November 11 Governorship Elections: Analysing Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa Situations

Nigerians in Imo, Kogi, and Bayelsa States will go to the polls by November 11, 2023, to elect the governors of their various states. While these three off-season elections will be the first to be held under the government of President Bola Tinubu, the heightened political violence in the states, coupled with the existing ‘traditional’ conflicts and insecurity in the states are making the situation challenging. In short, the election management body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is worried that this growing political violence could affect the electoral process in the states. The current political and electoral violence in the states confirms Nextier’s submissions in our Policy Weekly of 12th-19th June 2023 titled “Nigeria’s Off-Cycle Elections and the Impending Violence”. In this article, Charles Asiegbu and Dr. Ndubuisi N. Nwokolo predicted the likelihood of political violence in the three off-season elections judging from the failure of the state to handle such violence in the February and March 2023 elections. They further argued that the existing violent conflicts in the states, such as cultism, terrorism, kidnapping, gunmen attacks, and secessionism, will provide a platform for the expansion and justification of the political violence in the three states.
Following these developments, Dr. Ndu was a guest on Channels TV’s Politics Tonight on Monday, 9th October 2023, to review and analyse the current political and electoral violence in the three states and propose solutions.