ELECTORAL MALPRACTICES; IT’S IMPACT ON GOOD GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Nigeria is one of the developing countries in Africa with 36 State presently. By the period of colonization by British Colonialism. It is perhaps true to say that outright rigging of elections in Nigeria, began with the general election of 1956 which was the immediate election after the colonization by the British which ended in 1960. Before then, the ruling party was Nigerian People’s Congress (NPC) and the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) was collapse after the independence in 1960.Each party had now formed a new alliance, the NCNC and the Action Group became United Progressive Grand Alliance while the (NPC) Northern Peoples Congress was widely believed in the West to have sponsored the spite of the Action Group, which aligned with Chief Ladoka Akintola’s Nigeria National Democratic Party (NNPP) to form the NNA.

Despite all party consensus to ensure a free and fair election of a meeting called by the former prime minister all agreement reached with the (UPGA) United Progressive Grand Alliance in sworn affidavits submitted to be the president of the Federal Republic showed how the agreement was lift to bans on the public meeting for rallies in the North were denied and mass arrest of their candidates and polling agents in the North.

Hence, despite the boycott, elections purportedly went on in Northern and Western Nigeria and the Federal Territory, Lagos where the NNA government were in control.

According to Nwabueze, “wholesale rigging” of election especially in regional elections in the Western Region of 1965, it was worse than that of the 1964 election. Nwabueze in his review of study note that the key agent of rigging election in dumping of ballot papers were the presiding officer and poll clerks at the polling stations.

Arikpo, in his own view of study for the development of electoral malpractice he further said in Development of modern Nigeria” recounted that “the most notorious example of this travesty was the case of a man who won election in one of the Owo constituencies, his NNDP opponent was declared the Victor, the announced that he had upon deep reflection he decided to join the NNDP a view day after announced was made by the Electoral Commissioner declared him the successful candidate and quietly dropped his  that he had upon dropped his opponent.