Browsing: Post-Election Agenda

The cost of the 2023 general elections on Nigeria’s social fabric has been very high. Many Nigerians felt threatened by strong ethnic mobilisation aimed at harassing them with the intention of stopping them from exercising their franchise. Voter suppression emerged as a core electoral tactic precisely because in many parts of the country, the assumed inclination of Nigerians to vote along ethno-religious lines were significantly undermined. In other words, political warlords were concerned that votes they had considered theirs for the taking were going elsewhere and breaking up their hegemonic control. In response, they intensified negative ethno-religious profiling to revive latent bigotry imbibed by Nigerians over the generations. Their political objective then became to intensify national disunity for the sake of preserving their political domains. The consequence of voter suppression is to question the right of belonging and participation in the political community causing deep pain and hurt.