essay on nigeria democracy

Failed state? Why Nigeria’s fragile democracy is facing an uncertain future

In the first in a series on Africa’s most populous state, we look at the effects of widening violence, poverty, crime and corruption as elections approach

• My father’s senseless murder must be a wake-up call for Nigeria

A series of overlapping security, political and economic crises has left Nigeria facing its worst instability since the end of the Biafran war in 1970.

With experts warning that large parts of the country are in effect becoming ungovernable, fears that the conflicts in Africa’s most populous state were bleeding over its borders were underlined last week by claims that armed Igbo secessionists in the country’s south-east were now cooperating with militants fighting for an independent state in the anglophone region of neighbouring Cameroon.

The mounting insecurity from banditry in the north-west, jihadist groups such as Boko Haram in the north-east, violent conflict between farmers and pastoralists across large swathes of Nigeria’s “middle belt”, and Igbo secessionists in the south-east calling for an independent Biafra once again, is driving a brain drain of young Nigerians. It has also seen the oil multinational Shell announce that it is planning to pull out of the country because of insecurity , theft and sabotage.

Among recent prominent victims of the lethal violence was Dr Chike Akunyili, a prominent physician in Nigeria’s southern state of Anambra, ambushed as he returned from a lecture to commemorate the life of his wife, Dora, who had been the head of the country’s national food and drug agency.

Who killed the widower and his police guard remains unclear. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), an Igbo secessionist movement whose militancy has grown increasingly violent and which has vowed to prevent November’s elections for governor in Anambra state, has denied involvement. So too has the security agency, the Department of State Services . Eyewitnesses reported that the attackers, who also killed his driver, were shouting that there would be no elections in Anambra .

What is clear, however, is that Akunyili’s murder is far from an isolated event in Africa’s second-largest economy – a country facing multiple and overlapping challenges that have plunged many areas into violence and lawlessness.

From Boko Haram ’s jihadist insurgency in the north, to the escalating conflict between farmers and pastoralists, a growing piracy crisis in the Gulf of Guinea and the newly emboldened Igbo secessionists, Nigeria – under the presidency of the retired army general Muhammadu Buhari since 2015 – is facing a mounting sense of crisis as elections approach in 2023.

Those security issues are in addition to a series of other problems, including rising levels of poverty , violent crime and corruption amid an increasing sense that the central government, in many places, is struggling to govern.

All of which has prompted dire warnings from some observers about the state of Nigeria’s democracy.

One of the bleakest was the analysis delivered by Robert Rotberg and John Campbell, two prominent US academics – the latter a former ambassador to Nigeria – in an essay for Foreign Policy in May that attracted considerable debate.

“Nigeria has long teetered on the precipice of failure,” they argued. “Unable to keep its citizens safe and secure, Nigeria has become a fully failed state of critical geopolitical concern. Its failure matters because the peace and prosperity of Africa and preventing the spread of disorder and militancy around the globe depend on a stronger Nigeria.”

Even among those who dispute the labelling of Nigeria as a fully failed state accept that insecurity is rising.

Nigeria’s minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, accepts that insecurity exists but insists the country is winning the war against its various insurgents.

“I live in Nigeria, I work in Nigeria and I travel all around Nigeria and I can tell you Nigeria is not a failed state,” Mohammed told the BBC.

But if the murder of Chike Akunyili represents anything, it is the dangers facing Nigerians in many parts of the country. This has prompted some to argue that the country’s centralised federal model, a legacy of independence and the long years of military rule, is in need of reform.

While Nnamdi Obasi , who follows Nigeria for the International Crisis Group, would not yet brand Nigeria a failed state, he sees it as a fragile one with the potential for the situation to worsen without radical improvements in governance.

“I’d say the country is deeply challenged on several fronts,” he said from Abuja. “It’s challenged in terms of its economy and people’s livelihoods.

Nigeria since independence

From hopeful beginnings in 1960, west Africa’s powerhouse has suffered civil war, years of coups and military rule, ethnic and regional conflicts, endemic corruption, banditry and Islamist insurgencies. Here are some key events.

New constitution establishes federal system with Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, a northerner, as prime minister and Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe, an Igbo, as governor general, the ceremonial head of state.

Government overthrown in what was seen as an “Igbo coup”  and General Aguiyi-Ironsi takes power. Balewa and Ahmadu Bello, northern Hausa-Fulani leader, among those killed

Lt Col Yakubu Gowon becomes head of state. Estimated 30,000 Igbos massacred in riots in northern Nigeria, causing about 1 million to flee to south-east

Between 500,000 and 2 million civilians die from starvation during the war. Gowon attempts reconciliation, declaring “no victor, no vanquished”

Process of moving federal capital to Abuja begins

Succeeded by top aide, Lt Gen Olusegun Obasanjo, who initiates transition from military rule to US-style presidential system

Shehu Shagari, a northerner, becomes first president of second republic, with Igbo vice-president

Coup led by Maj Gen Muhammadu Buhari after disputed elections

Chief Moshood Abiola is apparent winner

In 2000, government declares that Abacha and his family stole $4.3bn from public funds

He is  arrested for treason and jailed for four years

The writer and campaigner against oil industry damage to his Ogoni homeland, is executed with eight other dissidents . EU imposes sanctions and Commonwealth suspends Nigeria’s membership

Clashes with Christians opposing the issue lead to hundreds of deaths

Obasanjo elected for second term despite EU observers reporting “serious irregularities”

This leads to  attacks to pipelines and other oil facilities and the kidnap foreign oil workers

Subsequently more than 100 are killed in co-ordinated bombings and shootings in Kano

A state of emergency is declared in northern states of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa. Insurgent violence mounts in eight other states

They are taken from a boarding school in northern town of Chibok. Over the next year, Boko Haram launch series of attacks across north-east Nigeria and into neighbouring Chad and Cameroon, seizing several towns near Lake Chad. Group’s allegiance switched from al-Qaida to Islamic State

The intention is to push Boko Haram out of towns and back into their Sambisa forest stronghold. UN refugee agency, UNHCR, says conflict has caused at least 157,000 people to flee into Niger, Cameroon and Chad . A further one million people estimated to be internally displaced inside Nigeria

He is the first opposition candidate to do so in Nigeria

US thinktank Freedom House claims polls “marred by serious irregularities and widespread intimidation ”. At least 141 people killed in communal clashes between Fulani and Adara in Kaduna state

Youth protests against police brutality, focused on the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) , spread across cities in the south. The #EndSARS movement ends with massacre of still unconfirmed number of protesters shot by security forces at Lekki tollgate in Lagos

They also abduct nine women and girls in Takulashi, Borno state. The following month  Boko Haram abduct 334 boys from school in Kankara, Katsina state; days later, 80 pupils of madrasa abducted in Dandume , Katsina State

Isis-linked militia seizes arms from Boko Haram and integrates former commanders and fighters. Analysts say Iswap’s greater discipline and strategy of both co-opting and coercing local communities has helped it expand across Sahel and poses bigger threat.

Nigeria spends 1.47tn naira (£2.6bn) on servicing domestic and external debt in first half of 2021, according to data from Debt Management Office 

“There is a sense of disappointment in the fact that the country hasn’t developed as people had expected and has suffered reversals in poverty and youth unemployment. Then there’s the dearth of infrastructure and a generally very poor quality of services.

“On the security front there are several main areas of concern. The first is the north-east, which is where Boko Haram and Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap) are located.

“In the north-west there are armed groups who are generally referred to as bandits but who have, in a sense, grown beyond that definition of ‘bandit’. [Recently] they attacked a military camp in Sokoto state and killed 12 military personnel.

“Then there is the old problem in the Niger delta [Nigeria’s main oil-producing region], which remains unresolved.”

But the Niger delta’s bubbling disquiet has in recent years been eclipsed by other conflicts – particularly that between pastoral herders and farmers in Nigeria’s central belt, and the re-emergence of an armed Biafran nationalist movement in the Igbo south-east. This separatist activity is happening for the first time since the end of the Biafran war , from 1967 to 1970, which led to widespread starvation and left a million people dead .

For many Nigeria experts, the lesson is not to be found in the individual parts of the crisis but in the way they are beginning to bleed into one another.

As Obasi points out, the conflicts between nomadic herders and farmers have been in part driven by the displacement south of pastoralists from the north-east and north-west by the insecurity in those regions, while a widening sense of impunity across Nigeria has driven people to arm themselves.

“Insecurity seems almost nationwide,” said Obasi. “People have difficulty moving from one city to another, with kidnappings and danger on the highways.

“It is going from a largely governed country with a few ungoverned spaces to a place where there are a few governed spaces while in the rest of the country governance has retreated.”

It bodes ill for Nigeria’s democratic system of civilian government, adopted in 1999 after long years of military rule that began in 1966 apart from a brief four-year interregnum during President Shehu Shagari ’s second Nigerian republic, which ended in 1983.

It was Buhari – who now calls himself a “converted democrat” – who succeeded him as head of state after he overthrew Shagari’s government in a military coup.

While the 2011 elections were seen by the US as being among the “ most credible and transparent elections since the country’s independence ”, Nigeria’s politics have long been complicated by an unwritten agreement among its elites that power should rotate between a figure from the Muslim-dominated north and the mainly Christian south every two terms. With Buhari’s two terms due to end in 2023, power will then – in theory at least – rotate to the south.

Leena Koni Hoffman, a research associate at the Chatham House thinktank and a member of the Nigerian diaspora, says ordinary Nigerians feel “vulnerable” and “grim”, suggesting that the rotational system of government may no longer be fit for purpose.

“The agreement negotiated by the elites is broken. It is not inclusive and the democratic dividend is not being distributed,” she said.

The consequence, she adds, has been that Nigeria’s politics has fractured, with “people exploiting ethnic and religious differences to give people answers that match questions in any part of Nigeria”.

“To give you an idea of the scale of the conflict happening in Nigeria, I could show you a map coloured pink for where violence is happening – it is pink all over.

“For a country that has not been at war since the Biafran war that ended in 1970 – and in the middle of the longest stretch of civilian democracy – to be experiencing this scale of intense violence should be alarming,” she said.

“We knew a long time ago that the country’s rural population had little security, but now we understand they are being exposed to violent non-state actors who have worked out that the security apparatus is hollowed out.

“My family comes from the middle belt. My father is a retired accountant who wants to farm but he can’t be in his home town because it has been decimated by violence. You hear of incidents where 30 people are killed here, a dozen there. Villages attacked .

“More and more communities are seeing that the government is not stepping in with its security forces and are forming their own vigilante groups.”

Aggravating the sense of a state being hollowed out is an under-resourced and overwhelmed judicial system that has left ordinary Nigerians with little expectation of access to justice.

Writing on Facebook after his death , Akunyili’s daughter described their last conversation the day before his killing, with questions that many Nigerians are asking.

“I asked him if he was being careful and he assured me that he was, going on to add that he never went out any more and was sure to be home by six. Convinced, I reminded him to be even more careful and to take care of himself. “We can choose a different path,” she added, referring to ubuntu , a concept of humanity and community based on the idea: “I am because we are.”

“This current [path] leads to more senseless death and pain for one too many,” she said.

• Crisis Nigeria

Most viewed

20 years of democracy: Has Nigeria changed for the better?

Two decades after the West African country’s army handed power to a civilian leader, many question if life has improved.

Two decades ago, in a colourful ceremony held in the capital, Abuja, Nigeria’s military handed over power to an elected civilian leader.

Generals had ruled the oil-rich West African country for the previous 15 years.

Keep reading

‘we need you’: solomon islands’ support for us agency’s return revealed, ‘triple spending’: zimbabweans bear cost of changing to new zig currency, ‘we share with rats’: neglect, empty promises for s african hostel-dwellers, thirty years waiting for a house: south africa’s ‘backyard’ dwellers.

The ceremony was attended by heads of state and representatives from more than 40  countries.

The mood was upbeat and the new leader promised prosperity to the thousands of his countrymen who were in the stadium. Millions of others watched the ceremony on television. Others listened to newly elected president Olusegun Obasanjo’s speech on radio.

But after 20 years of democracy and four presidents, where is Nigeria today?

Economic malaise

The country’s economy has seen a boom since the return of civilian rule. Nigeria’s GDP has grown six-fold since 1999, according to World Bank data.

In 1999, despite its vast oil wealth, Nigeria’s GDP was a mere $59bn. That figure skyrocketed to $375bn by the end of 2017.

“The economy is doing much better now because there is a greater level of trust in our economic institutions. There is also more foreign investments now compared to the military era,” Aliyu Audu, an Abuja-based economist, told Al Jazeera.

Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country, is still heavily reliant on oil. Petroleum represents more than 80 percent of total export revenue, according to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

When the global oil price crashed in 2016, Nigeria’s economy was not spared. The country went into a recession, its first in 25 years.

The economy, the biggest on the continent ahead of South Africa, has not fully recovered. Unemployment stands at 23 percent and inflation at 11 percent, according to official figures.

“Nigeria’s economy needs to diversify. We need to tap into the agricultural sector where the country can put millions of the unemployed to work. Investment in infrastructure will also put many young people to work and reduce double-digit inflation,” Audu said.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics figures, 43 percent of the country’s 190 million population is either unemployed or underemployed.

Despite the recent economic boom, extreme poverty is common. Some 87 million Nigerians live in dire poverty, according to Washington-based Brookings Institution.

Nigeria overtook India, a country of 1.3 billion people, last year as the country that is home to the most extremely impoverished people in the world, it said.

Vast corruption

Nigeria still remains one of the most corrupt nations on the planet. Transparency International ranked the country 144 out 180 in its 2018 corruption perceptions index.

If corruption is not dealt with immediately it could cost Nigeria up to 37 percent of its GDP by 2030, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a global auditing firm.

This cost equates to nearly $2,000 per Nigerian resident by 2030, PwC said.

President Muhammadu Buhari launched an anti-corruption drive after taking office in May 2015.

“Corruption is still a huge problem, but it is not like what it was before. That is because the people have the choice to get rid of a leader if he is corrupt. That was not possible under the military generals. There are also whistleblowers now,” Audu noted.

Security issues

Since 2009, northeastern Nigeria has been hit by security challenges. Boko Haram, a group that wants to establish an Islamic state following a strict interpretation of Islamic law, has waged a deadly insurgency.

The violence has killed thousands of people and forced more than two million from their homes.

The United Nations and human rights activists accused both Boko Haram and security forces fighting it of putting civilians, including many children, in harm’s way.

The violence has spread to neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a regional military coalition against the armed group.

In recent weeks, the coalition forces have pounded Boko Haram hideouts in the Lake Chad area with air strikes as well as launching ground assaults.

Boko Haram fighters kidnapped at least 276 girls from a secondary school in Chibok town. Five years after the attack, more than 112 girls are still missing.

A total of 107 girls have been found or released as part of a deal between the Nigerian government and the armed group.

Boko Haram allegedly operates its largest camp in the vast Sambisa forest in Nigeria’s northeast.

The forest stretches for about 60,000 square kilometres in the southern part of the northeastern state of Borno, which has borne the brunt of Boko Haram’s violence.

“More needs to be done to protect and preserve basic human rights in parts of the northeast. People live in fear from Boko Haram,” Eze Onyekpere, a human rights activist, told Al Jazeera.

“Apart from the areas facing Boko Haram insurgency, rights of citizens have improved significantly since the return of civilian rule. Arbitrary arrests and torture are not common. We also have a constitution that safeguards the rights of all citizens,” Onyekpere added.

Press freedom

Under the military, press freedom was severely restricted. Whistleblowers faced detention and possibly torture in custody.

Twenty years later, Nigeria has a vibrant media with the country also hosting bureaus for some of the world’s major media groups.

Reporters Without Borders ranks Nigeria 120 out of 180 in its 2019 press freedom index.

“Nigeria has come a long way, but it still has a long way to go. We could have been far ahead of where are currently,” Onyekpere said.

Essay on Democracy in Nigeria | Challenges and Prospects

Nigeria, a federal democratic nation modeled on the United States, stands as Africa’s most populous country and largest economy. Despite these significant attributes, the journey towards a robust democracy in Nigeria encounters numerous impediments at all government levels. These challenges range from intense political rivalry, and communal and ethnic discord, to a pressing lack of transparency in political life.

Table of Contents

Democracy in Nigeria Essay | Challenges and Prospects

Historical impediments to democracy.

At the core of Nigeria’s ongoing struggle for political inclusion lies its complex founding history. The country’s origins can be traced back to its establishment as a profit-driven entity by an imperial European power, which unfortunately overshadowed the aspirations and desires of its diverse population. Since gaining independence in 1960, Nigerian administrations have been grappling with the monumental task of building public trust and fostering equitable distribution of power and benefits among the various ethnic, religious, and linguistic communities that make up the nation. This multifaceted challenge requires continuous efforts and thoughtful considerations to create a truly inclusive and harmonious society for all Nigerians.

Disillusionment (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); with Electoral Processes

Recent national and state-level elections, despite the high hopes for increased voter participation and transparent election results, unfortunately, fell short of delivering on these promises. As a result, there has been a widespread sense of disappointment among Nigerians, who are now questioning the effectiveness and integrity of Nigeria’s electoral processes. It is crucial to address these concerns and work towards implementing reforms that restore faith in the democratic system and ensure fair and trustworthy elections for all citizens. Only by doing so can we strengthen our democracy and uphold the principles of transparency and accountability.

The Power of Youth in Fostering Democracy

Despite the numerous challenges, Nigeria’s unwavering commitment to democracy shines through, especially fueled by the country’s vibrant youth, who make up approximately 70% of the population. This emerging generation seems to herald the arrival of a new era, as they vociferously advocate for transparency and integrity in political affairs, hinting at the possibility of a transformative shift in Nigeria’s democratic landscape. Their collective voice resonates with hope and the promise of a brighter future, where the principles of democracy are upheld with unwavering dedication.

