achievement that Nigeria attained her independence with
minimum violence, but is worrisome that since after independence, political violence has
reached a dangerous dimension. It is imperative to note that political violence associated with
election and electoral processes in Nigeria commenced with the 1959 federal elections
designed by British to facilitate the transition from colonial rule to independence
(Ogundiya & Baba 2005). This problem worsened in the elections held immediately after
independence in 1960s. In Western Region, political violence popularly referred to as
“Operation “Wete” were recorded in 1964 to 1965 following both federal and regional
elections as well as rift between Awolowo and Akintola (Aver, Nnorom & Targba, 2013, p.
263). There were also political violence in parts of Northern Region especially between the
supporters of the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) and supporters of other parties,
mainly the Northern Elements Progressive Union ( NEPU) and Action Group (Aver et al,
2013). Another political violence that emerged after independence was the military coup of
January 1966, where a group of young Nigerian army of officers seized power and
assassinated the then Prime Minister Tafawa Belawa, Amadu Bello and Ladoke Akintola
Premiers of Northern and Western regions respectively. This military coup led to political
violence that caused the Nigerian civil war 1966-70.
Following a protracted military rule that lasted for thirteen years, the Murtala/Obasanjo
regime carried out a transistion programme and returned the country to civil rule in 1979 (Alfa
& Otaida 2012, p.46) The 1979 election witnessed minimal cases of violence. According
to Nwolise ( 2007) “ the election was characterized by violence at three stages pre-
election, during the election and post election. In almost all the states, the results were
contested or disputed.” The major contending issue was that of 2/3 of 19 states which was
resolved in favour of Alhaji Shehu Shagari, NPN presidential candidate by the Supreme Court
(Alfa & Otaida 2012:15).
The 1983 elections were not devoid of violence. The election was rigged in favour of
ruling party, the National Party of Nigeria, (NPN). This led to violent demonstrations in some
parts of the country. For example the landslide victory of the National Party of Nigeria NPN in
Oyo and Ondo States considered to be stronghold ofthe Unity Party ofNigeria (UPN) witnessed
massive post-election violence. Several persons lost their lives and large scale destruction of
property was recorded (Alemika 2011). The violent political activities in the country
contributed to the overthrow of Shagari’s regime on 31 st December, 1983. In what could
have ushered in the third republic by Babangida designed in 1993, was however aborted by
the June 12 1993 annulled presidential election which created chaotic situation in the
country (Alfa & Otaida, 2012, p.46). The cancellation of the election led to massive
ethno-religious conflicts in the country. Babangida stepped down in August 1993 which
led to the formation of an interim government headed by Chief Shonekan. The interim
government was dismissed following “the palace coup” led by General Sani Abacha. Abacha’s
regime was beset with oppressive policies and assassination of his political enemies. Chief
among these was the murder of Mrs Kudirat Abiola, wife of the acclaimed winner of the June
1993, presidential poll annulled by Babangida (Alfa & Otaida 2012, p.47). Later Abacha
died mysteriously in the process of trying to “transform himself into a civilian President.
General Abubakar who replaced Abacha supervised 1999 elections that ushered in the
Fourth Republic on May 29th 1999. There were high expectations that the nascent democracy
would help to reduce the menace of political violence in the country. It is worrisome that since
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(2018) (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3491888)
the return of civil rule, Nigeria has witnessed unprecedented level of political violence which
militates against economic and social transformation of the country. For example, the
introduction of Sharia law in Zamfara State which spread to other Northern States led to massive
killing of people from Southern Nigeria and their corpses were brought back to their respective
states. There were also reprisal attacks in some places such as Okigwe, Owerri and Aba. In
Kwara State, supporters of the governor and leading gubernatorial candidate were involved in
violent conflict which resulted in the killing of the state party chairman in August 2002. Other
prominent politicians that lost their lives due to political violence include Chief Bola Ige of AD
while serving as minister under PDP’s government, Chief Harry Marshal, Vice Chairman of
All Nigerian People Party, South-South, Asari Dikibo, Vice Chairman of PDP, South South,
Luke Shigaba, Chairman of Bassa Local Government Area, Kogi State (Osisioma ,
2007). An unprecedented political violence took place in Anambra State on 10 th July
2003, when the former Governor of Anambra State was kidnapped with the intention of
forcing him out of power. This plot was executed by the late Assistant Inspector General of
Police Mr. Raphael Ige who later claimed he acted on the basis of an “order from above”
though the principal actors to such act remain unknown till today (Adeleke, 2012).
