Electoral integrity as a conceptual framework has become a major tool used by election researchers and practitioners to measure the degree of freeness and fairness of elections in contemporary democracies. In the framework popularised by the Electoral Integrity Project, the credibility of elections are measured according to the following eleven criteria: electoral laws; electoral procedures; boundaries; voter registration; party registration; campaign media; campaign finance; voting process; vote count; post-election matters; and electoral management. In light of these indicators, I analyse the integrity of Nigeria’s 2015 general elections. This follows the many positive remarks by local and international observers, as well as the media, concerning the outcome of the elections. Rather than following the non-empirical and non-systematic judgements that followed the elections, I provide an expert analysis of the extent to which the elections can be adjudged as free and fair. Thus, the relevant indicators from the electoral integrity framework are used to analyse the 2015 general elections and establish the veracity of claims that the elections were credible or not. Ultimately, it is expected – with this research – that Nigerian election researchers can be exposed to issues around conceptualisation and operationalization of election quality and how relevant they are to making conclusions about the integrity of elections in Nigeria.

It is common knowledge that widespread violence before, during and after elections have been a constant feature of Nigeria’s electoral process. The extensiveness and destructiveness of the violence associated with the 2011Presidential election results, especially in the northern parts of the country, haunted Nigerians as the nation moved towards the 2015 polls. The assumed fears were further accentuated by the fact that the two major Presidential candidates in the previous election were the same contestants in 2015. There were also concerns that electoral malpractices and violence would once again shape the outcome of the polls. This paper argues that the poor performance of the then ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the sharp deteriorating economic conditions in the country and the determination by Nigerians to ensure the supremacy and sanctity of the people’s choice together with the innovation of the card reader, largely determined the outcome of the elections while violence was an insignificant variable in the electoral process. Sustained political education and criminalization of acts of electoral violence with an effective punishment system are imperative policy options in taming the ugly phenomenon of violence in Nigeria’s electoral process.

Elections in Nigeria are a sham characterized by rigging. On election days, tales of snatched ballot boxes, alteration of figures in favor of candidates are pervasive. This has vitiated the principle of free and fair elections, it also affects the integrity of the electoral umpire. The aftermath has been the stigmatization of Nigeria as a nation incapable of organizing free and fair elections. In reaction to this sordid state of affairs and as part of reforms to enhance the credibility of elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) introduced the permanent Voters Card and the Biometric Data Capture Verification Machine, the “Card Reader” to authenticate voters and check the inflation of figures in the 2015 general elections. This essay analyses the nature of elections in Nigeria; the rationale from the introduction of the card reader, its impact on the outcome of the 2015 elections as well as the challenges faced by the introductions of this technological innovation and ways to enhance the success of this experiment.

The outcome of the 2015 presidential election is well known. The elections have been deemed peaceful, credible, transparent, free and fair.  Yet several assessments and presumptions about the key issues and critical factors that drove the electoral process and its eventual outcome are highly exaggerated. Such customary electoral-political drivers as ethnicity, campaign promises for jobs, development, security, fight against corruption, and delivery of basic amenities including healthcare, education and social welfare may have played a role in the elections. This paper, however, contends that there were five distinct contextual factors that influenced the outcome of the 2015 presidential election. These are the Boko Haram insurgency; inability to rescue the Chibok girls; external pressure from powerful nations; the ‘integrity appeal’ of the main opposition candidate; and the fear factor of national implosion. These five factors shaped the context of the elections, providing the fertile ground on which other explanatory factors were magnified.  The failure of the Jonathan administration to properly handle the Boko Haram insurgency and rescue the Chibok girls, increased the appeal of the opposition party’s presidential candidate, especially in Northeast region. This paper concludes that all these factors magnified the impact of external pressure on President Jonathan to conduct a free and transparent election and honour its outcome, and heightened fears that of national implosion, if he were re-elected. President Jonathan’s lack of performance legitimacy led to denying him electoral legitimacy.

The new media has opened up a new vista of opportunities arguably in all endeavours of life. Nevertheless, it could be argued that one’s chances of benefitting from any of these opportunities would, to a large extent, be dependent on his/her consciousness of the existence of such opportunities which then shapes his/her pattern of utilisation of the new media technology. Against the foregoing, this study assessed the awareness and attitude of the undergraduate students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, in regard to skill development opportunities on the Internet. Situated within the framework of the uses and gratifications theory, the study was designed as a survey. A sample of 400 respondents was selected via the multi-stage sampling technique. A close-ended questionnaire was employed as the data collection tool. Findings showed that there is a high awareness of the skill development opportunities in the new media among the undergraduate students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, and that they seek to explore these skill development opportunities, particularly in the aspects of writing/speechmaking/language skills, theatre/performance skills, ICT skills and art skills. It was further discovered that the students have been generally successful in their effort to explore the skill development opportunities in the new media. The study equally found that the gender of the students significantly affects their tendency to explore the skill development opportunities in the new media. The research concluded that the fact that these young users are aware of and are seeking to explore the skill development potential of the new media is a good sign. Their embrace of the new media culture is one that will, in no small measure, lead to socio-economic empowerment and hopefully enhance the nation and her individual citizens’ chances of development. The study recommended that there be enlightenment of this social group, the youth, on the skill development opportunities in the new media and the why and how of their utilisation, and that this form part of ICT training curriculum of formal education at all levels in the country.

This paper uses a nested theory of conflict to analyse the politics of Zimbabwe’s 2013 constitution making process initiated after the controversial 2008 elections. The final Constitution draft released on 18 July 2013 created a transitory deadlock after the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rejected what the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) called ‘non-negotiable’ amendments to the draft. The final negotiated draft was released in January 2013 and was accepted during a referendum in March 2013. The paper argues that the political disputations that characterised the constitution making process reflected problems of a broader structural systemic political strategy by ZANU-PF’s unwillingness to underutilise power in the coalition government and a problem embryonic in the deployment of the constitutional discourse by the MDC as a tool for political change in Zimbabwe.