Impact of Electoral Violence on Human Resource Mobilisation for Community Development in Nigeria

Abstract

There is global awareness that election is an important tool for selecting leaders who will govern for good of the people. Thus, it is a tool for human resource mobilisation for community development as well Nigerian elections are marred by violence, and at the same time there is the problem of good governance in the land amidst abundant socio-economic resources. The study intends to find out if there is a relationship between occurrence of violent elections and existence of poor governance in Nigeria. Both primary and secondary data were used. For the primary data, a total of 250 randomly selected respondents were drawn from the five (5) geo- political zones (Ibadan, Ibarapa, Ogbomoso, Oke-Ogun and Oyo) of Oyo State in equal proportions of 50 samples each. A sixteen-item questionnaire concerning people’s opinions on the implication of electoral violence on community development in Nigeria was developed to collect data with educated adult persons forming the study population. The study revealed that electoral violence is a serious clog in Nigeria’s wheel of utilising election to derive human resources for community development, and that it deeply perpetrated by the elites of power with the support of other citizens, among other things. Consequently, it is recommended that the interest of the ruling people or citizens generally should be ethically guided as most Nigerian political actors lack diligence, a virtue that can help political actors not to fall into the trap of self-complacency, fantasy and corruption, among other ones.

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