Electoral Violence and Nigeria Economic Prospects: A Glimpse of 2015 Elections

Abstract

Modern societies can be differentiated from pre modern societies by the existence of a social contract amongst the resident of a given geographical area, therefore modern societies often find elections as way of selecting representatives to govern a given territory. Nigeria also remains the largest economy in Africa, attractive to foreign investors and the most populated of all African countries. Ethic divide also weaken the country making it difficult to govern. The study investigates the effect of the 2015 general elections on the Nigerian Economy, by analyzing its impact in a pre, during and post-election scenario. The questions asked in the study included if the Nigerian economic condition depreciated prior to, during and after the 2015 general elections? To what extent has youth despair particularly towards their future employability reduced since after the 2015 general elections, and finally if the seemingly stable political climate improved investors perception and increased the ease of doing trade in Nigeria? Nigeria like any other developing country is plagued with political instability, poor leadership succession process, weak electoral process and endemic poverty. The study finds that in the periods before, during and after elections Nigeria economic outlook where gleam.