Two Decades of Electoral Democracy: Voter Apathy and Democratization Process in Nigeria

Celestine Ogechukwu Okafor, Jude Odigbo and Remi Chukwudi Okeke
Additional contact information
Celestine Ogechukwu Okafor: Department of Political Science, Federal University Wukari
Jude Odigbo: Department of Political Science, Madonna University Nigeria

Social Sciences and Education Research Review, 2022, vol. 9, issue 1, 84-96

Abstract: Voter apathy is a subdivision of political apathy and has become one of the foremost democracy quandaries especially in developing polities. Participation in politics is an important part of decision making in a democratic setting. Therefore, when voters do not come out to participate in voting, it dsefinitely impacts negatively on the electoral process and sometimes undermines the outcome of an election. It may mean that the majority who did not vote indirectly empowered the minority who voted to make decision on their behalf. This paper argues that the increasing manifestation of voter apathy in the last two decades of Nigeria's democracy leads to a poor democratization process and governance failures in the Nigerian project. It has promoted a condition in which individuals still remain more powerful than institutions. The paper employed documentary methods for data collection, while anchoring its discourses on the decision making theory as theoretical framework. The paper concludes that if the increasing level of voter apathy is not controlled in the country, it will continue to constitute a challenge to democratic consolidation in Nigeria. It recommends among other considerations that the Electoral Management Body (EMB) needs to critically inspire citizens through massive enlightenment and must restore trust and confidence in the electoral process by ensuring that people's verdicts are not thwarted by any means.

Keywords: Voter Apathy; Democracy; Electoral Process; Electoral Democracy; Democratization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Z0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://sserr.ro/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/sserr-9-1-84-96.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:edt:jsserr:v:9:y:2022:i:1:p:84-96

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6794638

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences and Education Research Review is currently edited by Stefan Vladutescu

More articles in Social Sciences and Education Research Review from Department of Communication, Journalism and Education Sciences, University of Craiova
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Dan Valeriu Voinea ().