In conclusion, Nigeria’s democracy may be fraught with challenges, but its relentless pursuit of democratic ideals and political inclusivity inspires many. This struggle is not just Nigeria’s; it has continental implications and the potential for setting democratic precedents in neighboring countries. Therefore, the international community must pay close attention to Nigeria’s democratic journey, recognizing its broader significance within the African context. Despite the challenges, Nigeria, through its youthful demographic, offers a beacon of hope for the transformation and strengthening of its democratic institutions.

Hello! Welcome to my Blog StudyParagraphs.co. My name is Angelina. I am a college professor. I love reading writing for kids students. This blog is full with valuable knowledge for all class students. Thank you for reading my articles.

Related Posts:

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Title: The Failure of Governance in Nigeria: An Epistocratic Challenge

The failure of governance in Nigeria manifests in the declining capacity of political leaders to recognize systemic risks such as election fraud, terrorist attacks, herder-farmer conflict, armed banditry, and police brutality and put in place the necessary measures to navigate these challenges. In contrast with the current system in which leadership is attained through bribery, intimidation, and violence, Nigeria needs an epistocratic system of governance that is founded on the pedigree of its political leaders and the education of its voters.

At the end of the Cold War, African civil society movements striving for more democratic governance began to challenge authoritarian regimes on the continent. Declining living conditions within African countries and the failure of authoritarian African leaders to deliver the promises of economic prosperity they made to encourage the acceptance of development aid fueled the push for change. International donors’ insistence on democratic reform as a precondition for aid gave impetus for Nigerian civil society to push for domestic accountability. Thus, domestic pressure for political pluralism and external pressure for representative governance have both played a role in the calls for democratic reform in Nigeria.  

But despite some successes, corruption and socioeconomic disparities within Nigerian democracy continue to run rampant. Since 1999, the democratic space has been dominated by political elites who consistently violate fundamental principles associated with a liberal democratic system, such as competitive elections, the rule of law, political freedom, and respect for human rights. The outcome of the 2019 presidential election further eroded public trust in the ability of the independent electoral commission to organize competitive elections unfettered by the authoritarian influences of the ruling class. This challenge is an indicator of the systemic failure in Nigeria’s governance system. A continuation of the current system will only accelerate the erosion of public trust and democratic institutions. In contrast with the current system in which votes are attained through empty promises, bribery, voter intimidation, and violence, Nigeria needs a governance system that will enhance the education of its voters and the capability of its leaders.

Statistically speaking, Nigeria has consistently ranked low in the World Governance Index in areas such as government effectiveness, political stability and the presence of violence and terrorism, rule of law, and control of corruption. Nigeria is perceived in the 2020 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index as a highly corrupt country with a score of 25/100 while its corruption ranking increased from 146 in 2019 to 149 in 2020 out of 180 countries surveyed. While President Muhammadu Buhari won the 2015 election on his promise to fight insecurity and corruption, his promises went unfulfilled; Boko Haram continues to unleash unspeakable violence on civilians while the fight against corruption is counterproductive.  

At the core of Nigeria’s systemic failure is the crisis of governance, which manifests in the declining capacity of the state to cope with a range of internal political and social upheavals. There is an expectation for political leaders to recognize systemic risks such as terrorist attacks, herder-farmer conflict, and police brutality and put in place the necessary infrastructure to gather relevant data for problem solving. But the insufficiency of political savvy required to navigate the challenges that Nigeria faces has unleashed unrest across the nation and exacerbated existing tensions. The #ENDSARS Protests against police brutality in 2020 is one of the manifestations of bad governance. 

The spiral of violence in northern Nigeria in which armed bandits engage in deadly planned attacks on communities, leading to widespread population displacement, has become another grave security challenge that has sharpened regional polarization. Because some public servants are usually unaware of the insecurities faced by ordinary Nigerians, they lack the frame of reference to make laws that address the priorities of citizens. The crisis of governance is accentuated by a democratic culture that accords less importance to the knowledge and competence that political leaders can bring to public office. These systemic challenges have bred an atmosphere of cynicism and mistrust between citizens and political leaders at all levels of government.  

Political elites in Nigeria also exploit poverty and illiteracy to mobilize voters with food items such as rice, seasoning, and money. The rice is usually packaged strategically with the image of political candidates and the parties they represent. The assumption is that people are more likely to vote for a politician who influences them with food than one who only brings messages of hope. The practice of using food to mobilize voters is commonly described as “ stomach infrastructure ” politics. The term “stomach infrastructure” arose from the 2015 election in Ekiti state when gubernatorial candidate Ayodele Fayosi mobilized voters with food items and defeated his opponent Kayode Fayemi. It is undeniable that Nigerian political culture rewards incompetent leaders over reform-minded leaders who demonstrate the intellectualism and problem-solving capabilities needed to adequately address systemic issues of poverty and inequality. 

Jason Brennan   describes the practice of incentivizing people to be irrational and ignorant with their votes as the unintended consequence of democracy. Brennan believes specific expertise is required to tackle socio-economic issues, so political power should be apportioned based on expert knowledge. As Brennan suggests, Nigeria lacks a system of governance in which leadership is based on capability. Rather, the political system in Nigeria is dominated by individuals who gain power through nepotism rather than competence, influence voters with food rather than vision, and consolidate power through intimidation or by incentivizing constituents with material gifts which they frame as “empowerment” to keep them subservient and loyal political followers. By implication, the failure of governance in Nigeria is arguably the result of incompetent leadership.

Nigeria needs a new model of governance in which political leadership is based on the knowledge and competence of both political leaders and the electorate. One solution is to establish what Brennan refers to as epistocracy , which is a system of governance in which the votes of politically informed citizens should count more than the less informed. For  J ustin Klocksiem , epistocracy represents a political system in which political power rests exclusively on highly educated citizens. This idea drew its philosophical influence from  John Stuart Mill , who believed that the eligibility to vote should be accorded to individuals who satisfy certain educational criteria. The notion that educational attainment should be the prerequisite for the electorate to choose their leaders as proposed by Brennan, Klocksiem, and Mill is an important proposition that should be taken seriously. 

However, one cannot ignore that such thinking originates from societies where civic education is high and the electorate can make informed choices about leadership. In Nigeria, the majority of citizens are uneducated on political issues. Simultaneously, those who are highly educated are increasingly becoming indifferent to political participation; they have lost faith in the power of their votes and the integrity of the political system. For an epistocratic system to work in Nigeria, there must be significant improvements in literacy levels so that citizens are educated about the issues and can use their knowledge to make informed decisions about Nigeria’s political future. 

It is important to mention that Nigeria’s political elites have exploited illiteracy to reinforce ethnic, religious, and political divisions between groups that impede democratic ideals. Since the resultant effect of epistocracy is to instill knowledge, raise consciousness and self-awareness within a polity anchored on the failed system of democracy, decisions that promote the education of uninformed voters are the rationale for an epistocratic system of governance. The Constitution must ensure that only citizens who can formulate policies and make informed decisions in the public’s best interest can run for public office. When the Constitution dictates the standard of epistocratic governance, informed citizens will be better equipped to champion political leadership or determine the qualifications of their leaders. Epistocratic governance will be the alternative to Nigeria’s current dysfunctional democratic system while retaining the aspects of liberal democracy that maintain checks and balances.  

We are not, however, oblivious that implementing such an epistocratic system of governance in Nigeria potentially contributes to more inequality given its highly undemocratic and exclusive nature. Our argument takes into consideration the contextual realities of poverty and illiteracy and the realization that poor and illiterate constituents have less power to evaluate the credibility of public servants or hold them accountable. The benefits of electing epistocratic leaders are that many citizens would desire to be educated in preparation for leadership. The more educated the population the more likely it is that political leaders will be held accountable. However, the kind of education that is needed to significantly transform the governance landscape in Nigeria is civic education. 

We propose three policies to promote epistocratic governance in Nigeria. First, aspiring leaders must demonstrate the intellectual pedigree to translate knowledge into effective, transparent, and accountable governance that leads to national prosperity. As Rotimi Fawole notes, the bar should be higher for those aspiring to executive or legislative office “to improve the ideas that are put forward and the intellectual rigor applied to the discussions that underpin our statehood.”

Second, the government must increase access to education through government-sponsored initiatives that integrate civic education into school curriculums. Currently, little opportunity exists for young Nigerians, particularly those in underfunded public education systems, to learn about their civic roles at the local, state, national, and international levels, including how to emerge as participating citizens through the academic curriculum. 

Third, the government should engage the support of local NGOs to promote civic education across Nigeria in culturally appropriate ways. The NGOs should be empowered to define the legal concept of citizenship and summarize specific civil rights enshrined in the Constitution into a Charter of Rights and Responsibilities modeled after the Canadian Charter. The Charter should include value positions essential to an effective democracy, such as the rights of citizens, social justice, accountable governance, and rule of law. It can then be commissioned as a resource for civics education in Nigeria.  

This article recognizes that Nigeria is grappling with governance challenges orchestrated by two decades of a failed democratic project. Governing these challenges requires knowledgeable leaders and an equally informed electorate. Like any new experiment, there are concerns about the viability of epistocracy as a political system, particularly in a Nigerian context fraught with ethnoreligious and political challenges. But Nigeria will only have effective governance when the right people are saddled with the responsibility to govern. However, change cannot be spontaneous. The implementation of an epistocratic system of governance within the Nigerian context must be incremental, bearing in mind that Nigeria’s democracy is still evolving.  

Obasesam Okoi is Assistant Professor of Justice and Peace Studies at the University of St. Thomas , Minnesota, where he teaches Intro to Justice and Peace Studies, Public Policy Analysis and Advocacy, and Social Policy in a Changing World. His research interests and expertise include governance and peacebuilding, insurgency and counterinsurgency, assessment of post-conflict peacebuilding programs and policies, and peace engineering. He has published in prominent peer-reviewed journals such as World Development, Conflict Resolution Quarterly, African Security, and Peace Review. 

MaryAnne Iwara is a Senior Jennings Randolph Fellow in the program on Countering Violent Extremism at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), USA, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nigeria. Very recently, she was a Policy Leader Fellow at the School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute, Florence, Italy. She is currently a PhD student at the University of Leipzig, Germany.

Image Credit: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung (via Creative Commons)

• Civil Society ,
• Regimes & Governance

Recommended Articles

Arriving at a Crossroads: Can Europe Avoid Replaying the Policy Failures of the 2014-16 Migration Crisis?

As irregular migration numbers once again soar to historic levels, Europe’s migration challenges remain a difficult challenge to surmount. After years of infighting and foot-dragging, an agreement on a long-stalled…

NATO: Time to Adopt a Pre-emptive Approach to Cyber Security in New Age Security Architecture

NATO is evolving politically and militarily, as it becomes more technologically sophisticated in the cyberspace realm to meet the multidimensional challenges of the twenty-first century. Specifically, NATO continues…

The Collective Security Treaty Organization: A Lifeless, Shambling ‘Alliance’

Russia’s answer to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), is a zombie—an undead creature shambling around the former Soviet Union, lacking a pulse…

DEMOCRACY UNDER STRAIN: SEEKING SOLUTIONS FOR NIGERIA

Sep 15, 2020 | Press Releases

In Nigeria’s 60 years of self-rule, her democratic journey has been chequered. From the First Republic government which took the reins from the colonial administration to the present Fourth Republic, Nigeria’s attempts at democratic rule have been interrupted by a cumulative 29 years of military interregnum. The country is currently enjoying her longest unbroken spell of democratic rule since 29 May 1999.

As the world marks this year’s International Day of Democracy, with the theme ‘Democracy under Strain: Solutions for a Changing World’, and this year’s celebration coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, emphasis should be to support human rights, the rule of law, peace and stability, which are all critical democracy development indicators.

The National Association of Seadogs, Pyrates Confraternity, congratulates Nigerians and the Nigerian government for keeping the fire of Democracy burning in the last twenty-one years of the Fourth Republic. Although the challenges have been enormous, the collective will of Nigerians has proven stronger than the divisive forces which habitually scuttled our democratic sojourn before now.

The citizens are the centrepiece of any democracy. While the people confer legitimacy of power through their votes, the elected government is expected to meet their needs and aspirations. Consequently, obnoxious policies like the recent hikes in Premium Motor Spirit pump price and electricity tariff at the same time, without taking into consideration the prevailing socio-economic realities, and the devastating economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, are clearly insensitive, undemocratic, and unacceptable.

Also, the attempted passage of the vexatious Social Media Bill and the latest attempts at restricting media coverage of the National Assembly are potent threats to the guaranteed freedoms which should naturally be entitlements from our hard-won democracy. The loss of confidence in the integrity of the national electoral process, which is ridden with violence, voter intimidation, ballot rigging and complicity by state actors, heightens concerns about the future of democracy in Nigeria.

According to the Global Terrorism Index 2020, Nigeria currently ranks third in the list of most terrorised countries in the world, just behind Afghanistan and Iraq. In the same week, the 2020 mortality estimates released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) revealed that Nigeria has overtaken India to become the world’s number one contributor to deaths of children under the age of five; a development that was actualised two years earlier than predicted, according to Thisday Newspaper report of September 10, 2020.

Human security, whether defined as freedom from want (access to a minimum threshold of food, water, healthcare, shelter, education, and work), or freedom from fear (national or territorial security), is an essential entitlement of democratic governance. Therefore, any threat to security in Nigeria, occasioned either by ineffective and harsh economic policies, or the activities of terrorists and other criminal elements, portend great danger to the survival of Nigeria’s democracy. 

Against this backdrop, we demand as follows:

• That governments at all levels must strive harder towards strengthening the time-tested components and pillars of democracy namely: security and welfare of the people, rule of law, equality, rights, liberties, and opportunities. 
• That political institutions including the Independent National Electoral Commission, political parties, pressure groups, the arms of government, mass media, and civil society groups, need to be strengthened and accorded full independence from interference in the drive towards deepening our democracy.
• That President Muhammadu Buhari should revisit and sign into law the 2019 Electoral Reform Bill presented to him before the 2019 general elections, and equally to ensure a conducive environment for a free press and for civil society organisations to flourish, in the interest of democracy.
• That equality before the law is non-negotiable in a democracy. The recurrent disobedience of court orders granting bail to Nigerians in criminal proceedings initiated by the Federal Government, and such other brazen illegalities deemed injurious to our body polity are major obstacles to the attainment of enduring democracy. Selective justice, preferential or detrimental treatment in the application of the law are an anathema to democracy.
• That the Federal Government of Nigeria must do more than the jaded rhetoric of “bringing the perpetrators to book” and other such ineffectual clichés towards finding a lasting solution to the ethnic and religious tensions in Kaduna, Plateau, Benue and other affected parts of the country.

Nigeria as the largest democracy in Africa should be the torchbearer and pacesetter in the propagation and entrenchment of democracy across the African continent and beyond. This year’s celebration offers the nation another opportunity to reflect on the imperatives towards deepening and elevating democratic governance in Nigeria. 

Abiola Owoaje NAS Cap’n Abuja, Nigeria

Share this:

You may also like….

DIA’s assault on press freedom, threat to democracy

Apr 3, 2024

Mr Segun Olatunji, the editor of FirstNews newspaper, who was abducted by operatives of the Defence Intelligence...

2024 National Budget: Corruption Incorporated

Mar 29, 2024

The culture of shameless avarice and prebendal politics by the Nigerian political elite is laid bare by the shocking...

Okuama bloodbath: Avoiding another Odi!

Mar 18, 2024

The news of the killing of 16 Nigerian Army personnel on a peace mission in Delta State is shocking and most...

Français FR

Ressources numériques en sciences humaines et sociales

Nos plateformes

Bibliothèques

Suivez-nous

Redirection vers OpenEdition Search.

• IFRA-Nigeria ›
• African Dynamics ›
• Nigeria during the Abacha Years (1993-1... ›
• Democracy in Nigeria: Concepts, represe...
• IFRA-Nigeria

Nigeria during the Abacha Years (1993-1998)

Ce livre est recensé par

Democracy in Nigeria: Concepts, representations and expectations

Plan détaillé, texte intégral, introduction.

1 In the Nigerian context, democracy is something much talked about — a set objective pursued with apparent vigour but not yet attained. For almost half a century, Nigerians have been searching for democracy through constitutional reforms and intricate political engineering and experimentation, spelt out in successive transition programmes. They have, however, been continuously disappointed. Many Third World countries in the 1990s, have been concerned with democratic consolidation, whereas the primary concern for Nigeria was, and still is, how to end military rule and bring about credible democratic rule.

2 Analysts have proffered many reasons for the persistence of political crises in Nigeria, notable among which are: the concentration of power in the central government due to prolonged military rule; the erosion of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary or, at least, its being cowed into submission by military rulers; the absence of structures and institutions that can redress the mutual fears and suspicions of Nigeria’s diverse ethnic groups; reckless misrule by a corrupt and morally bankrupt political ruling class.

3 Fascinating theoretical discourses have equally been put forward, attributing the Nigerian socio-economic and political-democratic crisis toprebendalism, predation, patrimonialism, the ‘rogue’ state, the dynamics of global capitalist expansion and class formation in the periphery. 1 Our understanding of the Nigerian situation has certainly improved from the prolific output of dedicated scholars, but the burning issue of democracy has remained as confounding as ever.

