Voter Apathy and Political Participation in Nigeria An Interrogation on Deficits in Governance, 1999-2019

Abstract

As a vital ingredient of democracy, political participation is utilised to authenticate and legitimise a government for general acceptance. Voter apathy is a potent protest against outrageous irregularities in electoral process and bad governance in Nigeria. In the last two decades, non-political participation of voters in Nigeria’s electoral processes has become the country’s major perennial challenge in election administration. The study interrogated deficits in governance to unveil the critical factors implicated in voter apathy in Nigeria. Reciprocal determinism theory was used to explain how the political environment serves as stimulus to voter apathy in the electoral processes. The study used descriptive qualitative method supplemented by descriptive statistics to analyse the data garnered. The findings revealed weak institutional framework, incompetence, bad governance and corruption as voter apathy determinants. The study, therefore, recommends inclusive democracy, strong and autonomous institutional frameworks; and liberty of the people to foster sustainable democratic development in Nigeria.