A Critical Review of Democracy and the Aftermath of the 2023 General Elections in Nigeria

Abstract

There is no denying that Nigeria has democratized significantly since the end of military dictatorship in 1999. The paper examines democracy and Nigeria's 2023 general elections while accounting for various factors that affected the course of events and the outcome. The Nigerian state has experienced a surge of democratic advancements throughout the last several decades. A democracy is a system of governance where voters elect representatives to office via free and fair elections. The standard of democracy is a free and fair election. Put another way, democracy suggests that the people have the power to choose their leaders. A democratic system is distinguished from any other by the political right of the people to choose their leaders through a free and fair election process. The general election of 2023 is the seventh in a series of elections held since Nigeria's return to civil rule in 1999. Despite this, Nigeria's democracy has proven difficult to navigate because of the country's diverse ethnic and religious population, the frequency of military takeovers, and its underdeveloped economy. The introduction of new technology by the Independent National Electoral Commission, such as the Bi-modal Voting Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV), to enhance poll administration in 2023 ultimately made the general elections that year in Nigeria a significant test of the country's democratic progress. The Electoral Act 2022, which brought changes intended to better organize pre-election procedures in a timely manner and to increase transparency in the collation and reporting of results, provided support for this confidence. The general elections of 2023 took place in a very controversial and contested environment, similar to other elections in Nigeria. This included significant insecurity and unclear government policies implemented prior to the poll. Utilizing a qualitative methodology that incorporated data from secondary sources and historical analysis, the study discovered that the election did not meet the legitimate and reasonable expectations of the Nigerian people. Several accredited election observation groups reported that the election's credibility was severely damaged by several procedural errors, including ineffective management of the distribution of permanent voters cards (PVCs), a breakdown in operational and logistical planning, malfunctioning election technology, instances of vote manipulation, political violence, a lack of transparency in the process of collating and declaring results, and inadequate crisis communication. Taking into account the urgent problems that Nigeria is currently facing, such as pervasive poverty, rampant corruption, and insecurity, in addition to a deficient electoral system that has impeded voter turnout in previous elections. Thus, the study suggested, among other things, bolstering the electoral body's independence, putting policies in place to guarantee that there is no fraud or manipulation of the election, and making sure that the election represents the will of the people. Future Nigerian general elections will be more successful in fostering better democracy and a more stable post-election environment if these strategies are put into practice.