4 Except in highly speculative terms, scholars have not given adequate attention to the dynamic interaction of evolving conceptions of democracy, and the significant impact of this on the national democratic project in Nigeria. It seems that this is largely because, as Mamdani has observed,

... for most Africanist scholars democracy appears more as a prescription arbitrarily forced on the object of analysis than an outcome of a concrete analysis of actual social struggles. 2

5 Yet, it ought to be recognized that there are different, contending and, quite often, contradictory notions of democracy seeking expression in societies such as Nigeria. The character of the civil society is such that, to use Fatton’s phrase: 3

... a disorganized plurality of mutually exclusive projects that are not necessarily democratic are quite often simultaneously pursued by hegemonic groups in the name of democracy.

6 A proper assessment needs to be made on how these are contested by non-hegemonic groups, how they are articulated and how they impact on or affect the national democratic project as a whole. Particular conceptions of democracy and discourses have been globalized, but in reality these are not universally applicable. Only through a careful analysis and exposition, based on concrete situations, can it be appropriately perceived as to who has an interest and capacity to bring about what sort of democracy in a given context.

7 This paper attempts to survey, describe and analyze democracy in Nigeria from the perspective of the dominant civil groups and their interactions with the state. It addresses how different groups of the Nigerian civil society have evolved or adapted conceptions of democracy, by looking at various representations, images and ‘debates’, especially in the context of Babangida’s and Abacha’s transition to civil rule programmes between 1985 and 1996. The groups on which the study is based are: the so-called political class, the business class; religious groups, traditional rulers, the pro-democracy movement, professional/occupational groups, women’s organizations, and the working class.

8 The Nigerian civil society is complex, and its historical evolution and socio-cultural diversity necessarily suggests an array of divergent political attitudes, views, perceptions and value-orientations. If we take the definition of political culture to be ‘a people’s predominant beliefs, attitudes, values, ideals, sentiments, and evaluations about the political system of its country, and the role of the self in that system,’ 4 then it can be said that there is a profound crisis of political culture in Nigeria. As Chazan 5 noted, ‘African political cultures are marked by their proliferation and fragmentation’. This is certainly the case in Nigeria. Indeed, the Nigerian case is also illustrative of Chazan’s assertion 6 that ‘Democracy has appeared in the African arena most frequently as the political culture of counter-hegemony’.

9 The impact of these divergent political cultures may have an important bearing on conceptions of democracy. Diverse groups and individuals participating in the political, democratic processes must necessarily have different conceptions of democracy. We may perhaps begin to understand and explain the failure to bring about democracy in Nigeria by examining how Nigerians have conceived of, or perceived democracy from the perspective of the crisis of political culture. It has been argued with some justification that for the on-going democratization process to be meaningful to the people, and to be able to provide for their social and economic rights and basic needs, it must essentially ‘draw on African traditions to adapt democracy to the cultural and historical experience of ordinary people’. 7

10 Disagreements within the political culture on the appropriate concepts of democracy for Nigeria are not, however, the sole explanation for the failure of democratic rule. A fundamental explanation lies in the contradictions embedded in the processes of accumulation in the post-colonial political economy, characterized as it is by a military-controlled state and a rentier economy. The paper thus addresses several pertinent questions in its attempt to come to terms with and explain what democracy is about in Nigeria. Is the apparent failure to bring about lasting or sustainable democracy related to, or a function of, intrinsic values and processes embedded in the Nigerian civil society? Or, is it an inability to adapt democracy to cultural and traditional values, and historical experiences? How does the process of accumulation affect concepts of democracy? Are the contending and contradictory concepts of democracy the major obstacles to democratization in Nigeria?

11 To study what democracy means in Nigeria and what the various concepts of democracy are, we have to rely on what these groups and/or their ideologues and representatives actually say and do, and draw inferences from the various images they present. For many groups, we cannot but apply deductive logic (in the absence of definitive statements) to interpret their conceptions of democracy. In doing this, however, there are obvious constraints. For example, unlike South Africa, Nigeria has few plays/dramas which depict the democratization process to enable the analyst to glean ideas from these dramatized images and representations. 8 There are plays about the abuse of power, greed, corruption and moral bankruptcy of both the military rulers and the political class (eg, Fatunde’s No Food, No Country; Tomoloju’s Jankariwo, etc.). Such plays depict the various obstacles to democratization and the desire for positive political change, but most of them do not essentially address the substantive issue bordering on the conceptions of democracy.

Civil Society Grotups and the Meaning of Democracy

12 In what follows, the eight selected groups are discussed. What stands out clearly as the recurring decimal in conceptions of democracy is the collective disenchantment with military rule and the desire for a return to civil rule. On what democratic criteria should civil rule be based? There are as many contending democratic options being bandied about as there are labels to categorize them.

The political class

13 The majority of the so-called political class in Nigeria can be aptly described 9 as ‘anti-democracy politicians who like the proverbial dog will chase every bone no matter how humiliatingly presented’. Many are simply interested in the acquisition of power by any means. Rather than facilitate democracy, members of this class do no more than ‘dam the waters of democratic and social reform’. 10

14 For most of the members of the Nigerian political class, democracy means no more than transition from military to civilian rule, with the politicians in charge of the federal purse. There are no credible theoreticians or political philosophers among this class, however, they have many self-appointed tacticians and strategists whose main preoccupation is to design winning coalitions through ingenious schemes such as zoning and electoral rigging.

15 For the Nigerian political class, democracy is hardly desirable if it means popular empowerment of the masses. Democracy is desirable to them only if it can facilitate access to power, create avenues for looting the public treasury and keep the people in check and at their mercy. If and when such an opening is perceived, then the political class strives to negotiate the exit of the military from power. Otherwise, it does not matter if the military retains power and keeps shifting the democratization goal-post, so long as they can be in the game. Indeed, there is a sense in which, as Othman and Williams 11 have noted, ‘Nigeria’s political class, like their supporters, may like democracy; but they like power and office and their spoils even more’. Similarly, in analyzing the utterances and the conduct of the political class, it is difficult not to see that they relate, to use Joseph’s phrase, 12 ‘notions of democracy to the private appropriation of publicly defined economic advantages’.

16 This disposition goes a long way to explain the kind of contradictory role they have played in the country’s political processes, especially under the various transition to civil rule programmes of successive military regimes.

17 Over ten years of continuous, reckless, military rule, characterized by the vandalization of national resources, has created a situation in which the military has exhausted the patience and good will of Nigerians who have suffered tremendously under the impact of an intense socio-economic crisis. Disenchanted factions of the political class have been forced to adjust their interests in line with growing popular discontent with military rule. They have taken care, however, to adjust their activities to the requirements of the military’s transition programmes. Thus, their conceptions of democracy are conditioned by enlightened self-interest and the contradictory dynamics of state-based accumulation.

18 Whatever government replaces military rule, it should have a framework and safeguards that would secure the inclusion of minority groups in the processes of governance in the event of their being unable to capture and secure power for themselves. Ethnic apprehensions based on the damaging impact of a historical ethno-regional imbalance and the marginalization of certain groups in the national power equation provide a legitimate launching board for the aspirations of the political class.

19 Thus, in the context of Abacha’s transition programme, especially from the proceedings of the Constitutional Conference and the draft constitution, a sort of consensual or consociational notion of democracy seems to have emerged, with such constitutional provisions as rotating the presidency and other key offices, devolution of powers from the federal to state governments, federal character commission, multi-party system, and so on. One key participant has argued that,

... participatory democracy and not the winner-takes-all model had been recommended in the [1995] draft constitution. 13

20 A clearer articulation of the preference of the political class for a loosely defined sort of consociational democracy has been offered by Jakande, 14

... we should look forward to a government in which all political parties will participate and all political tendencies will be accommodated like in Malaysia... There was a time when it was fashionable to be in opposition... Nigeria has gone far beyond that now, we are at a state where for economic and political reasons, opposition is not in anybody’s interest... For the sake of the country let us have 10 years of all party government.

21 The advocacy of a consociational-cum-liberal democratic framework obviously aims at enabling the political class to gloss over the infested sore created by Babangida’s aborted transition programme, and the growing counter-hegemonic alternative views of what democracy should be. It also enables the political class to capitalize on the small opening created by the Abacha regime to continue to scheme for privileged access to the State. They also seek to stabilize the process of competition for power and the mode of access to state resources by lessening mutual fears and suspicions about ethno-regional domination and exploitation among the elite, which has been the basis of their political brinkmanship.

22 The sort of democracy to which the political class aspires, will be characterized by elite competition through a multi-party electoral system mediated by the rotation of offices, ethno-regional balancing and a slightly improved federalism. Can it resolve the perennial problems related to the national question in Nigeria? Can it redress the real and perceived injustices which the annulment of the June 12 presidential elections symbolizes? Even more significantly, can it satisfy the yearnings of the Nigerian people for political emancipation and socio-economic liberation? Evidently many within the popular organizations in the civil society groups think otherwise.

The business class

23 Forrest 15 has argued that Nigerian businessmen, together with the politicians, offer the ‘main ground swell of opposition to military rule’, partly because military rule has been bad for business, especially from the ways in which successive regimes have mismanaged the Nigerian economy and vandalized state resources. Some of the statements credited to leading business tycoons, however, suggest that even if they do not like military rule, they fear civilian rule even more. For example, Ernest Shonekan 16 said that the Nigerian economy must be buoyant for the third attempt at democratic governance to succeed, adding that ‘democracy without a strong economy is nothing but an invitation to chaos’ — implying that until the economy improves, there is hardly any alternative to military rule. Similarly, Oladele Olashore, 17 a prominent banker, claims to like the idea of popular democracy but believes that it cannot be smooth, as prevailing economic conditions do not provide a conducive climate for democratization.

The whole gamut of socioeconomic democratization is a hoax, a wishful order and an inevitable disorder in global politics ... The pressure to democratize from outside is ethnocentric in nature and could lead to alien and unworkable forms of democracy.

24 Soyinka 18 captured the situation with respect to the Nigerian business class when he remarked that:

An opinion poll among the wealthier business class and top government functionaries would reveal that they are generally content with the very system of military rule, that they indeed dread the return of what one of them once described as a ‘predictable civilian democratic chaos’.

25 The primary interest of capital, foreign and domestic, is systemic stability, in whatever way it is provided. Military authoritarian regimes have proven capable of stabilizing economic growth and minimizing political conflicts in many Third World countries. The argument about the inverse nature of the relationship between development and democracy in many peripheral societies seems to appeal to businessmen. Although the Nigerian military rulers have a poor record of economic management, they have somehow managed to keep Nigeria intact, in spite of the antics of ethno-regional warlords, and the economy limping along with a decent return to investment in several sectors. Herein may lie the logic of the majority of businessmen not being favourably disposed to a return to civilian democratic rule. Those who genuinely desire a return to democracy may be few indeed. Even these are likely to prefer the type that would facilitate access to state-based accumulation.

Religious groups

26 The intensity of the Nigerian economic crisis and the role of the state in it, as well as the dynamics of social relations mediated by the state during this period have combined to heighten religious differences, among others, resulting in an increased incidence of conflicts. Even more significant, in the context of changing power relations, is the disenchantment of the populace with the socioeconomic situation and the seeming duplicity or complacency of the clergy of the two established religions, in the face of excesses by the ruling class, have created a process of popular religious revivalism. Christian pentecostals and Muslim fundamentalist and reformist groups have proliferated. 19 Their ideas about spiritual salvation and socio-economic and political liberation have an important bearing on the democratization process.

27 There is a fundamental sense in which the resurgence of these popular religious groups against the backdrop of economic crisis and adjustment of the 1980s and 1990s, represents a counterhegemonic attempt to expand democratic space and contest the power of monopolies. 20 Clearly their activities symbolize anger and rejection of the prevailing socio-economic and political situation. The failure of the state and those associated with it to cater for fundamental needs and aspirations translates into material deprivation and alienation especially in the urban and semi-urban centres, leading many to begin to question prevailing ideas and institutions that directly affect them.

28 In the view of some of the clergy of the established Christian churches, to borrow Marshall’s phraseology, ‘God is not a democrat’ and ‘Power [is] in the name of Jesus.’ Internal democracy in the churches could create unnecessary arguments and discussions which could erode the authority of the clergy. In the context of national politics, however, democracy and full participation are desirable in order to elect leaders who could redress perceived injustice and imbalances. In this context, democracy is also seen as a system which, if used to advantage, can protect and advance the cause of the Lord, and guard against the domineering influence of other contending religions. Thus, the clergy pursues a contradictory policy of standing for democracy nationally and occasionally lashing out at the excesses of the state while internally running the flock very undemocratically and indulging in its own excesses.

29 Pentecostalism, according to Marshall 21 represents a challenge to state power as well as a critique of power elites and, most significantly, is primarily,

... involved in articulating, at the symbolic and practical levels, new forms of power in response to the ever-changing difficulties, demands and constraints (economic and social as well as from the state) of everyday urban life.

30 Thus, the pentecostals tend to create their own little enclaves and hierarchical pecking order. By and large, however, they seem to remain indifferent to the national political processes from which they have been excluded.

31 A process similar to the phenomenon of pentecostalism in Western Nigeria, characterized by disempowerment, exclusion and attempts to create autonomous alternative democratic spaces, is discernible among Muslim reformist and Islamist groups that have emerged and have become prominent, especially in the urban areas of northern Nigeria. The activities of these groups are not only indicative of how socio-economic deprivation alienates disempowered groups, but how they can create a basis for mobilizing adherents to establish alternative forms of democratic conduct and challenge the political hegemony of the elite and the authority of the state. In places like Sokoto, Zaria, Katsina and Kano, the heart of the emirates of the pre-colonial Sokoto Caliphate, moderate revivalist groups such as the Izala movement, as well as the more extremist Shi’ite groups have posed a challenge to the traditional authorities (emirs and chiefs) and Ulama (Muslim clerics) who have been representing the State, promoting its unpopular policies, condoning the excesses of its functionaries, and conducting themselves in ways that these groups see as unlslamic.

32 In some areas, such as Kano, these groups are becoming well established, cornering their own political space and more or less operating their own miniature democratic republics with little regard to the larger secular political community. 22 Apart from preaching against perceived unlslamic activities and occasionally clashing with the state and those defined as having committed unpardonable acts, they are mostly preoccupied with developing local organizational structures and business enterprises, which are quite remarkable in their communitarian nature and processes of internal democracy. They address themselves as brother and sister, run their own schools and organize community services. The potential implication of their enhanced exclusion from the national democratic project itself cannot be ignored. On the contrary, it must be taken seriously.

33 In contrast to the symbolic conceptions and representations of democracy by popular religious groups, organized religious bodies representing mostly the established conservative religious leaders, such as the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), and the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (SCIA), have been active in the military regime’s transition politics, playing contradictory, often mutually antagonistic roles, but almost invariably compliant to the state. For example, these organizations are known to have expressed views which have been generally supportive of the military’s transition programmes, calling for restraint by members of the political class and the pro-democracy groups, and urging all to give the programme a chance. They are consulted and patronized by the state and they often readily assist in mobilizing public acceptance and support of the regime’s policies and programmes.

34 There are very few instances when they can be said to have advocated popular democratic causes. Such a case was over the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections. Both the Catholic Bishops and the SC1A called upon the Babangida regime to reverse the annulment of the results of the June 12 election. 23

Traditional rulers

35 Nigeria’s traditional political authorities, as represented by the institutions of the obas, obis and emirs, are essentially patriarchal and authoritarian, embedded in relatively undemocratic traditional political cultures. Whatever democratic content these traditional institutions may have possessed has been distorted, first by colonial policies of indirect rule and, secondly, by post-colonial state policies especially under military rule. Although the powers of these institutions may have declined over time, their undemocratic disposition has remained in tact, if not actually strengthened.

36 Thus, traditional rulers in Nigeria have been all too willing to accept the military’s agenda for and perspective of democracy. They have seized upon any opportunity to demand an increase in their eroded powers and spheres of influence, as can be seen in their various memoranda and contributions to the Political Bureau, the constituent assemblies, and the more recent Constitutional Conference.

37 Whenever these regimes faced a serious challenge to their transition programmes, the traditional rulers have come out in force to support them. For example, at a time when the Abacha regime came under intense international pressure, 16 northern traditional rulers met and categorically declared that they were ‘committed to ensuring that General Abacha’s administration succeeded in bringing about a peaceful transition to democracy’. 24 The operative word seemed not to be democracy per se but peaceful transition. Similarly, traditional rulers in Ondo State were reported to have ‘appealed to Nigerians to put the June 12 issue behind them and face the new march towards democracy’, in a communique they issued after a meeting in Akure. 25

38 Traditional rulers have mouthed official positions, served in promoting official views, and accepted representation in government commissions and assemblies charged with the responsibility of crafting democratic transitions. For example, some of the most prominent traditional rulers have been appointed as members of the group called Leaders of Thought, constituted by the Abacha regime to advise it on its transition programme. Four of the five committees of this group are led by traditional rulers. It is clear then that rather than have any definite commitment to intrinsic democratic values, traditional rulers merely share with the military a desire for ‘peace and stability’, a preoccupation that seems to take precedence over both transition to civil rule and genuine democratization. They may in fact prefer military rule and its patronage to the uncertainties of civilian rule with its partisan politics.

39 Some of the prominent traditional rulers, like the religious leaders (in fact in some areas they double as both), called upon Babangida to hand over to Abiola. Although they later beat a fast retreat. For example, the Emir of Zaria was reported to have vehemently warned the Babangida regime of the danger of denying Abiola his victory. The Sultan of Sokoto was also reported to have urged that Abiola’s election be upheld ‘to avoid bloodshed’. He even wrote to General Babangida, arguing, among others, that:

Since the whole world has given a verdict that the election was free and fair and it was the most peaceful in the history of the country, there is no other route away from national catastrophe than the swearing-in of Alhaji Moshood Abiola come 27 August, 1993. 26

40 Similarly, some obas insisted that the June 12 election should be upheld. They sent a memorandum to the Abacha created Constitutional Conference, through the Oyo State Military Administrator on 23 February 1994. 27 It seems, however, that such actions are predicated on notions of injustice and the need to redress it, or the political need to be seen to be standing for a good cause, rather than on a belief in democracy.

