NIGERIAN ELECTORAL PROCESS AND YOUTHS’ PRO-DEMOCRACY ATTITUDE IN IGBOLAND

Abstract

This study is on “Nigerian electoral process and youths’ pro-democracy attitude in Igboland”. Elections in Nigeria are organized with disregard to pro-democracy attitudes of youths. This is a great negligence of the youths, who are greater members of the citizen. Two hundred and seventy-eight (278) participants were sampled from Igboland of the Eastern Nigeria for the study. Multistage sampling was adopted to sample the participants. Electoral Process Perception Scale by Nwankwo (2026) and Democracy Attitude Questionnaire by Nwankwo (2026) were the measuring instruments responded on 5-point Likert scale ranging from Strongly Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (5). Response period was 5-10 minutes per participant. The study had cross-sectional design, and statistics was Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), with data analyses done with SPSS version 26. The findings showed that: Male Igbo youths’ pro-democracy attitude was significantly lower than the female counterparts (F (1, 8.02) = 0.44; p > 0.000; N = 278), at η2 = 0.052 (5.2%); and Nigerian electoral process significantly promotes pro-democracy attitude among Igbo youths (F (49, 7.99) = 14.64; p < 0.000; N = 278), at η2 = 0.989 (98.9%). It is recommended for pro-action to be taken to ensure that pro democracy attitudes of Igbo male youths do not dwindle further, while at the same time sustain the promising pro-democracy attitudes of the female counterparts. The contribution to knowledge of the study and its findings is that it has brought into limelight that the male gender’s pro-democracy attitude has dwindled whereas that of the female gender has increased more than that of the male gender.