Introduction
1.0 Background to the Study
The history of Nigeria has been characterized by a variety of political violence and social economic development in Nigeria, this could be attribute to the coercive imposition and tradition brought together by colonial era (Udokang, 2006). However, apart from these scholars have identified leadership problem, ethnic crisis as well as living standard of the people as the cause of political violence and social economic development in Nigeria.
Consequently, violence is usually accompanied with wanton loss of lives, property, instability, infrastructural destruction among others, while social economic development contributed to the advancement and improvement in the standard of living increase in the life of people. Perhaps, no nation can survive a test of time when it’s drowned in the menace of violence and moreover no nation can actually develop under the prevalence of crisis violence and upheavals.
Therefore, in order for a nation to have a bit of development it should do away with all violent like attitudes. However, political violence is a form of violent relations and incompatibility of interest goals and ambitions between individuals’ groups and political structures in the process of attaining power and keeping it. To put it differently, political violence emanates during when elections are conducted and economic development after election is concluded in the state. This action is usually accompanied with various act of violence in Nigeria which is not usually the same in other countries of the world.
Before the attainment of independent in 1960 Nigeria had recorded myriads of violence chiefly among which is political. This problem however could be traced to 1922 when the first election was conducted and this has continued unabated till this present-dispensation, violence has done no nation any good has earlier observed rather it’s mark remains inextripable.
In the precolonial times, many of the traditional village democracy that was practiced in some geo-political environment has the needed popular support of the electorate and the citizens at large. Consequently, the history of modern democracy in Nigeria is chequered with one from of violence and another, this according to Nweke (2006), the emergence of political violence in sourced through the nature of party formation which was ethnoregionally based.
This was followed by the regionalization of Nigeria as created by Richard Constitution of 1946 Anu and Uwanaju (2011) wrote that at independence, political conflicts over the centre stage of nation building in Nigeria and its multiplier effect gave birth to the factor that led to Nigeria civil war of 1967 − 1970.
Human rights watch revealed that the recent post-presidential election violence claimed 800 lives, while the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said that more than 37 villages were attacked, the Agency also revealed that 2,500 houses were destroyed while about 10,000 families were affected (Awofadeji; 2011 quoted in Ani 2012).
Since no nations can survive under the sanction of continuous violence in a state, it’s therefore against this backdrop that his work examines political violence and socio-economic development in Nigeria using Akwa Ibom State as a case study.
In every democratic dispensation, elections have come to be known as the acceptable means through which leaders are changed. Election is seen as the process whereby qualified adult citizens select their leaders. This process however is characterized with all forms of violence ranging from thuggery, snatching of ballot boxes, killings, arson, assassination of political opponents, the list is endless. And with these singular vicious acts many lives are usually lost, properties wantonly destroyed, infrastructures and facilities that huge sum of money was expended is usually shattered and above all it creates great animosity and acrimony among the citizens.
Moreover, rather than save as a means of exercising legitimate political obligations, that will institute good leaders for effective governance and socio-political development in a state it then turn out to be a means of recruiting thieves and touts into the government which later culminates into political instability, under development and execution of wrong policies which are prevalence in Nigeria at large and Akwa Ibom State in particular.
- The main objective of the study is to examine the effect of political violence on socio-economic development in Nigeria.
- Specifically, the study will:
- Examine the causes of political violence in Nigeria.
- Investigate the effects of political violence in Nigeria.
- Critically examine the natures of political violence on sociopolitical development of Nigeria.
- Examine the roles of government institutions in addressing political violence in Akwa Ibom State.
The following research questions were raised to guide the study:
- What are the causes of political violence in Nigeria?
- What are the effects of political violence in the socio-political development of Nigeria?
- What are the natures of political violence in Nigeria?
- What are the roles of government institutions in addressing political violence in Akwa Ibom State?
1.5 Research Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were stated in null form and tested at .05 level of significance,
- There is no relationship between political violence and sociopolitical development in Nigeria.
- There is no relationship between the causes of political violence and socio-political development in Nigeria.
- There is no relationship between the roles of government institutions in curbing of political violence and socio-political development in Akwa Ibom State.
The significance of this study lies in the difference it will make in the entrenchment of democratic principles in Nigeria’s politics.
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