The Pro-democracy Movement

41 From about 1986, an extensive popular democratic movement has emerged in Nigeria, which has been engaged, as Ihonvbere and Vaughan have noted, not only in

... opposition to military rule, but also [in seeking] in redefining the meaning of democratic engagement in a nation where élite behaviour is characterized by endemic corruption and a flagrant assault on human dignity.’ 28

42 More than they have acknowledged, the struggles of the pro-democracy movement have shifted away from the traditional conception of democracy by the political class as the mere transfer of power to civilian politicians through elitist democratic processes, to conceptions of democracy which include popular participation, empowerment, accountability and good governance, social democracy and social provisioning, and permanent removal of the military from the Nigerian political scene. This development has been facilitated and conditioned by rapid changes in economic and social opportunities, relations and structures which have occurred in the period of economic crises and the structural adjustment programme of the 1980s and 1990s. During this period, contrary to neo-liberal assumptions:

... the tendency has been to accelerate both pilfering of existing state resources and the diversification of the state bureaucracy into ‘private’ activity, as formally ‘gray’ areas of economic life have become legitimate and as the state bureaucracy itself perceives new limits to purely state-based accumulation. 29

43 As access to state power became increasingly personalized and used to facilitate accumulation, the state itself, presided over by a military cabal, resorted to suppression to cover up its gross mismanagement and corruption and its inability to satisfy the basic needs and aspirations of the people. Consequently, human rights and pro-democracy groups proliferated, establishing broad links with other popular organizations and intensifying their struggles with new additional items on the agenda of the national democratic project.

44 At another level, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the accompanying crisis of socialism in Eastern Europe and globally, which coincided with the period of crisis and adjustment in Nigeria, suddenly released the energies of a large number of Nigerian socialists and other radical left elements into the struggle for democracy. As the prospects of a socialist revolution in Nigeria became increasingly elusive, radical graduates of Nigerian universities, unemployed or unemployable from the perspective of the regime because they were perceived as ‘extremists’, (many of whom were activists in student movements), came to play crucial roles in the emergent pro-democracy movement. In addition to these, other professionals, faced with a crisis of rising unfulfilled expectations in congested professions with rapidly declining opportunities, joined the human rights and pro-democracy movement.

45 There are a number of issues which form the constitutive elements of the Nigerian pro-democracy groups’ conception of democracy. First, they are opposed to military rule which they see as inherently undemocratic and as the major obstacle to the quest for democracy in the country. For them, as Barrett has noted:

the key issue of dissent remains the desire for a democratic, or rather a representative, form of government to be established through the instrument of choice rather than through the instrument of seizure by coercion. 30

46 In this context, the military’s transition programmes are perceived as diversionary and incapable of creating a democratic order. The Campaign for Democracy (CD), has said, for example, that it is committed to the forging of a United Popular Front for the termination of military dictatorship ( African Concord, 5 July 1995: 16). Similarly, the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) stated that:

... the military has no honorable role to play in government in Nigeria and the civilian political class should stop collaborating with the military regimes by either taking part in their government or participating in their dubious transition programme. 31

47 Organizations such as the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO), the Constitutional Rights Project (CRP), Campaign for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (NADL), and the Democratic Alternative (DA) have all articulated positions similar to the ones cited above.

48 Secondly, they all seem to agree that civilian rule does not necessarily mean democratic rule, contrary to the prevailing perception among the political class, which they see as tending to confuse issues. For example, this point has been made explicitly in a communique issued by 41 human rights and pro-democracy groups at the end of a summit they held in Jos. Their communique stated among others:

That civilian rule is not necessarily the same thing as democracy. Consequently, any struggle for democracy that does not recognize the need for the people to take part in all structures of decision-making and decision-implementation will be fruitless. 32

49 Indeed, the pro-democracy movement sees the Nigerian political class as the major culprit in the entrenchment of military rule, through its collaboration with successive regimes, its accumulation strategies, and its neglect of popular socioeconomic needs and aspirations. Another joint statement by seven pro-democracy groups is quite revealing in this respect and in terms of their conception of democracy:

... there was no marked difference between the civilian and military elite as both their rule have been characterized by dictatorship and abuse of human rights. To rout out the military from power and install full and genuine democracy ... pro-democracy forces must be interested in those who replace the military in power. The process of purging the military from power ... should equally select and groom those to take over, so as to avoid the fate of countries like Zambia and Niger Republic. This can only take place if the thrust of the pro-democracy struggle is grounded in popular democratic empowerment of the masses. 33 [author’s emphasis]

50 Thirdly, they all favour the mobilization of the underprivileged and disempowered urban and rural Nigerians, and their empowerment through popular participation and representation, as the basis for desirable and credible democratization in Nigeria. They are all supportive of institutional frameworks such as the multi-party system (in contrast to Babangida’s rigid two-party system), an independent judiciary, legislative checks and balances, as a desirable institutional basis of democratic governance. 34

51 There are, however, a few significant areas of divergence on what democracy means within the pro-democracy movement. Most of these relate to the strategies and tactics of democratic struggles. For example, there is no common position on the actualization of Abiola’s mandate, although his continued incarceration by the Abacha regime is strongly condemned, and all are agreed that the annulment of the June 12 election by the Babangida regime was unfair, unjust and a serious setback to the democratic aspirations of Nigerians.

52 For NADECO, under the present circumstances, democracy begins with the actualization of Abiola’s mandate and the resolution of the national question. NADECO came into being in May 1994 in the wake of heightened opposition to the annulment of the June 12 election. This broad coalition aims at actualizing the said election and getting the regime to organize a national conference to resolve what has been perceived as the crisis of Nigerian federalism. The core of its leadership emanates from within the political class, with some retired military officers representing the relatively more principled faction of that class. Their democratic agenda is, therefore, only slightly different from the elitist conception prevailing within the political class, in comparison to the broad spectrum of the pro-democracy movements and other popular organizations.

53 For the Nigerian Democratic Movement (NDM), an externally based pro-democracy group of Nigerian professionals resident in Europe and America, democracy means, first and foremost, the actualization of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections.

54 The Campaign for Democracy (CD) sees democracy as beginning with the actualization of June 12, 1993 presidential elections and the subsequent convening of a Sovereign National Conference which would settle, once and for all, the ‘national question’ believed to be responsible for ethno-regional, religious and political tensions in the country. It also means empowerment and active participation of the underprivileged, apparently based on the mobilization of urban-based groups.

55 In contrast, the Democratic Alternative (DA) is calling for much more than the Nigerian political class, the CD and the other pro-democracy groups. The DA goes beyond the mere transition to civilian rule and the actualization of Abiola’s mandate, enshrined in the June 12 elections. For example, the DA has stated that:

Our position on the June 12 mandate is that it is undemocratic being a product of an undemocratic transition process; it suffered moral bankruptcy when its exponents including Abiola compromised the pro-democracy movement and opted for silver-lined military road to power; it lacks the promise of fulfilling the people’s wishes and aspirations because its exponents were some of the staunchest supporters and executioners of anti-people measures of the military junta and have no plan for the upliftment of the masses. Consequently, the enforcement of the June 12 mandate cannot be the basis for mobilizing the widest section of our people to oust the military dictatorship and bring about popular democracy which the people yearn for. 35

56 The DA argued further that ‘June 12 th no longer has the capacity to rally the nation forward ... We must go beyond it if we want the military out of power in the foreseeable future’. 36 The DA takes a longer term view of what democratization should be about, and has gone a bit further than other groups to popularize its own conceptions of democracy at the grassroots level in many parts of the nation. For example, its perspectives find expression through one of its key affiliates, Community Action for Popular Participation (CAPP), which has been organizing discussions with community leaders at the local government area (LGA) levels, on issues ranging from how to bring about active popular participation, accountability and good governance to how to lessen the impact of undemocratic institutions and practices rooted in culture and tradition at the community level. It has a community drama project which has organized a drama festival for local drama groups, with presentations centering on the need for participation in the political and decision-making processes, as well as conflict resolution at the community level. 37

57 The DA has also hosted and/or sponsored workshops and seminars which bring together representatives of NGOs to discuss strategies and devise joint programmes of mobilization at the local level. In addition, it has commenced publication of a news organ titled Community. 38 These efforts seem to have gone much further than those by other pro-democracy groups in popularizing their conceptions of democracy, and they have the potential of nurturing a political culture on the basis of which a democratic system, which would be critical in terms of satisfying popular yearnings and expectations can be hinged. For now, they are competing with, and possibly check-mating, the military regime’s local mobilization efforts through branches of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) (a successor to Babangida’s mass mobilization organ, MAMSER), and a substantially militarized ‘Civil Defence Corps’ (a sort of state-sponsored vigilante group), all of which have been busy selling the regime’s version of democracy represented by its transition to civil rule programme.

58 Other groups in the pro-democracy movement such as the CLO and CRP- have concentrated attention on the promotion of civil liberties and fundamental rights. These represent the central elements in their conceptions of democracy and define the agenda for their involvement in democratic struggles. They have challenged and exposed the military’s executive lawlessness through research, documentation and legal advocacy and have got several court declarations against illegalities committed by the Babangida and Abacha regimes. They have condemned the illegalities and injustices associated with the annulment of the June 12 elections and the detention of Abiola. They have also generally offered moral and material support to those seeking to actualize the June 12 mandate. It is, however, clear from their expressed positions that they do not take the actualization of the June 12 mandate as the central element of the democratization process as much as NADECO, CD and others have done.

59 One notable feature of the evolution of conceptions of democracy in, and its meaning to, the Nigerian pro-democracy movement is the adoption of what is called ‘critical engagement’ with Abacha’s transition programme, in contrast to the posture they had assumed under the Babangida transition programme. According to its proponents, critical engagement means using ‘all the opportunities that the programme would provide to mobilize and empower the masses while attacking all its undemocratic and fraudulent aspects’. 39 This, they say, is derived from the lesson of the past in which ‘the pro-democracy movement boycotted the political processes of the military only to opportunistically accept the outcome as in the cases of June 12 and the Constitutional Conference’.

60 Pro-democracy groups have, in general, expressed popular democratic views and aspirations in contrast to the profoundly exclusivist and elitist notions prevalent among the political class, the business community, and the traditional elite. They have also struggled strenuously to achieve their objectives against odds posed by notoriously suppressive if not brutal military regimes. They project the disappointment of the majority of Nigerians with prolonged military rule, the squandering of the nation’s resources as well as their desires for change. They have been grossly constrained, however, in advancing these objectives and making them acceptable to a majority of Nigerians as alternatives to official and elitist perspectives on the national agenda. These groups have been few and structurally weak, without the resources required to organize on a national scale. The activities and actual impact of many of them are limited to a few cities and urban areas. Their efforts have also frequently been obstructed, not only by factional in-fighting over inconsequential tactical considerations but also by conventional, deep-seated ethno-regional fears and suspicions. They have not been free of the petty squabbles and sectionalist politics that frequently characterize the Nigerian political scene to the pleasure, if not at the instance of the ruling junta. All of these weaken the leadership that the movement could give to popular democratic struggles in the democratization process. By far the most formidable obstacle to their organization and activities, however, has been the authoritarian disposition of the regime, leading to constant harassment by security services, closure of offices, seizure of publications, and detention of leaders.

Professional Groups

61 Nigerian professional associations have been active in democratic struggles in Nigeria, although few have a well-articulated conception of democracy. This may be largely because their involvement has essentially been compelled by changing fortunes and circumstances, occasioned by the economic crisis which engulfed the country in the early 1980s, and the subsequent introduction of the structural adjustment programme in 1986, with its devastating impact on their members. 40 During this period, the income and most of the privileges of the middle class were eroded. As they struggled to improve their conditions, they had to face an increasingly authoritarian state, and were compelled to link their demands, aspirations and struggles with those of the ordinary people. The intensity of state suppression and the damaging impact of military rule on the living conditions of the majority of Nigerians led to increased agitation against ‘executive lawlessness’, and for the rule of law, fundamental rights, good government; in short, in the recognition of democracy as the best alternative form of government. Hence, they came to adopt democracy as a rallying cry. The character of the Babangida regime created apprehension about its ability or willingness to bring about genuine democratization through its transition programme. Hence, many of these groups helped to found a common, broad-based organizational platform for the agitation of an alternative framework of economic reform as well as democratization.

62 The Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), for example, became an active participant in a broad coalition of labour, scholars (ie, students and academics), human rights organizations and other ‘progressive’ groups, which made efforts to organize an alternative-to-SAP seminar and a national conference, in 1989 and 1990, all of which were prevented from holding by the Babangida regime. It was a foundation member of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), which came into being in 1991 and became famous for its consistent opposition and pro-democracy agitation against the Babangida regime. The NUJ opposed the introduction of structural adjustment. It perceived military rule to be a major factor hampering the evolution of a viable democracy in Nigeria and also opposed the NLC’s joining of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) because of the belief that ‘by joining any of the Babangida Parties our integrity as a trade union and a professional body is under question’. 41

63 Under the military’s politics of transition, the NUJ has continued to be active in the defence of press freedom, and in campaigning for popular democratic ideals by organizing seminars and conferences (sometimes in collaboration with other organizations) on topics such as ‘media participation and involvement in setting an agenda for public discourse’, ‘the human rights situation in the country’, ‘press freedom’, and ‘freedom of information’. Focus on public enlightenment and on media related issues was predicated on the belief that ‘an oppressed media obviously translates into an oppressed society [and] that unless the media is free from the shackles of military dictatorship, the members of the society cannot be educated and enlightened enough towards Fighting injustice and exploitation’. The NUJ opposed the annulment of the June 12 election and demanded that the winner be sworn-in. This, according to the NUJ secretary-general, is because ‘Nigerians were tired of military rule and were yearning for democracy’. The NUJ wanted ‘the military to quit the scene, so that Nigerians could organize under a democratic environment’. 42

64 Although the NUJ still supports the idea of a sovereign national conference being promoted by the CD and some other pro-democracy groups as the best way for redressing the national question and introducing genuine democracy in the country, and also share(s) the same aspirations with these groups in fighting for equal opportunity, freedom, popular participation and an end to military rule, and the establishment of viable democracy in Nigeria, it has nonetheless disaffiliated itself from the CD in the wake of the June 12 crisis. Furthermore, it has become less active on the pro-democracy scene, largely because it has been weakened considerably by internal squabbles probably engineered by the state.

65 Another professional organization, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), like the NUJ, became an active participant in the democratic struggle in the mid-1980s, championing the promotion and defence of the rule of law in the face of violations by the military controlled state, and joining in collaborative efforts with other groups in broader popular democratic struggles. Between 1987 and 1990, the NBA was very active in promoting pro-democracy causes. Then the Babangida regime moved in and engineered a leadership crisis which led to its reduced effectiveness. Although terribly battered, weakened and split by the machinations of the regime, the NBA joined forces with other pro-democracy groups to oppose Babangida’s cancellation of the June 12th 1993 presidential election. The Nigerian Bar Association also issued a statement when Abacha came to power condemning the take-over and the dismantling of the existing democratic structures which were already in place before the take-over. 43

66 Oyediran has observed that amongst Nigerian intellectuals, there are varying conceptions about democracy and the best type of democracy for Nigeria. 44 This is because the Nigerian Intelligentsia do not represent a homogeneous social category. Rather, they serve as a fountain of knowledge from which hegemonic classes draw out their ideologies. 45

67 However, the organized forum of Nigerian academia (the major segment of the Nigerian intellectual community), the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has an articulated position about the kind of democracy it deems best for Nigeria. Indeed, it has more or less turned itself into an ideologue of the non-hegemonic classes. ASUU’s contribution to the political debate initiated by the Political Bureau in 1986, advanced a notion of democracy opposed to the prevailing one of liberal democracy which it criticized as elitist and bourgeois, and in its stead, ‘advocated for corporate representation’ of interest groups. By this ASUU meant the involvement of representatives of various interest groups in the process of governance, particularly those of workers, peasants, and other disempowered civil society groups. In this way, groups that ordinarily do not stand a chance of being represented and having their views accommodated in policy formation and implementation through the conventional electoral party politics of liberal democracy, would have a sort of guaranteed and mandatory participation. Also, a process of popular empowerment of the marginalized groups would be initiated with a view to bringing about responsible, accountable and responsive governance. 46 The dynamics of translating this conception into reality have not been specified by ASUU. Nonetheless, it is a conception of democracy with a popular, if not populist tinge, based as it were on expectations of bringing about a mode of government that can meet the basic needs and guarantee the economic and political rights of the ordinary people in a way that liberal democracy seems incapable of doing. Also, as can be seen from its various press releases and communiques, ASUU views other critical elements of democracy to be responsible and responsive leadership; good governance; transparency and accountability; guarantees of basic rights; popular participation; and socio-economic empowerment of the people.

