IMPACT OF YOUTHS BLOCK OPPORTUNITIES THAT INVOLVED THEM

THE IMPACT OF YOUTHS BLOCK OPPORTUNITIES THAT INVOLVED THEM IN STREET ECONOMIC IN NIGERIA CASE STUDY OF KWARA STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The practice of democracy in Nigeria over a decade ago has not yielded much needed good governance. This is because democracy is practiced in such a way that responsible and competent people are scared away. Scholars and keen observers have attempted at unraveling the factors militating against translating democracy into good conduct of elections. However, Nigeria recently held both presidential and gubernatorial elections in the span of a few weeks. The elections were replete with logistical failures and delays, misconduct, voting irregularities, and violences, (Atunga, 2005).

Okoh, 2008 opined that authority and civil society groups are now seeking to determine how credible the results of the elections were and how and whom to hold accountable for any misconduct—questions which have significant bearing on Nigeria’s democracy in the coming years. Given the fact that elections are the major pillar of leadership selection and governance legitimation in liberal democracies, therefore constant and un-seizing effort for the reformation of the electoral process is an imperative in all countries that are democratizing. In addition, it is especially necessary in countries in transition to democracy, such as Nigeria, where there is a long history of badly conducted elections; where elections have been bastardized, and where many voters have become despondent and have virtually given up hope of their votes counting in choosing their elected executives or representatives in legislatures.(Okoh, 2008).

However, State-APC-spokesman of Kwara state, Mr Lafiagi, in his interview with some journalists about the internal dispute that occurred in the state stated that “the stakes of getting election accountability right are high. If these processes fail, the credibility of Nigeria’s democracy could be undermined, possibly contributing to a more volatile political security environment through to the 2023 elections. Moreover, the governorship elections in particular exposed cracks in Nigeria’s electoral democracy that will need to be addressed to restore faith in the process, and steps must be taken to prevent these issues from re-emerging in 2023. The violence and misconduct witnessed during the 2019 general elections exposed the stakes of maintaining power, and the political shift from north to south in the 2023 elections will likely bring additional challenges as new networks and centers of power emerge”, he said. Nigeria’s civil society groups set the groundwork for ensuring electoral accountability by deploying thousands of observers across the country to observe and report on the conduct of the 2019 general elections. Now, it is up to the government to investigate and hold individuals accountable for loss of life, voter disenfranchisement, and efforts to manipulate election results. For Nigerian voters, the accessibility and fairness of the process may be as important as the credibility of the results. Violence, intimidation, and harassment increases fears around voting, and evidence of misconduct that goes unpunished may lead citizens to  decide that voting is more trouble than it’s worth, (Adamu, 2019).

Moreover, according to Adamu, 2019, some of the major challenges faced in during the conduct of the 2019 general elections relate to the cynicism and skepticism of the Nigerian voters and citizens generally; the peculiar attitudes and mindset of the typical Nigerian politician; those associated with the use of technology in our infrastructure-challenged environment; the constraints imposed by the extant legal framework and those emanating from the prevalence of the phenomenon of weak institutions and other systemic peculiarities of the Nigerian polity. Therefore, the interest of this study will to find a Lee way out of this problematic in Nigeria for proper subsequent elections.

THE IMPACT OF YOUTHS BLOCK OPPORTUNITIES THAT INVOLVED THEM IN STREET ECONOMIC IN NIGERIA CASE STUDY OF KWARA STATE

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