HISTORICISING NATIONAL ELECTIONS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS ON NATIONAL SECURITY AND INTEGRATION IN CONTEMPORARY NIGERIAN STATE: A CENTENARY DISCOURSE

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This paper attempts a historical exploration of issues of national elections as it impinges on Nigeria’s

security and integration one hundred years after the famous 1914 amalgamation of the Southern and

Northern protectorates. Against the backdrop of the country’s challenges of imbalance or lopsided

federal structure, the usually elevated problems of ethnicity, absence of broadminded leadership,

minority-majority tussles among others, the nation’s politics has been frequently characterised by

violent conflicts that manifests itself in form of disastrous post-election crisis. The emotion this raises

consistently undermines the nation’s philosophy of “unity in diversity” as the foundation of Nigerian

State has always been threatened and tempted almost beyond the elastic limit of resisting violent ethnoreligious post election crisis. Arising from the recurring nature of this challenges and since the least

crisis-free elections are those conducted by the military, analysts are almost suggesting that the military

may be the best option or system of government for Nigerian State, instead of the wrongly copied and

adopted democracy that has failed in the Nation’s political environment. Examining varying

perspectives on national integration and gleaning evidences from historical happenings and events in

Nigerian State for the pasts one hundred years or so the paper makes far-reaching recommendations that

would enable the country stand its feet in curbing or containing issues elections may raise in the next

one hundred years.

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HISTORICISING NATIONAL ELECTIONS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS ON NATIONAL SECURITY AND INTEGRATION IN CONTEMPORARY NIGERIAN STATE: A CENTENARY DISCOURSE

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