68 Throughout the Babangida regime, ASUU was one of the organizations that suspected a ‘hidden agenda’, and consistently voiced the fear that the regime’s transition programme could not bring about desired democratic rule in Nigeria. It indicted the political class for collaborating with the military to subvert the democratic aspirations of the Nigerian people, and for being too willing to submit itself to repeated humiliation by the military regime. When, in 1993, the Babangida regime ran its transition programme to a dead-end, annulled the presidential elections, and plunged the nation into a profound political crisis, ASUU issued a position paper on the crisis and how it could be appropriately addressed. The paper speaks volumes for ASUU’s conception of democracy:

June 12 represents the acme of popular sovereignty ... the acceptance of June 12, and its sanctification, would be tantamount to the triumph of the general will over autocratic rule. The principle of popular sovereignty lies at the very heart of democratic rule. The mandate of the majority of the people as expressed in an election is generally regarded, in liberal democracies, as the manifestation of popular will. Therefore, to negate the popular will by arbitrarily denying the bearer of a popular mandate the right and chance to carry through that sacred trust is to undermine the very basis of democratic rule. June 12 also represents a rejection of the continuation of military rule in Nigeria ... Although civilian rule is not necessarily synonymous with democratic rule, it offers a greater chance that a transition to democracy could be commenced and sustained... When Nigerians voted in their millions, on June 12, 1993 for a civilian president, therefore, they were sending out two related messages: one that they rejected military dictatorship; two that they wanted to make a new beginning in their interrupted journey to the land of democracy... 47

69 For ASUU, the termination of military rule is a precondition for the march towards democracy given the appalling record of successive military regimes. The crisis following the annulment of the June 12 th 1993 presidential elections was seen as another milestone in that inglorious record. While seeing and affirming the potential of June 12 in commencing the march towards democratic rule, ASUU had no illusions about the actual democratic content of a government run by the winner of that election had the regime declared any. According to ASUU:

Declaring the winner of the June 12 election will not end the agenda for democracy in Nigeria. It will only enlarge the confidence of Nigerians to struggle for democracy as a fundamental principle, as we have explained it. If, as is possible the winner of that election fails to cope with the aspirations of the popular masses, the very democratic process through which he came into power will have enough capacity to work for an alternative. In short, the democratic process has its own inner dynamics which nobody should be allowed to interfere with! ... After all, neither Abiola, Tofa, nor the set of people in the interim government have [sic] a history of commitment to the struggles of the working and oppressed classes. Yet, in a special way, by proving that the ultimate decisive role in the struggle against tyranny lies in the hands of the popular masses, the current crisis has shown that given a fiercely loyal labour leadership and a determination to exercise their own freedom to political self-organization, the working and oppressed classes will yet determine the future of democracy in Nigeria ... 48

70 It is significant to note that ASUU’s conception of democracy and its role in the democratic struggles is predicated on its self-defined role as a sort of ‘peoples’ tribune’. Since the late 1970s, the organization has seen itself as politically relevant to the struggles of the Nigerian people against reckless misrule by an apparently bankrupt ruling class. It has striven to be a credible advocate of popular causes and expectations, putting to good use the intellectual resources at its disposal, and it has done this while also struggling to save the Nigerian university system from collapse. 49

Women’s Groups

71 A number of women’s groups in Nigeria have articulated positions which illustrate their conceptions of democracy. For example, Women in Nigeria (WIN) described by one analyst as ‘a feminist research, advocacy and action organization with branches in most states of the federation’, participated in the political debate initiated by the Political Bureau set up by the Babangida regime in 1986, and put up demands which questioned conventional notions of democracy and gender. It identified the gender bias in conventional liberal democracy, and linked the question of democracy in Nigeria with the democratization of gender relations in the family and in society. 50 Recognizing the magnitude of obstacles to democratization at the level of the family and the civil society, and seeing the family as the basic ‘school for democracy’, as Shettima has noted, they advocated a ‘redefinition of relations at the family level as the first step towards democratization of society’. 51 In an intensely patriarchal and gender exploitative society, this position hits at the core of undemocratic values and practices embedded in society. Beyond that, WIN also shares the conceptions of democracy by other radical and populist pro-democracy groups as mass-oriented, with the critical elements of guaranteed rights, equality of opportunities and empowerment. Women in Nigeria has a populist inclination which gives it a common ground for joint advocacy and struggles with other popular organizations. It has been fairly active in the pro-democracy movement.

72 In contrast, elitist women’s groups with links to the state and the political class, have focused attention primarily on demands for the allocation of offices to women in legislatures, cabinets, and the bureaucracy at state and federal levels. Notable in this regard is the position of the National Council of Women Societies (NCWS) and the Jam’iyyar Matan Arewa (JMA – Northern Women’s Association). These are basically organizations of elitist women incorporating networks of their patron-client relationships.

73 At some point under the Babangida and Abacha transition programmes, the political agendas of these groups merged appropriately with those of organizations founded by the First Ladies, namely, Maryam Babangida’s Better Life for Rural Women Programme (popularly called ‘Better Life for Ruler Women’) and Maryam Abacha’s Family Support Programme. Their conception of democracy is rooted in femocracy with very limited, elitist notions of participation and representation. 52 They define their roles in terms of mobilizing women to vote in elections and to hold government positions. 53 They operate within the ambit, but on the periphery, of transition politics. By and large, their political positions, when they are articulated, generally complement those of the various factions of the political class. A majority of Nigerian women have remained uncaptured and unaffected by these groups. Nonetheless, their notions of democracy can be taken as representative of the contending and contradictory ideas and dynamics of what democracy means to the womenfolk in Nigeria.

Workers and Peasants

74 The role of organized labour in the Nigerian democratization process presents interesting features and contradictions. Its impact has been on the whole minimal, on the one hand suggesting that workers responses to, and involvement in, democratic struggles are not necessarily accounted for by pressures within the economic sphere and on the other, pointing to the significance of the character of leadership and the impact of the state on it.

75 Valenzuela has noted that in transitions to democracy, ‘labour occupies a special place among the forces of civil society’ and so ‘authoritarian regimes devote a great deal of attention to it’. 54 They employ either repression or co-optation to neutralize the impact of the labour movement, often going through ‘circles of repression and liberalization’. In Nigeria, successive regimes have employed such strategies to contain organized labor, but the Babangida regime proved highly successful with its carrot-and-stick tactics. It first tried to suppress a credible leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) between 1985 and 1987. When this failed, it schemed to remove the leadership by sponsoring its favoured candidate at the 1988 elections. This created a crisis which they capitalized on to dissolve the executive, appoint a sole administrator, organize elections and install an inept and corrupt leadership through which it effectively neutralized and controlled the NLC. The regime retained control of the situation by pumping over three hundred million naira into the coffers of the Congress in the form of packages of assistance for various dubious projects. This kept the leaders busy sharing the loot and dispensing patronage, leading one critic to accuse them of succumbing to ’ the warm embrace of subversive generosity which has destroyed labour’s freedom of independence, its dedication and virility’. 55

76 Thus, the NLC could only play a very marginal role in advancing popular conceptions of democracy. Its leadership distanced the labour movement from the pro-democracy movement, and helped to subvert the latter’s programmes, such as the alternative to SAP conference in 1989 and the National Conference in 1990. The NLC became actively engaged in the politics of transition under the Babangida regime. For example, it sponsored a labour party. When that was not registered, and the regime created its two parties, the NLC endorsed these and, in-tango with a faction of the political class, joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The NLC president struggled very hard, albeit unsuccessfully, to be Abiola’s running mate. When, eventually, the regime annulled the June 12 th 1993 presidential elections, the NLC leadership played a very contradictory and dubious role. First, it supported Abiola and called for his swearing-in, then it worked hard to prevent workers from going on strike to actualize the mandate when some defiant industrial unions bypassed it and declared a strike in support of Abiola in 1994.

77 The NLC has an articulated concept of democracy and its role in it which clearly has popular democratic ideals and aspirations. For example, it has defined for itself ‘a stake in the broader democratization process in society’. It postulates its position thus:

The social issues that are important in this democratization process include social justice, freedom, enthronement of democratic institutions and culture as vehicles for the nation. Congress role in the democratization of the society will include encouraging the culture of tolerance and debate of problems, the respect and sanctity of the Nigerian constitution, etc. 56

78 However, the experience of the NLC shows that it is one thing to articulate popular democratic conceptions but quite another to actualize popular expectations. Through its actions, the NLC under the Bafyau leadership failed to work towards the implementation of its stated democratic objectives, both internally and at the level of national politics. The leadership became increasingly alienated from the workers which it represented. Many of the workers on their part lost faith in the NLC. Some of them channelled their energies and anger into other civil society groups which found expression in the 1989 anti-SAP riots, the 1993 ‘Babangida-must-go’ demonstrations, and the 1994 pro-June 12 strikes and riots.

79 Under the Abacha regime, the NLC executive was dissolved, following the 1994 pro-June 12 strike which it did not even wholeheartedly support. The NLC had clearly outlived its usefulness, for the Abacha regime. Another sole administrator has since been busy trying to bring in another leadership.

80 It can be said that through a combination of economic adjustment measures and the crisis of leadership, the majority of the Nigerian workers have been essentially alienated and disempowered, and many of them do not understand the well-packaged concepts of democracy formulated by their estranged leaders.

81 The illiterate peasantry in the rural areas, representing about 80 % of Nigeria’s population, is not sufficiently organized. If democracy means anything to them, it is that system in which all sorts of politicians come to them at periodic intervals to coax, cajole, entice, intimidate and/or harass them for their support and votes. It represents a situation in which all sorts of people make all sorts of promises, raising their hopes and, almost simultaneously, dashing their expectations and aspirations. Few can remember or point to any positive result from the brief periods of democratic rule. Some may recall a so-called ‘son of the soil’ who occupies an important post in some distant place, and occasionally visits home to make an ostentatious display of the wealth he has accumulated (CDS). The rural masses have, to quote one analyst, ‘for long been abused, confused and bemused by the money that floats around them during elections, such that they have become ‘so cynical about politics that all the talk about a solid foundation for democracy means little or nothing’ to them’. 57 Few care whether the military goes or stays or whether their leaders are democratically elected or not. This apathy suits some of the traditional and religious leaders and the members of the political class who capitalize on it to present their own self-centered notions of democracy as being representative of the view of the rural folks. Virtually all the pro-democracy groups are urban-based and, until recently, somewhat remote from rural areas.

On the Meaning of Democracy:Concluding remarks and a tentative argument

82 The preceding analysis suggests that within the Nigerian civil society groups, notions of democracy are many and varied, contending and contradictory. To describe these, all sorts of labels are applicable: there are variants of liberal democrats, popular democrats, social democrats, consociationalists, democratic-socialists, democratic humanists, Christian democrats, Muslim democrats, and traditional democrats (such as proponents of ‘Afrocracy’). There are also all shades of essentially anti-democracy elements, as well as those who are simply indifferent and oblivious to what is going on.

83 The major contending forces in this transitional Nigerian political terrain, are composed of, on the one hand, forces representing shades of liberal democratic concepts with a consociational touch, and on the other, forces representing popular and social democratic notions. In other words, the dominant and contending concepts of democracy seem to be ‘elite-driven’ versus ‘people-driven’; or bourgeois versus mass-oriented or popular. 58 ‘Elite-driven’ democracy is the prevailing notion advocated amongst the political class, with some endorsement from the business class, traditional and religious leaders, while ‘people-driven’ democracy is mainly championed by elements from amongst the pro-democracy movements, professional associations and women’s groups.

84 Democracy, for some, is about selective participation and representation, about access to power through electoral competition. This often translates into a winner-takes-all situation and the utilization of power to acquire the spoils of office. Hence, it becomes a licence for the mobilization of communal sentiments (ethnic, regional, religious, etc.) as avenues for rapid upward mobility on the political ladder. Simply put, it is about the private consumption of the so-called national ‘cake’. For others, it is about representation and participation, but with the objective of equitable distribution of resources, fair play and justice, the institutionalization of the rule of law and empowerment. It is additionally about equitable social provisioning, judicious sharing of the national revenues and the effective mobilization and utilization of societal resources, with accountability and good governance, responsive and responsible leadership and, thus, an antidote to corruption. In this conception, popular empowerment is central to the issue of participation, involving not just casting votes in the choice of representatives and leaders but also input into the critical decisions which affect daily life and survival. Soyinka noted thus:

... in its truly meaningful and affective relations, democracy means neither more nor less than — participation — real, as opposed to symbolic participation in the process of governing. 59

85 Some perceive democracy, in the way it has been defined and pursued by the military and the political class under successive military transition programmes as a convoluted, highly restrictive process characterized by excessive and unwholesome wheeling and dealing, political brinkmanship, eroding the peace and stability in the nation, more or less institutionalizing corruption and disempowering the majority of the people.

86 There are also those who see democracy as a process of bringing about salvation from domination by a hegemonic ethno-religious group which is perceived to have cornered power and access to state resources for its own benefit to the detriment of other ethno-religious groups in the country. They see it as embodying respect for and guaranteeing the rights of minorities.

87 There is, in Nigeria, a significant crisis of political culture, not least in the sense of an evidently perpetual instability occasioned by conflicts and struggles for power between the elite of the dominant ethnic groups, which dominate politics 60 and which are not regulated by ‘democratic rules and procedure’. 61 This, undoubtedly, feeds into conceptions of democracy by different groups, as articulated by their leading elite, and also significantly affect the national democratic process. But even more significantly, the underlying social structures and power relations in the process of accumulation and the appropriation of national resources affect and condition conceptions of democracy which, in turn, condition what role individuals and groups play in the democratization process, as well as influence whether they play any role at all.

88 To make sense of the contending concepts, representations, and expectations of democracy, we have to rely on deductions and extrapolations from an array of images and representations, in the context of individual and group interactions in the social processes of accumulation and their responses to the military regime’s transition projects.

89 The military has consistently set the agenda and the tempo of the ‘debate’ on democracy, or whatever discussion there has been on the issue. These seem to revolve around constitution making, power sharing, duration of transition programmes, and hasty building of institutional frameworks for civilian governance, albeit without the necessary value-orientation which can serve as the foundation for the nurturing of the appropriate national democratic political culture. Hence, in no time at all, these institutions and processes become subverted and unworkable, resulting in civilian rule without a solid democratic base and substantive democratization (in the Second Republic, 1979-1983; and with Babangida’s elected state executives and legislatures between 1990 and 1993); and in the enthronement and perpetuation of authoritarian military rule. 62

90 There does not appear to be what can be termed as a public debate about democracy per se in Nigeria. What debate there was, took place in the general context of transition politics, and there is considerable disparity between civilian rule and democratic rule. We can glean what democracy means to different segments of the Nigerian populace, however, through their involvement in, or reactions to, official processes of transition to civil rule under successive military regimes. For example, transition programmes have provided avenues for political involvement in official processes, such as the ‘political debate’ initiated by the Political Bureau in 1986 under the Babangida regime, as well as the discussions in the Constituent Assembly of 1988/9 and the Constitutional Conference of 1994-96, respectively, under the Babangida and Abacha regimes. Then there is the involvement of the political class in the various aspects of and stages in the regimes transition programmes. From the dynamics of interactions of civil society groups in the context of the regimes’ coordinated political processes and transition programmes, we can appreciate how different groups have conceptualized and articulated their own views and expectations about democracy in Nigeria. Concepts of democracy are basically affected, shaped and conditioned by interests. As group (and for that matter, individual) interests differ, so do concepts of democracy. Hence democracy can be, indeed has been, perceived as a process for liberation; it has also been seen, paradoxically, as an instrument for domination. Professions of democracy do not necessarily result in democratic struggles; if they do, they do not necessarily result in a genuinely popular democratic outcome.

91 The Nigerian democratization process is a military conditioned, controlled and directed project, more a function of the ‘contagion’ effect of global and African processes and Euro-American ‘conditionality’ than a product of popular ‘consent’ with internalized democratic norms and value-orientations. But, while militarization has posed a big obstacle to the institutionalization of democracy, it has also profoundly affected conceptions of democracy. In other words, although this military-controlled process has constrained the potentiality for a credible national democratic project, it has also, paradoxically, placed popular notions of democracy seeking to end the powers of monopolies and hegemonic forces firmly on the agenda of democratic struggles.

92 Democracy, for the oppressed and suffering Nigerians and as projected by the struggles of the pro-democracy and other popularly based groups, is about survival and coping under intense deprivations caused by economic crisis and the mismanagement of state affairs. People want to improve their living conditions, they want to get rid of governments perceived to be a threat to their lives. Thus, as one activist noted, ‘they look up to democracy for a better deal’, for ‘economic development, social equality, political participation; end to poverty and corruption’. 63

93 The implication of the unfolding events in the democratization process in Nigeria is that those genuinely concerned with aiding the process ought to take into account the emergent popular conceptions of democracy which are increasingly being articulated and projected in the daily struggles of the prodemocracy movement, professional groups and other popular organizations of the civil society. The success of any attempt at democratization cannot be hinged on the restrictive and discredited notions still being pushed by the political class and the military. A longer term view should be taken through the active encouragement of the actualization of these popular notions. Similarly, pressure should be brought to bear on the military and the political class to come to terms with, and allow the unfettered expression of the emergent contending popular democratic conceptions, representations and expectations.

94 A better future for Nigeria may well depend on the nurturing of ‘people-driven’ concepts of democracy and the institutionalization of a genuine democratization process. There has to be a fundamental shift from the prevailing situation in the dynamic of democratic struggles in Nigeria, as described in the preceding analysis, if the vicious circle of ‘permanent transition’ under military rule is to be terminated. To bring about this, Nigeria’s democratic forces, both credible persons and groups, would have to channel their energies in the construction of what can be termed as a Broad Coalition for Democracy (BCD). This should be a formation comprising all genuinely committed democrats united by a common, even if minimum, agenda of ending military rule and laying the concrete foundation for a good, accountable, responsive and responsible democratic mode of governance. In other words, the prevailing situation, graphically illustrated in diagram A, would have to give way to the desirable outcome, as in diagram B, for any fundamental change which can enable Nigerians to break away from the grip of authoritarian military rule and speedily move on to the path of credible civilian democratic governance to occur.

