Post-Covid 19 Nigeria and the 2023 General Elections

Abstract

The experience of the Nigerian masses during the 2019 Corona Virus period and the October 2020 youth protest popularly called ENDSARS yet again reflected that the political class cared less for the welfare of the ordinary Nigerians. The governance deficit within the government circle was brought to the fore. This paper examined democratic engagement in Nigeria’s post-COVID-19 general elections, 2023 to interrogate how their experiences in the two events have impacted their response, especially regarding their voting pattern and other fronts of participation. The paper adopted the participatory democratic theory, which espouses that democracy is a model that allows the citizens to make political decisions. It employed both primary and secondary sources of information to gather the required data. The primary data was analysed using simple percentages. The major argument is that bad leadership and failure to be accountable to the citizens led to the protests and civil disturbances that shaped the voting pattern. Democracy gains more credibility when the leaders are accountable to the governed. The lack of it, on the other hand, breeds frustration and rebellion among the populace, hence, the emergence of violence and protest of different forms exemplified by the #EndSars protest in October 2020. It also argued that participation of the electorates in the 2023 general elections tilted toward candidates across party lines rather than strictly political parties’ candidates. That is, voters considered voting for candidates, not minding their political party affiliations, in their choice of leaders. It concluded that rather than having core party politics, candidate politics was the order of the day. It recommended inter alia that poverty should be reduced to its barest minimum to curtail vote buying and selling.