Thursday, January 22, 2015
Should Nigerian elections be postponed amid security threats?
Read this article form BBC about the possibility of Nigeria pushing back their scheduled elections for next month because of the violence and turmoil recently embroiling the country. What do you think they should do? Does a delay in the elections just give Boko Haram what they want or should the legitimate security concerns be the priority? What concepts does this illustrate about the difficulty of institutionalizing a democracy? What about state capacity and autonomy? Do you think the corruption and violence will ever be rooted out in Nigeria? Why or why not? Did you learn anything new from this article? Is there anything in particular you would like to discuss or study about Nigeria? Respond to this article (or any others about the current state of Nigeria) and let me know.
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Well, considering the fact that Boko Haram controls many small towns within Nigeria, i really think that the legitimate security concerns should be the priority for the Nigerian government. Even with biometric cards, Boko Haram could still gain the upper advantage. The concept of institutionalizing a democracy has been around for a long time mainly due to the fact that the western powers wanted democracies and capitalist countries on their side. The difference here between the state and the government is the state is run mainly by the “Big Dog” Boko Haram, whereas the government is run by the elected officials. Yes, to a certain extent, I think Nigeria does have a chance as they have neighbors that want to help fight the insurgents. Something new that I learned was the fact that the countries around Nigeria wants to help get rid of Boko Haram once and for all.
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is necessary to postpone elections until a greater number of people have the capacity to vote, and while this might be what Boko Haram wants it is also necessary to prove the legitimacy of the Nigerian government. The situation in Nigeria shows what happens when trying to institutionalize democracy in a very short period of time. This leads to a low level of autonomy as the government has lost villages and cities to Boko Haram and some of the Nigerian military also will not fight Boko Haram. However, I do believe that at some point in time the corruption and violence will be rooted out of Nigeria. Although it will likely not happen very quickly and will only slowly decrease over a large span of time. Something i have learned from this article that i did not already know is the fact that Boco Haram has actually claimed land in Nigeria.
ReplyDeleteI believe that elections should be postponed until more people can vote, one of the main functions of government is to serve its people, if those people are pressured into making a decision that is not their own, or if they are even killed, then the vote is meaningless since it will not be used to effectively serve its people. Successful democracies in the world have taken decades to be established, and even those governments aren’t perfect, Nigeria should not rush this process, as it can yield catastrophic results if not handled properly. With many towns being taken over by Boko Haram, the central government shows little autonomy as its own military will not fight Boko Haram. In all honesty, I believe violence and corruption will not be rooted out because in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, where democracy has been in place for centuries, there are still cases of violence and corruption. While I do think that the violence and corruption will be reduced, it will not be completely weeded out, these things are just parts of society that have been present all throughout history.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Joseph in his statement in the fact the one of the main functions of government is to serve its people. .I believe that the elections should be postponed until the situation with Boko Haram can be controlled. I feel that the influence the organization has over the different regions can be influential on the outcome of the elections. If the government does attempt to have the elections occur as soon as possible that prevent time from being on their side and as a result chaos is bound to ensue. Another reason why elections should be postponed until the Boko Haram situation is controlled is seen in the fact that the goal of ever election is to have a genuine vote so that a genuine outcome can come forth, the military influence of Boko Haram is to great for corruption not to occur.
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