Bibliographie

Abacha, S. Interview in Leaders , a US Magazine, as quoted in West Africa (5-11 January 1996).

Abdullah, H. Transition Politics and the Challenge of Gender in Nigeria, ROAPE (no. 56, 1993).

ABPDG (Abuja-Based Pro-Democracy Groups). Communique of the Meeting Held on February 8th, published in COMMUNITY (vol.1, no.1, 1996).

Alarape, N. The Nigerian Woman. Dawn of a New Era: The Better Life Program of Mary am Babangida. (Jeemson International Ltd, Ibadan, 1992).

Ake, C. Democracy and Development in Africa. (Brookings Institute, Washington D.C., 1996).

Anyakora, G. 1995. Interview at the NUJ Secretariat, Garki, Abuja, (7 April 1995).

ASUU. Communique of the ASUU National Seminar on the Political Debate, held in Kano, (27-28 March 1986).

ASUU. The Way Forward: ASUU’s Position on the Current political Crisis Arising from the Nullification of the June 12 1993 Election (Press release, 27 September 1993).

Ayoade, J.A. et al., eds. Women and Politics in Nigeria. (Malthouse, Lagos, 1992).

Bagu, C. Democratization process in Africa and the role of the trade unions: The Nigerian experience. Paper presented at the NLC/OATUU/ILO Workshop on Human Resource Development and Capacity Building, in Sokoto and Calabar (23-26 August and 5-8 September 1995).

Bangura, Y. Structural adjustment program and the political question. Paper presented at the Nigerian Political Science Association Conference, (University of Lagos, 27 August 1986).

Barrett, L. Caught in the web. West Africa (13-19 July 1994).

Beckman, B. and A. Jega. Scholars and democratic politics in Nigeria. ROAPE (no. 64, 1995).

Beckman, B. Whose democracy? Bourgeois versus popular democracy in Africa. ROAPE (nos.45/46, 1989).

CAPP. COMMUNITY. Quarterly Journal of Community Action For Popular Participation (vol.1, no. 1, April-June 1996).

Chazan, N. Between liberalism and statism: African political cultures and democracy. In: Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries. L. Diamond, ed. (Lynne Rienner, Boulder, 1993).

CLO et al. Text of the communique issued at the end of the All-Nigeria Summit on Human Rights and Pro-democracy, (Jos, 13 January, 1996).

Democratic Alternative (DA). The Nigerian Crisis: The way forward. Position of the Democratic Alternative (DA) submitted to the United Nations Fact Finding Team to Nigeria. (Kano, 7 April 1996).

Diamond, L. Class, Ethnicity and Democracy in Nigeria: The Failure of the First Republic. (Macmillan, London and Basingstoke, 1988).

Diamond, L., ed. Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries. (Lynne Rienner, Boulder, 1993).

Eleazu, A.O. Averting the impending doom. African Concord, special edition (October 1993).

Ezeazu, E. 1996. Confusion in the community. COMMUNITY (vol. 1, no. 1, 1996).

Fatton, R., Jr. 1995. Africa in the age of democratization: The civic limitations of civil society. African Studies Review (vol. 38, no. 2, September 1995).

Forrest, T. Politics and Economic Development in Nigeria. (Westview Press, Boulder, 1993).

Garuba, H. Drama, democracy and the discourse of apartheid. In: Understanding Democracy. (Bookcraft, Ibadan, 1992).

Graf, W.D. The Nigerian State: Political economy, state, class and political system in Nigeria. (Heinemann, London, 1988).

Ibrahim, J. The political debate and the struggle for democracy in Nigeria. ROAPE (no. 37, 1986).

Ibrahim, J. The state, accumulation and democratic forces in Nigeria. Paper to AKUT conference (Uppsala, 1989).

Ibrahim, J. Religion and political turbulence in Nigeria. Journal of Modern African Studies (vol. 29, no.1, 1991).

Ihonvbere, J. and 0. Vaughan, eds. Democracy and civil society: The Nigerian transition program, 1985-1993. In: Democracy and Political Change in Sub-Saharan Africa. J.A. Wiseman, ed. (Routledge, London, 1995).

Jakande, L. The military is on the right track. TELL (15 April 1996).

Jega, A. Intellectuals and academics in the struggle for democracy in Nigeria. In: Expanding the Nigerian Democratic Space. J. Ibrahim, ed. (CODESRIA, Dakar, 1993).

Jega, A. Professional associations and structural adjustment. In: The Politics of Structural Adjustment in Nigeria. A. Olukoshi, ed. (James Currey, London and Heinemann, Ibadan, 1993).

Jega, A. Nigerian Academics Under Military Rule. (Department of Political Science, University of Stockholm, Stockholm, 1994).

Jega, A. The military and democratization in Nigeria. Paper presented at a conference on Dilemmas of Democratization in Nigeria, University of Wisconsin, Madison, (10-12 November 1995).

Jega, A. Islam and democratization. Notes for discussion at the Comparative Democratization Seminar, Nuffield College, Oxford (7 May 1996).

Joseph, R. Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria: The rise and fall of the Second Republic. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987).

Joseph, R. The dismal tunnel: From prebendal republic to rogue state in Nigeria Paper presented at the Conference on the Dilemmas of Democracy in Nigeria. University of Wisconsin, Madison, (10-12 November 1995).

Lewis, P. 1996. From Prebendalism to Sultanism: The political economy of decline in Nigeria. Paper presented at the Conference on the Dilemmas of Democracy in Nigeria, University of Wisconsin, Madison, (10-12 November 1996).

Maduekwe, O. A nation on the brink. African Concord Special edition (October 1993).

Mama, A. Feminism or femocracy? State feminism and democratization in Nigeria. Africa Development (vol. 20, no.1, 1995).

Mamdani, M. A critique of the state and civil society paradigm in Africanist studies. In: African Studies in Social Movements and Democracy. M. Mamdani and E. Wamba-dia-Wamba, eds. (CODESRIA, Dakar, 1995).

Marshall, R. Power in the name of Jesus. ROAPE (no. 52, 1991).

Marshall, R. Power in the name of Jesus: Social transformation and pentecostalism in Western Nigeria ‘revisited’. In: Legitimacy and the State in Twentieth Century Africa. T. Ranger and O. Vaughan, eds. (St. Anthony’s/Macmillan Series, Oxford, 1993).

Marshall, R. God is not a democrat: Pentecostalism and democratization in Nigeria In: The Christian Churches and Democratization in Africa. P. Gifford, ed. (Leiden, Brill, 1995).

NADECO. Our mission. Nigeria Liberation (vol.1, no. 1, February 1996).

Olashore, Oladele. What democracy for Africa? African Concord (14 March 1994).

Othman, S. and G. Williams. Politics, Power and Democracy. (Oxford, 1996).

Oyediran, O. Intellectuals, higher education and democracy in Nigeria: Which way? In: Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries. L. Diamond, ed. (Lynne Rienner, Boulder, 1993): 221-243.

Shettima, A. et al. eds. Women in the Transition to Democracy in Nigerian Politics. (Women in Nigeria, Kano, 1993).

Shettima, K.A. Engendering Nigeria’s Third Republic. African Studies Review (vol. 38, no. 3, December 1995).

Smith, B.C. Understanding Third World Politics. (Macmillan, London, 1996).

Soyinka, W. Power and the democratic ethos. In: Understanding Democracy: Proceedings of a Conference. A. Fasoro, D. Haastrup and F. Otubanjo, eds. (Bookcraft, Ibadan, 1992).

Valenzuala, J.S. abor movements in transitions to democracy: A framework for analysis. Comparative Politics (vol. 21, no.4, July 1989).

Ya’u, Y.Z. Personal communication, in response to inquiries. (5 August 1996).

Notes de bas de page

1 see R. Joseph, Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria. The rise and fall of the Second Republic. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987); idem., The dismal tunnel to rogue state in Nigeria, paper presented at conference on Dilemmas of Democracy in Nigeria, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1995; P. Lewis, From Prebendalism to sultanism. The political economy decline in Nigeria, Dilemmas of Democracy in Nigeria 1995; L. Diamond, Class, Ethnicity and Democracy in Nigeria. The failure of the First Republic. (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1988); J. Ibrahim, The political debate and struggle for democracy in Nigeria. ROAPE (no. 37, 1986): 38-49; idem, The state, accumulation and democratic forces in Nigeria AKUT conference, Uppsala, 1989; Y. Bangura, Structural adjustment programme and the political question, conf. Nigerian Political Science Association, University of Lagos, 27 August, 1986; W. D. Graf, The Nigerian State. Political economy, state, class and political systems in Nigeria(London: Heinemann, 1998).

2 M. Mamdani, A critique of the state and civil society paradigm in Africanist studies. In: African Studies in Social Movements and Democracy, M. Mamdani and E. Wamba-dia-Wamba, eds. (Dakar: CODESRIA, 1995): 612.

3 R. Fatton Jr., Africa in the age of democratization. The civic limitations of civil society. African Studies Review (vol. 38, no. 2, September 1995): 77.

4 L. Diamond, ed., Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries. (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1993): 7-8.

5 N. Chazan, Between liberalism and statism. African political cultures and democracy. In: Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries. (Boulder Lynne Rienner, 1993): 68.

6 ibid., 63.

7 C. Ake, Democracy and Development in Africa. (Washington D.C.: Brookings Institute, 1996): 139.

8 H. Garuba, Drama democracy and the discourse of apartheid. In: Understanding Democracy, Fasoro et al., eds. (Ibadan: Bookcraft, 1992): 64-73.

9 O. Maduekwe, A nation on the brink. African Concord – Special Edition, (October 1993): 21.

10 Mamdani, 1995, 11.

11 S. Othman and G. Williams, Politics, power and democracy. Oxford, (mimeo) 1996, 4.

12 Joseph, 1987, 53.

13 West Africa (19-25 June 1995): 960.

14 L. Jakande, The military is on the right track. Tell (15 April 1996): 17.

15 T. Forrest, Politics and the Economic Development in Nigeria. (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1993).

16 African Concord (1 March 1993): 4.

17 O. Olashore, What democracy for Africa? African Concord (14 March 1994): 8-9.

18 W. Soyinka, Power and the democratic ethos. In: Understanding Democracy. A. Fasoro, D. Haastrup, F. Otubanjo, eds. (Ibadan: Bookcraft, 1992): 5.

19 R. Marshall, Power in the name of Jesus. ROAPE(no. 52, 1991): 21-37; idem, God is not a democrat. Pentecostalism and democratization in Nigeria. In: The Christian Churches and Democratization in Africa. P. Gifford, ed. (Leiden: Brill, 1995); J. Ibrahim, 1989.

20 Marshall, 1991.

21 R. Marshall, Power in the name of Jesus. Social transformation and pentecostalism in western Nigeria revisited. In: Legitimacy and the State in Twentieth Century Africa. T. Ranger and O. Vaughan, eds. (Oxford: St. Anthony’s Macmillan Series, 1995): 215-216.

22 A. Jega, Islam and democratization, notes for discussion at the comparative democratization seminar, Nuffield College, Oxford (7 May 1996).

23 West Africa (30 June - 5 July 1993): 960.

24 West Africa (11-17 Sept. 1995): 1426.

25 West Africa (23 Sept. 1995): 1626.

26 Sultan of Sokoto, 1993, 14-15.

27 West Africa (7-13 March 1994): 402.

28 Ihonvbere and Vaughan, 1995, 71.

29 Gibbon et al., 1992,30.

30 Barrett, 1994, 1033.

31 NADECO, 1996, 2.

32 CLO, 1996, 1.

33 Abuja-Based Pro-Democracy Groups (ABPDG), 1996.

34 CLO, 1996, 1.

35 Democratic Alternative (DA), 19969, 5.

36 ibid., 8.

37 Ya'u, 1996.

38 CAPP, 1996.

39 Abuja-Based Pro-Democracy Groups (ABPDG), 1996.

40 Jega, 1993.

41 Anyakora, 1995.

43 West Africa (6-12 December 1993): 2209.

44 Oyediran, 1993, 228.

45 Jega, 1992.

46 ASUU, 1986.

47 ASUU, 1993, 4.

48 ASUU, 1993, 7-8

49 see Jega, 1994, Beckman and Jega, 1995.

50 Shettima, 1995, 61-68.

51 ibid., 67-8.

52 Abdallah, 1991; Mama, 1995.

53 Ayoade et al., 1992; Alarape, 1992.

54 Valenzuela, 1989, p. 447.

55 Enahoro, quoted in Bagu, 1995.

56 Ejiofor, 8.

57 Eleazu, 1994, 18-20.

58 Ake, 1996, 137-9; Beckman, 1989.

59 Soyinka, 1991, 6.

60 Smith, 1996, 338.

61 Diamond, 1993, 2-3.

62 Jega, 1995.

63 Bagu, 1995.

Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Licence OpenEdition Books . Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.

The Frontier States of Western Yorubaland

State Formation and Political Growth in an Ethnic Frontier Zone

Biodun Adediran

A Dangerous Awakening

The Politicization of Religion in Nigeria

Iheanyi M. Enwerem

Gated Neighbourhoods and privatisation of urban security in Ibadan Metropolis

Oluseyi Fabiyi

The Architecture of Fear

Urban Design and Construction Response to Urban Violence in Lagos, Nigeria

Tunde Agbola

Fela and the Imagined Continent

Sola Olorunyomi

Urban Research in Nigeria

Adepoju Onibokun et Adetoye Faniran

The Domestic and International Politics of Democratization

‘Kunle Amuwo, Daniel C. Bach et Yann Lebeau (dir.)

Informal Channels for Conflict Resolution in Ibadan, Nigeria

Isaac Olawale Albert, Tinu Awe, Georges Hérault et al.

Community Vigilantes in Metropolitan Kano 1985-2005

Rasheed Olaniyi

Ethnic Minority Conflicts and Governance in Nigeria

Rotimi T. Suberu

Urban Violence in Africa

Pilot Studies (South Africa, Côte-d’Ivoire, Nigeria)

Eghosa E. Osaghae, Ismaila Touré, N’Guessan Kouamé et al.

IFRA Special Research Issue Vol. 1

Accès ouvert tout format

PDF du chapitre

Ce livre est cité par

• Okocha, Desmond Onyemechi. Akpe, Samuel. (2023) Advances in Religious and Cultural Studies Handbook of Research on Deconstructing Culture and Communication in the Global South . DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-8093-9.ch001
• Stanislas, Perry. Iyah, Iyah. (2016) Religion, Faith and Crime . DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-45620-5_15
• Okunola, Olasunkanmi Habeeb. Simatele, Mulala Danny. Olowoporoku, Oluwaseun. (2022) The influence of socioeconomic factors on individual and household adaptation strategies to climate change risks in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences , 19. DOI: 10.1080/1943815X.2022.2143821
• Ekanade, Olumide. Odoemene, Akachi. (2012) Challenges of democracy and the (de)memorialisation of the June 12, 1993 elections in Nigeria. International Journal of African Renaissance Studies - Multi-, Inter- and Transdisciplinarity , 7. DOI: 10.1080/18186874.2012.699929
• Taiwo, Amos Oluwole. Agbabiaka, Hafeez Idowu. Adeyeni, Gideon Oluwaseyi. Dada, Olanrewaju Timothy. (2019) Able-bodied beggars on the street: perceived determinants of their prevalence and their targeted land uses in Ibadan metropolis, Nigeria. Environmental & Socio-economic Studies , 7. DOI: 10.2478/environ-2019-0009
• Eze, Ogemdi Uchenna. (2021) From 29 May to 12 June: Journalistic Framing of Change in the Date of the Commemoration of Democracy Day in Nigeria. Critical Arts , 35. DOI: 10.1080/02560046.2021.1956556

Ce chapitre est cité par

• Mayer, Adam. (2021) Naija, the missing spectacle: guidebooks on Nigeria in the neoliberal era. African Identities . DOI: 10.1080/14725843.2021.2008303

Merci, nous transmettrons rapidement votre demande à votre bibliothèque.

Vérifiez si votre bibliothèque a déjà acquis ce livre : authentifiez-vous à OpenEdition Freemium for Books . Vous pouvez suggérer à votre bibliothèque d’acquérir un ou plusieurs livres publiés sur OpenEdition Books. N’hésitez pas à lui indiquer nos coordonnées : access[at]openedition.org Vous pouvez également nous indiquer, à l’aide du formulaire suivant, les coordonnées de votre bibliothèque afin que nous la contactions pour lui suggérer l’achat de ce livre. Les champs suivis de (*) sont obligatoires.

Veuillez, s’il vous plaît, remplir tous les champs.

La syntaxe de l’email est incorrecte.

Le captcha ne correspond pas au texte.

Si vous avez des questions, vous pouvez nous écrire à access[at]openedition.org

Référence numérique du chapitre

Référence numérique du livre

👉 Relocate to Canada Today!

Live, study and work in canada. no payment is required hurry now click here to apply >> immigrate to canada, democracy in nigeria; overview, brief history, problems, prospects, democracy in nigeria.

Nigeria, as a country is developing and there are quite a number of things that needed to be improved. Nigeria needs changes in the areas of political, and economic, as well as, social development.

Someone talked about the history of democracy in Nigeria, and for me, history is not yet over. And l think Nigerians should recollect the origin of democracy in Nigeria.

Of course, we should know that no one country is perfect. Quite a number of countries are still in the process of learning how to tolerate, and also stay out of corruption, as well as choose the right leaders to run the government and plan for the future of Nigeria.

Read Also:  Group tasks politicians on sustenance of democratic process

The task at hand, however, is not an easy task. To be a republic is never a joke. Nevertheless, someone may ask, when did the country, Nigeria actually blame a republic? You may wish to read a brief history of democracy in Nigeria below.

