While in a conversation with some friends a few days back, one of them asked, moshood, where do you stand? What are your views about the whole electioneering process? And because I'm so passionate about the youths and as well good governance, I have decided to respond to his questions with this series on "Youths and Political Violence in Nigeria; The Lagos Island Example and the Way Forward."

This will be the point of discussion for the next three days.

Political violence encompasses political assassinations, Killings, political-thuggery, Stealing of ballot boxes and papers, intimidations, riggings, and fraud. Electoral fraud is also part and parcel of political violence and there has been a bane of our nascent democracy.

Taking Nigeria democracy as a case study, political violence poses a serious threat to the genuineness of electoral processes in federal, state and local government of Nigeria. Political activities/functions are mostly disrupted by violence in all geopolitical zones of the country and this has created a hindrance between democracy and development. A large number of followers and supporters of politicians and political parties respectively believes violence is a necessity to achieve political objectives. Their leaders see this urge and they produce for them the resources (firearms and other dangerous weapons) needed to carry out the dreadful acts.

After several years of reclaiming democracy from the military, the violence embedded in Nigerian democracy has often deteriorated the democratic process of this nation.

According to Webster, politics is the science and art of government; political activities, beliefs, and affairs, factional scheming for power. In another term, Politics can be described as an activity carried out by the government to govern, stabilize, and increase the wellbeing of the people. In a democracy, political parties are created by people to represent their interests and ideas; these parties are designed with manifestos that suit their objectives.

The individuals in these political parties often agree on the same terms to achieve a common goal. In recent years, Nigeria politicians had cultivated the habit of moving from one political party to another in other to achieve their personal interests. Followers, in this case, tend to align with their leaders and move with them wherever they choose to be. With this, people of different political backgrounds are been merged to achieve a common goal but different in political interests and beliefs most times bring about collision/clash of interest at the end. Thus, these causes political grieve and ultimately lead to violence among members. Violence in the political realm is also caused by members of different political parties before, during and after elections. Typical examples are the clashes that occurred between the member of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP and the All Progressive Congress, APC, in Rivers state during the electioneering process of 2015, and the recent clash between the APC and APM in Ogun state.

Severally, Nigeria youths are seen on the frontline of violence that occurs in political functions and I believe a critical question needs to be asked on “Why the youths are used as disruptive instruments in politics?"

Stay glued for the next series.