PARTY POLITICS, PASSIVE STAKEHOLDERS AND VENGEFUL GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION CAMPAIGN IN EKITI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The current study interrogates the 2018 governorship election in Ekiti State as a window to peep into the ruling party/opposition muscle-flexing in a stiff political contest and into the behind-the-scenes engagements of some passive stakeholders in Nigeria's electoral politics. It examines how the electoral power dynamics and relationships between Ekiti voters and political gladiators (elites) played out during the election. The study also explores the potency or otherwise of some identified passive stakeholders as drivers of electoral regime change and the underlying power structure and socio-political factors that determine electoral outcomes in Ekiti. Data were primarily sourced from different informants, including voters, politicians, media correspondents, academics, security agents, members of civil society groups and election observers. Through the use of an analytic narrative and with the understanding of the "electoral model" of democratization as a technique of contemporary regime change, this work reveals that the Ekiti electorate is often influenced by the choices and strategies of different significant political actors. Thus, the vigorous electioneering activities of these actors who seize the electioneering period to exploit voter vulnerability for mobilization and voting constitute a dominant feature of Ekiti political behaviour.