Brief History of Democracy

The term in old Greek means a rule of the people. The modern type of democracy we are practicing today was developed far back in the 19th and 20th centuries.

A country becoming a democracy has been the latest trend right from the 70s. That is why many nations of the world are today, sharing the values of democracy, and Nigeria, as a country is not an exception.

Read Also:  The Role of Citizenship Education in Improving Democratic System of Government in Nigeria

When Nigeria Became A Republic

Nigeria actually celebrates May 29th as the official Democracy Day. But democracy in Nigeria began in the year, 1960. It was on October 1, of that year, when Nigeria was officially announced as a country that gained independence from Great Britain. And if l may say, there is a long history, however, of various government that were former in

Nigeria since when Nigeria gained its independence in 1960, and if you will not mind, l will love to mention some of the major stages and some dates as democracy develops in Nigeria.

Brief History of Democracy in Nigeria

After Nigeria gained independence in 1960, the country was ranked as the citizens of the 4th biggest democratic country the world over. Nigeria, however, had experienced the first military coup in the year, 1966, while its civil war actually broke out in the year, 1967, and lasted up till 1970.

Nevertheless, there was the possibility of restoring democracy for a couple of years in 1978, and that period was not a long period, it only lasted shortly and then, was over in 1983.

Nigeria, in a considerable year throughout its ‘young’ history, was characterized with military coups. Some Nigerian rulers, who were on the seat of power, had promised to return Nigeria to democracy, but, only General Abdulsalami Abubakar who assumed power after Sani Abacha death actually kept that promised, and Nigeria’s modern democracy and its Constitution officially Kick-started in 1999.

The elections conducted in 1999 were successful elections, which had put to a stop the military rule Nigeria. The new democratically elected President Olusegun Obasanjo then had put the end to military regimes in this country, and after that year till date, Nigeria is always transiting democratically from one government to another in the last 30 years.

And today, Nigeria’s democracy is celebrated on a yearly basis. Although, there are some political hurdles that Nigeria needs to overcome.

Nevertheless, the country has dreamt about a country that is prosperous with a better economy, and improved standard of living and also the security of lives and properties.

Read Also:  Money Politics in Nigeria and its effects on our brand of democracy

Problems of Democracy

The problems of democracy in Nigeria are discussed below:

1. Socio-politically Inequality

Social and economic and political inequality in Nigerian democracy is one permanent feature, and you will that there are some set of persons, who have access to power, while others do not.

Social injustice has become an issue in Nigerian democracy. One can imagine the level of marginalization of ethnic minorities in the country, and another one, the religious manipulation for political gain, and all of these come from what is called the indigene-settler dichotomy.

2. Corruption

There is uncontrollable corruption at where politics is played in Nigeria, and both the government bureaucracy and their public officials are unimaginably corrupt.

Corruption has now become a culture in Nigeria, people are now accepting it as a way of life in the country, and one wonders why there is that deep mistrust on the part of Nigerian public for those who governed them.

3. Godfatherism

This is a problem in Nigerian democracy. How do you imagine some influential citizens of Nigeria trading on electoral positions, as if these are their private properties and/or their entitlements, and you wonder why those chosen by their political godfather for electoral position will not misrepresent their constituents who voted them into office, by pursuing their personal interest and those of their political sponsors.

Read Also:  The role of the Church in Politics, Democracy and Governance in Nigeria

Prospects of Democracy

Below are some of the prospects of nigerian democracy:, 1. equality before the law.

Democracy preaches equality before the law, and that simply means every that every Nigerian, irrespective of his tribe or political geographical zone, is the same in the eye of the law.

Every person is treated fairly, no nepotism, no political connection, no favourism, everyone is treated equally. This is a noble idea when we talk about democracy.

2. Promotion Of Transition Of Government

There is changing from one democratic government to another without violence and crisis, while citizens are being provided with a sense of political participation, even when power is being changed from one political party to a different political party.

And in a situation such as this, the ruling political party is prevented from being more powerful, but making its citizens have a fair share of good governance

3. Prevention Of Monopoly Of Authority

The truth remained that, every government has an election term, and here political parties are competing to gain or regain power and authority. In a situation as such, democracy actually prevents a monopoly of the ruling authority over the other. The ruling party is at this point expected to work for the people otherwise, they will not be re-elected.

Read Also:  9 Ways to Improve Nigerian Democracy

📢 We are hiring writers!

Copyright warning.

Joseph Athanasius

Most popular int’l ngos in nigeria; activities, address, the role of technology in education and training in nigeria, related articles.

List Of Past President Of Nigeria Labour Congress and their Achievements

Structure Of Nigeria Labour Congress

Functions of Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON)

10 problems facing high court in nigeria and possible solutions, leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

It looks like you're using an ad blocker!

• EssayBasics.com
• Pay For Essay
• Write My Essay
• Homework Writing Help
• Essay Editing Service
• Thesis Writing Help
• Write My College Essay
• Do My Essay
• Term Paper Writing Service
• Coursework Writing Service
• Write My Research Paper
• Assignment Writing Help
• Essay Writing Help
• Call Now! (USA) Login Order now
• EssayBasics.com Call Now! (USA) Order now
• Writing Guides

How to write Essay About Democracy in Nigeria?

College and university students are often given controversial assignments that are far from easy to accomplish. One of these assignments can be writing a basic essay about democracy in Nigeria. Actually, writing a paper on controversial “bright” topics is not an easy task because there are numerous aspects and facts to explore. At the same time, it is easy to get lost in the information details and focusing on primary facts will help you to accomplish your writing assignment. Otherwise, look for additional help and follow essay basics writing steps that we will gladly offer you to you. We have gathered a team of writers who will write a professional essay for you that will serve you as an example of what your essay should look like in the first place

Table of Contents

Writing an Essay About Democracy in Nigeria

It is a common knowledge if you want to solve a problem, first you should identify it. After analyzing the problem and studying all aspects of it, it is necessary to provide appropriate recommendations and possible solutions to the problem. When you write basic essay about democracy in Nigeria, you should take the same approach. Without identifying a problem, there will be no solutions to look for. The main aim of essay about democracy in Nigeria is to examine problems of democracy establishment in this country since 1960 when Nigeria became an independent country from Britain.

We can write Your Essay for You! 

Possible topics to discus in your Essay about Democracy in Nigeria

• The Dilemma.
• Democracy, Government and Freedom.
• Review Democracy in Action.
• Democracy: Virtual Representation.
• The People and the Democracy in Nigeria.
• Democracy Model in Nigeria.
• Democracy and its influence on Economy of Nigeria.
• Getting to know the Democracy in Nigeria.
• The Press and the Democracy in Nigeria.

There is a widespread opinion that the main problem of Nigerian democracy is absence of real charismatic leaders, who can efficiently manage human resources of this country. Mismanagement of the God-given resources in Nigeria resulted in massive unemployment and high level of poverty in the country. Consequently, it led to never-ending tension among people, lack of patriotic feelings and ongoing vandalizing. Political and economic instability influence all the aspects of human well-being in the most negative way.

The essay about democracy in Nigeria aims to find the reasons of democratic problems in the country, providing solutions for already existing problems and preventing prospective threats in the future.

The Reasons of Nigerian Problems with Democracy

• Nigerian people do not want to learn from their own history, leading to the repeating of the same problems year after year.
• Failure of country leaders and their inefficiency in ruling of the country.
• Complexity and heterogeneity of Nigerian population.
• Existence of several hundreds of mutually unintelligible languages, spoken in the country, provoking misunderstanding among people and government in general.

How to improve situation with democracy in Nigeria?

• Leadership is a key factor in the development of Nigerian democracy and society in general.
• Strong leader who will govern the country should be the center of social, economic and political life of Nigeria.
• If one compares democracy in Nigeria with a ship, the country leader is the captain. Captain’s determination, commitment and skills bring success to the voyage. The country leader as a ship’s captain should have commitment to result, self-discipline, strong faith and in the success of all his deeds.
• Nigerian leader should have courage to take risks, to make challenging decisions that will lead to the development and growth of the country’s economy.

What is worth mentioning in your Essay about Democracy?

• One more thing that is obligatory for the development of the country is the belief in democracy. Belief of every society member into success of the country is simply crucial. Even the smallest child should understand that his hands create success of the country. Every person should strive for creation of a better future for his society. Every person should strive for the development of the democracy because democracy supports freedom. Democracy provides equality in high esteem. And these are factors worth to fight for, factors that can be the life goal for people, especially living in Nigeria.

How Can We Help?

If you find yourself struggling with writing a competitive essay about democracy in Nigeria, we believe you can trust your basics writing assignments to our team of professional writers. Having a wide experience in variety of paper writing assignments from students around the globe, we will gladly help you with your assignments as well.

Nigeria Democracy Research Paper

The belief is that the only true democracy existed in Ancient Greece in the system of city and state, where citizens had direct communication with each other and their public officials ran the government with very little impact and almost no corruption. While this is well known in the historical aspect, today we see countries that have a very successful government that operate on a mixture of types of government. However, the ideal democracy is a form an equal government that everyone should operate on, no matter rich, poor, educated or oblivious you are. Everyone shall have the right to vote and be allowed to give their opinion on decisions that are made, including protection under those laws provided by their constitution. There are some similarities in governments that contribute to a successful democracy such as those of Japan, Sweden, and Australia, which were discussed previously in the course. In this paper I will discuss Nigeria’s democracy issues, the standard democracies, ideal governments, and how mixing direct democracy with some of the various governments can ultimately lead to what we all want which is “Power to the People”. Nigeria’s issues Nigeria was my country of choice; however, their government is suffering and is in dire need of an overhaul. Nigeria has a Constitutional Republic and does do some things right. For example, Democratic Development project, which is a project that is managed by United

Democracy In The American Democracy

From the early 1840s to the present day, a democracy can be described as a flawed establishment which has been shaped by the power of wealth and control, complex social relations, and most importantly the people’s desire to live a fulfilling life. Throughout this time period the principles of democracy, such as equality, protection of the people’s interest, and promotion of human rights were shifting in order to increase the democracy efficiency. Therefore the continued importance of the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and Constitution remain significant since, in American today, democracy is a system that is continuously being shaped by the people within it.

The Negative Effects of Imperialism in Nigeria (it's possible to go into more detail, but my pages were limited to this many)

Two futures for Africa are possible-one with a democratic and stable Nigeria, and one with a Nigeria stricken by autocratic rule, corruption, and intermittent coups. An entire continent awaits the result of the Nigerian experiment with democracy. Nigeria has the resources and can provide leadership to foster greater regional and international cooperation, leadership that many of Nigeria's neighbors need. A successful Nigerian democracy would provide hope for many of Africa's other burgeoning democracies.

The United States As A Democracy

The United States is usually recognized as a liberal and ideal place to live by most people and countries because of their development of their single most powerful form of government, democracy. The very citizens of the United States believe that it is in their hands to influence all order and management of their beloved and praised country, however, the realism in this system has been blinded by their own people. The United States, though it may seem like a democracy because it emphasizes delegating popular sovereignty, is in no shape or form an absolute democracy where it gives the power to the people to make the decisions or influence law. The contribution of the people is in fact effective and needed, but it is not the citizens who

Democracy In The United States

The United States has an unstable democratic standing. What has happened in the United State shows the US not fully democratic. Issues that the US had been unfair treatment of people who aren’t white, voting rights not being given, and relocation towards a certain race, which has done nothing wrong. People also faced issues that couldn’t be avoided with rights. The United States is not democratic as everyone thinks. Equality and voting rights are something for all and within our amendment. Imprisonment or relocation of a race that has done nothing wrong. Americans also were faced the government for something that many didn’t wish for. The US has to change to be a better place for all.

Many people believe that democracy did not exist during the first few decades of U.S. history. I agree to this. Democracy, the word Democracy has been characterized in different routes by numerous individuals everywhere throughout the nation. This word has suggested different things during the time as things changed all through the United States. People in the past had alternate points of view on Democracy in light of the way that life in those days was altogether different than it is today. Individuals now fully understand that they truly have a voice and an opportunity to battle and vote in favor of what they put in. The word democracy is actually from the Greek words of “demos”, meaning to people and “Kratos”, meaning power. The Greeks actually

By The People Becoming A Practitioner Of Democracy Summary

INTRODUCTION The chapter By the People: Becoming a Practitioner of Democracy by Kenneth Winston discusses the quest of staying true to personal beliefs while establishing a career and achieving goals. Winston addresses the story of Aruna Roy’s career path and quest for equality in India. Roy has a strong passion for human rights in India, and she sought to raise the voices of the rural poor. Roy stopped at nothing to ensure that her morals, ethics and beliefs were not sacrificed in the name of a job security or the safety of an organization’s reputation. As a result, we see in this chapter, Roy’s ‘non-linear’ career path that includes changes in organizations and living situations.

The United States has been around for hundreds of years. When the United States was found, there were groups that kind of stuck together and made their own rules. Later down the road, these “groups” formed into larger groups and led themselves. They were known as colonists. They came to the U.S. in search of freedom and sure enough, they got it. Then they became known as citizens because they were already residents.

Democracy in America

We live in this country for the land, and the for the free as Americans we rely on many attributes in this world in order for us to live our lives. Our government has supplied us with many great things for us to be proud of. Our government is “the institutions and processes though which public policies are made for society.” (Edwards, Wattenberg, and Lineberry, p. 7). With all these institutions which includes the President, Congress, the courts and all the federal administrative agencies. These are the institutions that make up public policies for us, and to shape the way we live as Americans. The way this system has been operating through all the years has been

The Republic Of Niger, A Poor, Landlocked Country Essay

The Republic of Niger, a poor, landlocked country, located in the heart of Sub-Saharan West Africa. Niger has seen its fair share of change throughout the decades; moving away from the control of the French Parliament in 1960, Niger formally declared its independence. Despite this bold act of independence, Niger would not see its first steps towards democracy until the early 1990’s, when they held their first open election as a free state. However, even with the empowerment of the people in a democratic government, Niger has seen itself nearly torn apart as a result constant coups, that have occurred as recently as 2010. Such instability has led to incredulous amounts of corruption and poverty, within the Niger government. This lack of stability and constant turnover in government, has been a driving factor behind the lack of resources available for education in Niger.

Accurately defined, a democracy is a form of government in which the people decide policy matters directly through town hall meetings or by voting on ballot initiatives and referendums. A republic, however, is a system in which the people choose representatives who, in turn, make policy decisions on their behalf. So, when the question is posed “how democratic is the United States” it becomes hard to answer with so many other factors that you must include. For example, having an Electoral College voting system is not democratic due to the fact that not every voice is heard and or counted. Another problem is that when the founders considered various forms of government they were extremely fearful of pure democracy. Everything they read and studied

Democracy: The United States As A Form Of Democracy

The United States is known as a democracy. Here, we have a system of government where the power lies with the people. This power is displayed by voting in elections, speaking freely, and participating as legal equals in social life. The basis for democracies is to thrive on freedom. With that being said, on the other hand of the spectrum dictatorships tend to thrive on oppression.

"Democracy" come to mean a type of government in which the government gets its energy from the individuals and is responsible to them for the utilization of that power. In this sense the United States may precisely be known as a popular government. On the other hand, there are samples of "pure democracy" at work in the United States today that would most likely inconvenience the Framers of the Constitution on the off chance that they were still alive to see them. Numerous states take into consideration approach inquiries to be chosen straightforwardly by the individuals by voting on ticket activities or choices.

Democracy And The Liberal Democracy

Democracy varies in every country depending on the type of government or regime they have. There is the liberal democracy, which is all about giving people their rights and liberties; everything is done through fair voting and electing. The people are aware of everything that happens in their government. Illiberal democracies are basically the same as liberal, but the people in power are more secretive of their activities, and there is less civil liberty. It is essentially a partial democracy. Now Authoritarian regimes designate any political system that concentrates power in the hands of one leader or a small elite. There are no free elections and very little regard for the law. Political institutions, social structures, and the democratic rule of law all affect liberal, illiberal, and authoritarian regimes democratic quality differently.

Transition to Democracy Essay

• 2 Works Cited

Since the initiation of the Third Wave of Democracy, several countries have attempted to form a democratic system of governs. We take note that not all have succeeded. At the dawn of this era, democracy was being applied to countries with no prior history of a governing body that was place by the people for the people hence success of such a system could not be guaranteed because of the innumerous variables that existed in each country. People being the highlighted factor of variance, it may become easier to understand how countries such as Pakistan and Nigeria, both countries prior to the Wave had no local governing machinery. Pakistan further endured a partition from India which resulted in not only an instant religious and

Democracy: An Analysis Essay

Winston Churchill once remarked that “democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried”. In agreement with his statement, this paper will examine the problems of democratic governments using specific examples, and compare it to the failure of fascist governments in Nazi Germany and Italy and communist governments in the Soviet Union and China.

