This article examines the cost of the 2011 general elections in Nigeria in real
and financial terms. It reviews the regulatory framework for financing the
elections and attempts to estimate the costs, drawing on figures and reports
published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and
reports relating to the financial activities of political parties, candidates and
other politicians. It estimates the cost to have been about N566.2-billion,1
representing about 2% of the gross domestic product. This figure does not
include party and campaign financing. The article explores other, nonmonetary, costs, including the loss of life and property in the violence that
followed the elections, and concludes that the cost of the elections was too
high for the sustenance of democracy. Hopeful that future elections will cost
less, it offers suggestions about ways of reducing costs without impinging
on the integrity of elections.