Pages: (19-42 )
Abstract
Nigeria's unemployment rate has steadily increased from
7.54% in first quarter of 2015 to 33.3% in 2022. This serves as
a visual representation of the ineffectiveness of the
employment policies of the government, resulting in the
increment of election violence in Nigeria. This study
examined the relationship between increased unemployment
and election violence in Nigeria. The study employed a
survey quantitative methodology and derived its data through
the questionnaire instrumentation. Hinged on the frustration
aggression and relative deprivation theoretical frameworks,
the study found that increased unemployment is a
contributory factor to increased electoral violence, usually
propelled by economic deprivation and frustration. The
deprivation of employment right to unemployed Nigerians
contradicts the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights' provisions on employment and dignity of
human labour as rights to which Nigeria is a signatory.
Therefore, the independent Electoral Commission's efforts
towards peaceful elections have been largely ineffective with
persistent high unemployment rate. It concluded that election
violence persists as politicians have ready-made “idle hands”
from which they recruit to prosecute election-related violence.
It recommended that government must activate rural
development and effective job creation mechanisms to secure
employmentopportunitiesfortheunemployedpopulation.
Keywords: Economic deprivation, election, election violence, frustration, unemployment.,