Despite the governments’ attempts to portray a democratic front, the obvious corruption and fraud involved in the presidential elections over the last few years in Russia, Iran, and Nigeria expose the reality of the situations. In examining the election processes of these three countries, one can clearly see that the electoral body is not independent of the party in power. The poor electoral processes have snowballed into a legitimacy crisis in Nigeria and full-fledged riots in Russia and Iran; though the authorities were able to repress these public demonstrations, the governments’ legitimacy continues to be challenged. The considerable public outcry against the results shows that the elections do not accurately reflect the intentions of the voters, that there was widespread fraud in which the vote counts for the winning candidate were significantly augmented. In addition, the cycle of fraudulent elections in these nations has created a lack of social capital and greatly hindered the pace of democratization within each of the states.
Nigeria has a long history of corruption and violence marring the process of electing the country’s leaders. Assassination, voter intimidation, and ballot tampering have all been common factors of past elections; rather than focusing on the pressing issues facing Nigerians, the elections have been centered on the acquisition of power. The 2007 elections “marked the first time in the…postindependence history of [Nigeria]…that one civilian government would hand over power to another,” and what should have been a milestone for democracy was instead “riddled with corruption and malfeasance.” What could have been a break in the long chain of violence and corruption involved with the election process, c...
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...esult, 1000 civilians died, but majority of the fundamentalist group was taken out. In 2009, Goodluck Jonathan assumed presidency when Umaru Yar’Adu died (BBC News Africa, 2013). In 2011 elections, Goodluck Jonathan took majority of the vote against military opponent, Muhammadu Buhari. Observers have stated this election is the most fair it has ever been in history, but Buhari’s supporters opposed the results. Quickly after, the fundamentalist group, Boko Haram, made resurgence and there were daily attacks in the country. As a result, the Nigerian government declared a state of emergency and dispatched troops. In January 2012, Goodluck Jonathan removed the country’s fuel subsidy to repair the tattered economy, but only caused fuel and food prices to rise. In response to the rise of prices, Nigerians began to protest, which eventually led to reinstating the subsidy.
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The pocketing of profits by corrupt government officials shows characteristics of patrimonialism, which not only hinders the economy because these profits are the sole source of revenue for the nation, but also harms the democratic stability of the nation and can to some extent cause the regime changes of the nation. The civic conflicts of the nation are not handled by the government and not only do these conflicts drain revenue from the government, but shows the lack of mobilization in the government, possibly due to a lack of taxation, due to the resource curse. These claims show that the resource curse has affected the government and economy of Nigeria greatly as it leads to an ineffective and corrupt government with a hindered chance of democratization, with civic conflict that cannot be controlled by the civic government.
This essay is aimed to examine one of the agents of political socialisation for the way in which it operates and the effects it may have in Nigeria. Political socialisation is learning process that begins very early and continues all throughout ones life. Through political socialisation people acquire their perceptions and feelings about their political environment. It accounts for both the commonalties and diversities of political life. (DP Dawson p1).
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