Political violence associated with election was massive in 2007. There were violent political
activities in different parts of the country. According to Adele (2012, p.211):
In River-State, a police station was attacked and burnt by unknown
assailants a night before the election date. In Anambra and Rivers
State voters werefaced with intimidation and violence. In Ekiti State,
there was confrontation between PDP and Action Congress
supporters and election results were blatantlyfalsified in many areas.
Violence was equally reported in Northern State of Kastina where
opposition supporters burnt down government building in protest as
the announcement that PDP had swept the state’ s gubernatorial
polls. Soldiers clash with angry voters in Nasarawa State. In Oyo
State, PDP thugs beat up opposition party officials and hijacked
ballot boxes.
The declaration of 2 0 1 1 presidential election result in which president Goodluck
Jonathan emerged as the winner led to violent demonstrations in northern parts of country. The
supporters of Congress of Progressive Change (CPC) unleashed violent protests and
destroyed properties worth of millions of naira. The house of the Vice President Namadi
Sambo was looted and raised and palaces of prominent traditional rulers in the North were
attacked (Alfa & Otaida 2012, p.48).
The activities of Boko Haram in the Fourth Republic have also a serious security threat
to our country. The crisis is assuming a dangerous dimension. The Boko Haram has unleashed
grievous attacks on places of worship, media houses, markets, parks, telecommunication
facilities etc in many northern states. In the process, a lot of lives and properties worth millions
of naira have been lost.
IMPLICATION OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Since attainment of independence, Nigeria is bedeviled with political violence which
has undermined the performance of all sectors of national development. It has retarded the
economic and social transformation of the country. Political violence militates against
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(2018) (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3491888)
and foreign investors in the economy and prevents future economic growth and development
(Bassey et el, 2018). Again, some victims of political violence while taking refuge in refugees
camps cannot be able to involve themselves in economic activities. Therefore, cannot
contribute to development of the country. Segun (2013, p.333) observed that between 2003 and
early 2005 over 3,000 people died in election related violence in the Niger Delta perpetrated by
the youths, with properties worth hundreds of million destroyed. The people who lost their
lives in this type of conflict can no longer contribute to political, economic and social
development.
Political violence is a serious challenge to national security and causes government’s
loss of revenue and assets. For example, the government of Delta State in 2003 spent N200
million to maintain soldiers stationed in Warri to maintain peace (Adebanwi, 2004). It is
estimated that assets worth ofN59,672,000 were lost to the Jos crisis in 2001, while
government compensation to victims was about N13,938,000; assets loss to the Kaduna
crisis of 2001 amounted to N50,625,000 with government compensation at N32,716,000
(Segun 2013, p.333).
Another serious implication of political violence for national development is that it
leads to electing those leaders that are not credible which is detrimental to economic and
social progress of the country. Election of unqualified leaders into political offices in
Nigeria is a launching pad to poor leadership that cannot drive home the vision of the
country (Okoafor, 2015, p.8). The development challenges that we are witnessing in the
contemporary Nigeria, could be attributed to poor leadership.
Political violence has disrupted educational activities and consequently school calendar
is extended. This adversely influences the duration a student would spend in school, attracting
more expenditure on parents, more worrisome is exposing students to social vices like drug
addiction, alcohol, armed robbery, prostitution among other vices (Aver et al, 2013). Based on
the above mentioned factors, we can deduce that political violence is a serious threat to national
development in Nigeria.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

In this paper, attempt has been made to examine how political violence undermines
national development since Nigeria attained her independence. Political violence retards
domestic and foreign investments, causes government’s loss of revenue and assets, results
in the election of unqualified leaders and disrupts educational activities. The
following recommendations would help to reduce the incidence of political violence in
Nigeria and consequently accelerate economic and social growth of the country.
1. Salaries and other benefits that are due for political office holders should be reduced
to ensure that they are less attractive. The benefits that are associated with political
offices encourage unhealthy competition which results in political violence.
2. The politicians should strive to achieve national integration. They should avoid
making statements that would arose religious and tribal sentiments which usually
leads to political violence.
3. The Nigerian politicians should see governance as a strategy of addressing the
problems of the masses not necessarily accumulation of wealth.
4. The government should distribute national values equitably and ensure balance
development of all regions. No section of the country would feel marginalized.
5. The convicted sponsors and executors of political violence should be prevented from
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