ADEBIYI, Oluwashina MorufALIU, Fatima Omotayo2025-05-022025-05-022020-062. Adebiyi, O.M. (2016). Effects of youth restiveness and violence on national security in Nigeria. Ilorin journal of sociology. 8(1): 149-167, Published by the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ilorin, Ilorin Nigeria.1115-960Xhttps://uilspace.unilorin.edu.ng/handle/123456789/15892The article was a self sponsored articleThis paper examines hate speech and Nigeria's 2015 general elections. The primary objective of the paper is to examine the negative effects of hate speech on national integration. However, through the adoption of the historical qualitative research design and content analysis of data gathered through secondary sources, it was discovered that the use of hate speech among political elites during the 2015 general election was rife. It was found out that the use of hate speech ignited pre-election violence which is dangerous to the process of national integration. It was however, submitted that, the rampant use of hate speech by political elites and contestants alike during election campaign period is due to the fact that hate speech offenders are not prosecuted accordingly. It is recommended among others that there must be proper implementation of the legal framework of hate speech which will bring offenders to bookenDemocracyPolitical ElitesElectionHate SpeechNational lntegrationArticle