MILITARISATION OF THE 2019 ELECTIONS AND ELECTORAL PROCESS: IMPLICATIONS FOR WOMEN PARTICIPATION AND GENDER EQUALITY IN DECISION-MAKING PROCESS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The 2019 general elections and electoral process in Nigeria in many ways is akin to war. One major observed issue during the conduct of the general elections is the militarisation of the electoral process. Detachments of security operatives, including military officers were seeing interfering with the electoral process before, during and after the elections. Other aspects of the militarisation process were the use of violence, intimidation, threats, vote buying among others to subdue voters. As a result, many women were disenfranchised, short changed, intimidated and even denied their rights as many were either forced out of participation or were too scared to participate. The resultant effect is the seeming denial of women’s right to vote and be voted for. This paper examines the implications of militarisation of the electoral process on women participation in politics. To achieve the set objective, the paper relied on secondary data and argues that the militarisation of the process through the use of political thugs, money and others marred the process and this impacted negatively on gender equality and participation in the political process and representative governance and women participation in the political space. Militarisation as a phenomenon in Nigeria’s political environment must be done away with for proper and gender inclusive political participation in future elections (2023) and electoral process.