ASSESSMENT OF EUROPEAN UNION’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO ELECTION ADMINISTRATION IN NIGERIA; 1999 -2015
ASSESSMENT OF EUROPEAN UNION’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO ELECTION ADMINISTRATION IN NIGERIA; 1999 -2015
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Date
2020-03
Authors
PIMOR, Stephen B.
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Abstract
The European Union (EU) and other international donors have been involved in the
promotion of election administration in Nigeria since the country returned to civil rule in
1999. This research examines the contributions of the EU to Nigeria‘s democracy
concerning election administration so as to ascertain the extent to which their
contributions have impacted on the quality of elections in the country‘s democratic
development. This work was guided by the following objectives. To ascertain the nature
of EU‘s contributions to election administration in Nigeria from 1999-2015; to examine
the impacts of these contributions to Nigeria‘s democratic development and to observe
whether these contributions have added value to Nigeria‘s democracy. This work adopts
David Mitrany‘s functional theory of international relations in explaining the role of EU
in Nigeria‘s election administration process. The methods of data collection is qualitative
in nature; hence, both in-depth interviews and content analysis were used for the study.
The study concludes that the EU made financial, technical, logistics and election
observation contributions to Nigeria‘s election administration. The findings of the study
has shown that contrary to the long held view by some scholars that EU‘s involvement in
Nigeria‘ election administration process is solely anchored on interest in crude oil, this
study reveals that there are both political and economic motivations in EU ‗s
contributions. There are other contending interests such as migration and global peace
that democracy is prone to promote and the strategic location of Nigeria as a beacon of
hope for the black race thereby giving credence to the theory of functionalism which
emphasizes cooperation for the common interest of all. The study recommends that all
hands should be on deck to ensure a conducive atmosphere by all critical stakeholders in
promoting election administration in Nigeria
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ASSESSMENT,, EUROPEAN UNION’S CONTRIBUTIONS,, ELECTION ADMINISTRATION,, NIGERIA, 1999 -2015