Same Faith Politics and Electoral Process in Nigeria, 2019-2023

Religion has always been a major determinant of electoral behaviors in most democracies despite
attempts and claims by most states at running secular regimes. This paper examines the extent to
which religion has influenced politics in Nigeria. It equally examines the roles played by the two
dominant religions in Nigeria, Islam and Christianity, in shaping the outcome of the 2023
Presidential election. Thus, the study examined the following research questions: Does religionbased voter mobilisation undermine voter choice homogeneity in Nigerian elections? Does hate
speech campaign strategy implicate pre and post electoral violence in Nigeria?. The paper adopts
the time series research design, documentary method of data collection and content analysis
method of data analysis. Running a critical analysis of the Presidential election results, with respect
to the strongholds of the candidates of the three leading political parties, the Peoples Democratic
Party, All Progressive Congress and the Labour Party vis-à-vis the strongholds of the two major
religions in the country, a strong nexus was drawn between religion, politics and electoral outcome
in Nigeria. Anchored on the Elite theory as a theoretical framework of analysis, findings revealed
that the two major religions played major roles in the determination of electoral outcomes in the
2023 Presidential election. We found out that religion and ethnicity have been used as tools for
Political mobilisation and manipulation, often leading to violent conflicts and tensions. The 2023
presidential election was not an exception, as religion-based voter mobilisation and hate speech
campaign strategy were prevalent. A scholar also argued that both ethnic and religious influences
are like Siamese twins as far as elections in Nigeria were concerned and concluded that Nigeria is
yet to witness a significant departure in the pattern of religious influence on it's elections.
Specifically, the study aims to determine whether religion-based voter mobilisation undermined
voter choice homogeneity in Nigerian elections and to ascertain if hate speech campaign strategy
implicated in pre and post electoral violence in Nigeria. This paper therefore posits that religion
plays a critical role in determining electoral outcomes in Nigeria, and recommends that for the
nation to develop, we need to grow our democracy far above religion among other diversities
plaguing the state. This could be done through mass re-orientation of the citizens by socialization
agencies such as the National Orientation Agency, Religious and Political Institutions and by
promoting inclusive and non-partisan religious leadership and interreligious dialogue and
collaboration.