POLITICAL VIOLENCE IN NIGERIA ASSEMBLIES: A CASE STUDY OF CRISIS IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Copyright © 2015 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT: This research work is aimed at determining the nature, scope and reasons for increase in the frequency and the scale of political violence in Nigeria. It will adopt the use of past records of political violence in Nigeria using journals, newspapers, textbooks on political science and some internet materials on the case study. The research work therefore identifies poverty, a culture of impunity, weak penalties, a lack of effective governance, and small arms proliferation, amongst others as reasons for political thuggery in Nigeria. Furthermore, the influence of godfatherism in Nigeria politics further entrenched the culture of violence within the political space. Also, political violence is an expression of systemic and leadership failure in Nigeria, it shows weakness of the apparatus of the state particularly the police, state security service and national intelligence system. The research work also looks at the effects of instability and violence in Nigeria society, it’s recommended and proffers a number of solutions ranging from sustainable development, security sector and electoral reforms, and anti – corruption measures