Nigeria’s 2015 Elections: Limiting the Violence

Nigeria’s general elections, scheduled for February 2015, will be more heavily contested than usual: the Boko Haram insurgency poses a grave security threat; a strong national opposition party has emerged; and the communal violence in several northern states has increased. All this suggests that the 2015 elections will be marred by disputes and violence. What are the key issues that will define the outcomes of the 2015 elections? What factors might mitigate the outbreak of violence? And what national and regional fallout can be expected from the 2015 elections in Nigeria?

Speaker: Dr. Nkwachukwu Orji is an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Institute for Development Studies, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, and the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies. He is author of several articles about Nigerian politics and elections.

Heinrich Bergstresser is a journalist from Cologne and the author of several books about Nigerian politics and society.

Moderator: Professor Dr. Robert Kappel is a senior researcher at and the former president of the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies