Elections and Electoral Tribunal in Nigeria

This paper examines the Nigeria’s electoral process and the recent decisions by the electoral tribunals. The Study adopts content analysis as its methodology. The major thrust of the paper is to investigate the extent to which the abysmal failure of the country’s electoral system has affected democracy in Nigeria, as well as the efforts of the electoral tribunals to remedy the situation. The paper argues that Nigeria’s electoral process has been characterized by agitation, consternation and fiasco which has coerced many observers to querry if Nigeria will ever succeed in conducting credible elections in future. It further argues that the members of the electoral tribunals that were expected to be the last hope of the common man compromised at various times in the discharge of their duties, particularly in the 2007 general elections. This ugly trend therefore raises yet another question in the country’s preparedness to correct her past electoral woes. The paper however concludes that, it is only when the stakeholders are determined to shun acts capable of truncating the electoral process and the quest for consolidation of democracy that Nigeria would achieve the desired socio-economic development. Copyright © IAARR 2011: www.afrrevjo.com 43 Indexed African Journals Online: www.ajol.inf