Electoral Illegitimacy Named as Main Cause of Nigeria’s Insecurity
Former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Chidi Odinkalu, has identified the illegitimacy of electoral mandates as the single biggest source of insecurity in Nigeria.
Speaking in the ongoing national debate about creating state police to curb rising violence, Odinkalu warned that any policing strategy that ignores the crisis of electoral legitimacy will only create new problems.
He stated, “We cannot discuss insecurity and policing while ignoring the other elements in the complex. The single biggest source of insecurity in Nigeria is the illegitimacy of electoral mandates. Let us be very blunt about that.”
Odinkalu explained that when citizens realize their votes no longer count, the courts fail them, and judges appear compromised, they turn to violence and vigilantism.
“So the diagnosis is relevant to the prescription of management mechanisms,” he added. “Unless we want to address policing without first diagnosing the root cause, we risk creating a new set of pathologies. If we truly want to solve insecurity, we must first restore faith in the electoral process.”
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