INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT AND THE DYNAMICS OF GENERAL ELECTIONS IN BORNO STATE, NORTH EAST, NIGERIA

Abstract

The right to vote and be voted for as a democratic principle is enshrined in the Nigerian constitution. Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) as citizens have the right to enjoy these fundamental rights. The electoral Acts of Nigeria stipulates that all citizens must register in a polling unit designated as voting center. In 2013 in Borno state, over 3 million citizens as voters were forced to flee their registered polling units due to the activities of Boko Haram Insurgency. The Federal Government due to pressure from the civil society moved the polling units to the capital city, Maiduguri where the IDPs were camped. The Borno State Government provided logistics to ensure that these IDPs were relocated to the camps from across the country in order to participate in the 2015 elections. The IDPs were a tool used to change the dynamics of 2015 general elections. This study is of the opinion that the outcome of the elections in 2015 and 2019 with block votes for the APC in the state described the failure of the Goodluck's Administration which was largely believed not to have protected the IDPs from the insurgents, and still voted massively for President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019, despite the continued onslaught by the insurgency. The study therefore concludes that, IDPs were used as a force by the APC to vote the People's Democratic Party out of Power in 2015 and consolidate their stay in 2019.