Threats, Fears and Securitised Ballot: The Concluded Governorship Election in Anambra State

The governorship election for Anambra State took place on the 6th and 8th of November 2021. The ballot has come and gone and produced a winner and losers with the declaration of Prof Chukwuma Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) as the winner. The election arguably generated the highest level of anxiety and fear in Nigeria’s recent electoral history. The background to fears about the election is the fears and anxieties from the warning issued by a secessionist movement, the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), that no election must hold in any part of the South-East. On the contrary, the Federal Government announced a determination to hold the governorship election. These counter declarations from two parties, both with the potentials to pursue their intentions with force, set the stage for brinkmanship between the State and the Biafran agitators.

In a determined move to ensure that the election was held, the Federal government made a massive security deployment to create safety guarantees. However, the deployment became a source of greater anxiety as people feared potential clashes between IPOB and the government’s security personnel. In this edition of the Nextier SPD Policy Weekly, we reflect on the spin-offs of the fears of violent conflicts on the Anambra State 2021 governorship election.

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