The Fears, Anxieties, Speculations and Hope Amidst Uncertainties: Nigerian 2019 General Election in Periscope

Abstract

General elections in Nigeria are often controversial and are perceived as elections with challenges and issues of legitimacy because of irregularities and malpractices that bedevilled the process of the elections’ conduct. The 2019 General Election is anticipated to be an election of greater interest and challenges accruing to the permutation of many factors that are manifesting currently within the political arena of Nigerian politics. This paper is a succinct examination of the predictive analysis of the prospects and the challenges that the 2019 General Election might produce. The problem is that despite the significant improvement recorded in the 2015 General Election, there are still challenges that are yet to be addressed in the electoral process. The paper is a descriptive and analytical work which relies on the use of secondary data such as books, journals and internet sources for data collection. The data collected was analysed using thematic analytical interpretations. The paper discovered that the 2019 General Election would be less challenging than the immediately previous one due to a weak opposition but some of the hitches that were encountered before might likely reoccur particularly the efficiency of the card readers and the violation of electoral regulations in addition to money politics. The paper recommends that the electoral body should re-strategised in making the smart card readers effective and the body needs to be vigilant in monitoring parties’ and candidates’ financial activities right from now in order to ensure compliance, transparency and a fair election.