Dis-Information and Legislative Re-election Vulnerability in Nigeria

• In Event: Authoritarian Legislatures

Abstract

This study examines how the smearing and dis-information mounted by the executive against the National Assembly affected the election of legislators, especially the incumbent members seeking re-election in Nigeria. Turnover has remained a challenge for the Nigerian legislators, as majority of members often face severe social-political hurdles in their bid for re-election since 1999. In the last two elections, the use of dis-information by the All Progressive Party (APC) has reshaped the challenges faced by incumbent members seeking re-election. The strategic employment of dis-information before the 2015 elections by the then opposition APC, and the resort to the same strategy before the 2019 election, as the ruling party and party with majority in both chambers of the national assembly, suggest that the executive was reaping from its utility. However, the strategy had a very severe impact on the national assembly, both in 2015 and 2019. This study will examines the reasons for the employment of dis-information as a political strategy, the language used, the target of the dis-information and the political and social consequences of the use of dis-information as a political tool in Nigeria, focusing on 2015 and 2019 elections when dis-information was openly and intensively employed. The study will make use of secondary and qualitative data to be generated from libraries, archives and internet. The qualitative analysis will be employed to analyze our data. The study will argue that, the dis-information campaign of 2014 and 2015 was meant to undermine the then ruling party and erode the trust of Nigerians in the legislature so that the APC could capture the legislature. On the other hand, the dis-information launched against the legislature between 2018 and 2019 was to get rid of the leadership of the national assembly, who were seen as not cooperating with the party and the executive, although they were all members of the APC.

Author

• Joseph Olayinka Fashagba, Federal University Lokoja