Related Topics

• Representative democracy

Characteristics Of Democracy In Nigeria

Show More Nigeria is often overlooked, and many people see it as just another African country with an unstable government. When in reality, Nigeria has a democracy, but its journey has been a story of one step forward and two steps back. For many reasons ranging from its history to its political culture, Nigeria’s democracy is unstable and flawed. In order to understand Nigeria’s democracy, one must first know the defining characteristics of democracy. Philippe C. Schmitter and Terry Lynn Karl define democracy as “a system of governance in which rulers are held accountable for their actions in the public realm by citizens, acting indirectly through the competition and cooperation of their elected representatives.” They also emphasize the importance …show more content… Nigeria’s present democracy can not be explained without looking at its former military rule. In Nigeria: Democracy on Trial, Cyril I. Obi reports, “all attempts at democratic transition in Nigeria since its independence in 1960 , have been determined and implemented by the ruling faction of the military.” This has created a new type of politician in Nigeria, who tend to be inexperienced in political departments other than the military (Obi). Nigeria has such a long past of military rule, it will take a long time to change. Until the deep roots of military regimes are forgotten, Nigeria will not have a strong democracy. They will continue to hold the militaristic ideals of complete control of power and resources. However, there are signs of advancement through social forces. Some of these achievements are “the registration of more political parties, more respect for human rights, and the formation of a broad-based opposition alliance” …show more content… When discussing the importance of cross-cutting cleavages, Michael G. Roskin writes, “they are divided of course, but they are divided along several axes, not just one. When these divisions, or cleavages, cut across one another, they actually stabilize political life.” Surprisingly, religion is one of Nigeria’s cross-cutting cleavages (Roskin 442). Even though religion is tightly knit with tribe, not all members of each tribe share the same religion, for example, “not all Nigerian Muslims are Hausa-Fulani of the north; some are Yoruba in the southwest, and others are Ijaw in the Delta” (Roskin 442). Education and occupation are also cross-cutting cleavages. Despite the few cross-cutting cleavages Nigeria has, it is not enough. The lack of them holds Nigeria back in its quest for

Related Documents

Bostonistan case study.

1. Imagine you are a political scientist from India, the U.K., Germany, or Brazil (choose one). You are asked to help the newly democratic country of “Bostonistan” design a new constitution. Bostonistan has a history of conflict among religious groups, which are dispersed throughout the country—not every religious group lives in its own region.…

Influence Of Rousseau On The Utopian Nature Of The General Will

For the researcher shall specifically be concerned about Rousseau theory of the general will, and its relationship with society in terms of good governance and Legitimacy. Extensive concentration would be placed on three primary works of Rousseau which are The Discourse of Inequality, The Social Contract and the Discourse on Political Economy. I will also employ the use of other secondary materials in order to achieve the goals of this paper. 1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This philosophic work attempts to add to the body of knowledge already existing in the Nigerian socio-political space and tries to identify the problems that have bedevilled her since independence, also procuring treatment with the deductions or implications drawn from the concept of General Will of Jean Jacques Rousseau.…

Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa has undergone numerous sociopolitical shifts throughout the last half-century. During the 60's and 70's concentrated waves of decolonization movements emerged in the region. Foreign imposition of will by foreign rule had shaped African society for centuries. Now in the face of modernity, Africans who fought for the right to self-determination, endure a new struggle. Sub-Saharan Africa shares a collective conundrum of possessing natural resource, wealth but lacks the infrastructure to harness its full potential.…

The Four Characteristics Of Democracy

The United States prides itself in running one of the most successful examples of democracy in history. There are four main qualifications for any democracy; fair elections, active citizens in the democratic process, protected rights for all citizens, and the ability to equally enforce laws on all citizens. The United States’ government possesses all of these qualities, however, democracy can not just be measured through these four criteria. The political process and development of the government is a crucial aspect of any successful democracy. There are countless democracies that exist around the world de facto, but in reality they are not developed democracies.…

Imperialism In Nigeria Research Paper

Being the most populous country in Africa it is difficult to prevent a divide in people that have so many different ethnic and religious background. Another big part of Nigeria’s political situation is sadly the attacks by the Islamic State-aligned Boko Haram. (Nigeria Country Profile, 2017) Over the years Boko Haram has made headlines from the thousands of murders and many other crimes targeted at innocent civilians. Nigeria’s current leader is Muhammadu Buhari who was a military leader and now is fighting to stop corruption within the government and further continue the idea of democracy and govern as an civilian leader to help insure stability and Nigeria and attract more foreign…

My family was no exception, we saw everything that was wrong with Nigeria and we, like most Nigerians, choose to focus on leaving the problem instead of fixing it. With no one feeling like the Nigeria’s problems are even worth fixing the problems grow bigger and the people who can help are too busy looking for an escape.…

Robert Dahl On Democracy

In modern thought, democracy is considered as the ideal form of governance; it is a tool to usher in freedom and progress to citizens of a state. While the term “democracy” is used liberally to describe a wide array of governing systems, it is assumed that most “democratic” governments share similar principles that highlight individual freedoms. Robert Dahl, in On Democracy, makes his case for the democratic system. Dahl argues throughout the book that democracy should not just be viewed as desirable; democracy is the most viable governing option for the modern state. Therefore, achieving the highest levels of democratization ought to be the goal of all governments that are considered democracies.…

Nigerian American Culture Analysis

Nigerians are people who are very united with their family especially mother to son. Also, the majority of Nigerians consider themselves true believers in their belief. In the article “Culture of Nigeria” by Tim Curry it explains how Nigeria has constructed it culture by understanding the concept of unique norms between a group of people. Nigeria has developed its culture by understanding the concept of “unity”.…

Unit Two: The Four Theories Of Democracy

Democracy is an ideology that has been in the past and will continue to be analyzed and theorized. The basic ideas of democracy are rooted in the Greek words demos and kratein, and when combined form a definition of, “rule or government by the common people (Ball, Dagger, and O’Neill 18).” Coming into this class, I had an idea of what democracy is however, after completing the readings from Unit Two, my understanding of what a democracy is grew significantly. Theses readings enlarged my previous understanding of democracy in that I now understand the origins of democracy and the different theories that make up what democracy is. The four theories of democracy that I will be discussing in this essay have elements are similar to my beliefs as…

Shmitter And Karl's What Democracy Is, And Is Not?

Phillippe C Schmitter and Terry Lynn Karl’s article What Democracy Is… And Is Not has the main goal of providing a common definition of democracy. They first begin by broadly defining democracy, then discussing the procedures of democracy followed by the two operative principles of democracy (1993, p. 50). Schmitter and Karl note that there are many types of democracy that each produce different effects that are contingent on a particular states socioeconomic conditions, state structures and policy practices (1993, p.50). Democracies depend on rulers who “occupy specialized authority roles and can give legitimate commands to others” (1993.…

Three Forms Of Democracy In The United States

Democracy is what's known as political ideology, or better yet, a system of government, in its most purest form gives the power to the people. More so, the main concept of “modern democracy” is composed of three main parts: democracy, constitutionalism, and liberalism. In order for there to be a true democracy, these three must exist. Typically, democracy is ruled by the people through elections, and other forms of political participation. An in depth explanation of “Democracy” is defined through popular sovereignty.…

Positive Relationship Between Democracy And Democracy

However, much of the response to the question about the relations concerning democracy and development usually depends on how one defines ‘development’. Sen (1999b) sees development as ‘freedom’ – this includes not only the economic freedom but also freedoms…

Violence And Violence In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

There cannot be change without someone fighting to keep things the same. In 1890’s Nigeria some members of the Ibo clan embrace this new change, while others, like the protagonist Okonkwo, sternly believe in the old ways of the clan. This is the setting for Chinua Achebe’s greatest novel, Things Fall Apart. One theme of this book is violence.…

The Igbo People In Nigeria

Many people across the world are not aware of Nigeria, let alone know anything about their religion. Little do people know, that is how the Igbo people in Nigeria started, without a clue. Back in the day, the Igbo people would worship many Gods and knew little about Christianity, but now in modern day Nigeria, many worship one God and one of two religions practiced is Christianity. First, Igbo people in Nigeria, were not 100% converted to Christianity compared to how it is like now.…

British Colonialism In Nigeria Essay

The primary outcome was that Nigeria remained a solitary country with the opposite ethnological groups who still do not get. The military governor of the Igbo-dominated southeast, citing the northern ‘wholesale killing’ and electoral fraud, proclaimed with southern parliament…

Related Topics

• Political corruption

Ready To Get Started?

• Create Flashcards
• Mobile apps
•   Facebook
•   Twitter
• Cookie Settings

Democracy Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on democracy.

Democracy is known as the finest form of government. Why so? Because in a democracy, the people of the country choose their government. They enjoy certain rights which are very essential for any human being to live freely and happily. There are various democratic countries in the world , but India is the largest one. Democracy has withstood the test of time, and while other forms have the government has failed, democracy stood strong. It has time and again proved its importance and impact.

Significance of a Democracy

Democracy is very important for human development . When people have free will to live freely, they will be happier. Moreover, we have seen how other forms of government have turned out to be. Citizens are not that happy and prosperous in a monarchy or anarchy.

Furthermore, democracy lets people have equal rights. This ensures that equality prevails all over the country. Subsequently, it also gives them duties. These duties make them better citizens and are also important for their overall development.

Most importantly, in a democracy, the people form the government. So, this selection of the government by the citizens gives everyone a chance to work for their country. It allows the law to prevail efficiently as the rules are made by people whom they have selected.

In addition, democracy allows people of various religions and cultures to exist peacefully. It makes them live in harmony with one another. People of democracy are more tolerant and accepting of each other’s differences. This is very important for any country to be happy and prosper.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

India: A Democratic Country

India is known to be the largest democracy all over the world. After the rule of the British ended in 1947 , India adopted democracy. In India, all the citizens who are above the age of 18 get the right to vote. It does not discriminate on the basis of caste, creed, gender, color, or more.

Although India is the largest democracy it still has a long way to go. The country faces a lot of problems which do not let it efficiently function as a democracy. The caste system is still prevalent which hampers with the socialist principle of democracy. Moreover, communalism is also on the rise. This interferes with the secular aspect of the country. All these differences need to be set aside to ensure the happiness and prosperity of the citizens.

In short, democracy in India is still better than that in most of the countries. Nonetheless, there is a lot of room for improvement which we must focus on. The government must implement stringent laws to ensure no discrimination takes place. In addition, awareness programs must be held to make citizens aware of their rights and duties.

Customize your course in 30 seconds

Which class are you in.

• Travelling Essay
• Picnic Essay
• Our Country Essay
• My Parents Essay
• Essay on Favourite Personality
• Essay on Memorable Day of My Life
• Essay on Knowledge is Power
• Essay on Gurpurab
• Essay on My Favourite Season
• Essay on Types of Sports

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Download the App

25,000+ students realised their study abroad dream with us. Take the first step today

Here’s your new year gift, one app for all your, study abroad needs, start your journey, track your progress, grow with the community and so much more.

Verification Code

An OTP has been sent to your registered mobile no. Please verify

Thanks for your comment !

Our team will review it before it's shown to our readers.

Essay on Democracy in 100, 300 and 500 Words

• Updated on  
• Jan 15, 2024

The oldest account of democracy can be traced back to 508–507 BCC Athens . Today there are over 50 different types of democracy across the world. But, what is the ideal form of democracy? Why is democracy considered the epitome of freedom and rights around the globe? Let’s explore what self-governance is and how you can write a creative and informative essay on democracy and its significance. 

Today, India is the largest democracy with a population of 1.41 billion and counting. Everyone in India above the age of 18 is given the right to vote and elect their representative. Isn’t it beautiful, when people are given the option to vote for their leader, one that understands their problems and promises to end their miseries? This is just one feature of democracy , for we have a lot of samples for you in the essay on democracy. Stay tuned!

Can you answer these questions in under 5 minutes? Take the Ultimate GK Quiz to find out!

This Blog Includes:

What is democracy , sample essay on democracy (100 words), sample essay on democracy (250 to 300 words), sample essay on democracy for upsc (500 words).

Democracy is a form of government in which the final authority to deliberate and decide the legislation for the country lies with the people, either directly or through representatives. Within a democracy, the method of decision-making, and the demarcation of citizens vary among countries. However, some fundamental principles of democracy include the rule of law, inclusivity, political deliberations, voting via elections , etc. 

Did you know: On 15th August 1947, India became the world’s largest democracy after adopting the Indian Constitution and granting fundamental rights to its citizens?

Must Explore: Human Rights Courses for Students 

Must Explore: NCERT Notes on Separation of Powers in a Democracy

Democracy where people make decisions for the country is the only known form of governance in the world that promises to inculcate principles of equality, liberty and justice. The deliberations and negotiations to form policies and make decisions for the country are the basis on which the government works, with supreme power to people to choose their representatives, delegate the country’s matters and express their dissent. The democratic system is usually of two types, the presidential system, and the parliamentary system. In India, the three pillars of democracy, namely legislature, executive and judiciary, working independently and still interconnected, along with a free press and media provide a structure for a truly functional democracy. Despite the longest-written constitution incorporating values of sovereignty, socialism, secularism etc. India, like other countries, still faces challenges like corruption, bigotry, and oppression of certain communities and thus, struggles to stay true to its democratic ideals.

Did you know: Some of the richest countries in the world are democracies?

Must Read : Consumer Rights in India

Must Read: Democracy and Diversity Class 10

As Abraham Lincoln once said, “democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people.” There is undeniably no doubt that the core of democracies lies in making people the ultimate decision-makers. With time, the simple definition of democracy has evolved to include other principles like equality, political accountability, rights of the citizens and to an extent, values of liberty and justice. Across the globe, representative democracies are widely prevalent, however, there is a major variation in how democracies are practised. The major two types of representative democracy are presidential and parliamentary forms of democracy. Moreover, not all those who present themselves as a democratic republic follow its values.

Many countries have legally deprived some communities of living with dignity and protecting their liberty, or are practising authoritarian rule through majoritarianism or populist leaders. Despite this, one of the things that are central and basic to all is the practice of elections and voting. However, even in such a case, the principles of universal adult franchise and the practice of free and fair elections are theoretically essential but very limited in practice, for a democracy. Unlike several other nations, India is still, at least constitutionally and principally, a practitioner of an ideal democracy.

With our three organs of the government, namely legislative, executive and judiciary, the constitutional rights to citizens, a multiparty system, laws to curb discrimination and spread the virtues of equality, protection to minorities, and a space for people to discuss, debate and dissent, India has shown a commitment towards democratic values. In recent times, with challenges to freedom of speech, rights of minority groups and a conundrum between the protection of diversity and unification of the country, the debate about the preservation of democracy has become vital to public discussion.

Did you know: In countries like Brazil, Scotland, Switzerland, Argentina, and Austria the minimum voting age is 16 years?

Also Read: Difference Between Democracy and Dictatorship

Democracy originated from the Greek word dēmokratiā , with dēmos ‘people’ and Kratos ‘rule.’ For the first time, the term appeared in the 5th century BC to denote the political systems then existing in Greek city-states, notably Classical Athens, to mean “rule of the people.” It now refers to a form of governance where the people have the right to participate in the decision-making of the country. Majorly, it is either a direct democracy where citizens deliberate and make legislation while in a representative democracy, they choose government officials on their behalf, like in a parliamentary or presidential democracy.

The presidential system (like in the USA) has the President as the head of the country and the government, while the parliamentary system (like in the UK and India) has both a Prime Minister who derives its legitimacy from a parliament and even a nominal head like a monarch or a President.

The notions and principle frameworks of democracy have evolved with time. At the core, lies the idea of political discussions and negotiations. In contrast to its alternatives like monarchy, anarchy, oligarchy etc., it is the one with the most liberty to incorporate diversity. The ideas of equality, political representation to all, active public participation, the inclusion of dissent, and most importantly, the authority to the law by all make it an attractive option for citizens to prefer, and countries to follow.

The largest democracy in the world, India with the lengthiest constitution has tried and to an extent, successfully achieved incorporating the framework to be a functional democracy. It is a parliamentary democratic republic where the President is head of the state and the Prime minister is head of the government. It works on the functioning of three bodies, namely legislative, executive, and judiciary. By including the principles of a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic, and undertaking the guidelines to establish equality, liberty and justice, in the preamble itself, India shows true dedication to achieving the ideal.

It has formed a structure that allows people to enjoy their rights, fight against discrimination or any other form of suppression, and protect their rights as well. The ban on all and any form of discrimination, an independent judiciary, governmental accountability to its citizens, freedom of media and press, and secular values are some common values shared by all types of democracies.

Across the world, countries have tried rooting their constitution with the principles of democracy. However, the reality is different. Even though elections are conducted everywhere, mostly, they lack freedom of choice and fairness. Even in the world’s greatest democracies, there are challenges like political instability, suppression of dissent, corruption , and power dynamics polluting the political sphere and making it unjust for the citizens. Despite the consensus on democracy as the best form of government, the journey to achieve true democracy is both painstaking and tiresome. 

Did you know: Countries like Singapore, Peru, and Brazil have compulsory voting?

Must Read: Democracy and Diversity Class 10 Notes

Democracy is a process through which the government of a country is elected by and for the people.

Yes, India is a democratic country and also holds the title of the world’s largest democracy.

Direct and Representative Democracy are the two major types of Democracy.

Related Articles

Hope you learned from our essay on democracy! For more exciting articles related to writing and education, follow Leverage Edu .

Sonal is a creative, enthusiastic writer and editor who has worked extensively for the Study Abroad domain. She splits her time between shooting fun insta reels and learning new tools for content marketing. If she is missing from her desk, you can find her with a group of people cracking silly jokes or petting neighbourhood dogs.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Contact no. *

Very helpful essay

Thanks for your valuable feedback

Thank you so much for informing this much about democracy

Leaving already?

8 Universities with higher ROI than IITs and IIMs

Grab this one-time opportunity to download this ebook

Connect With Us

25,000+ students realised their study abroad dream with us. take the first step today..

Resend OTP in

Need help with?

Study abroad.

UK, Canada, US & More

IELTS, GRE, GMAT & More

Scholarship, Loans & Forex

Country Preference

New Zealand

Which English test are you planning to take?

Which academic test are you planning to take.

Not Sure yet

When are you planning to take the exam?

Already booked my exam slot

Within 2 Months

Want to learn about the test

Which Degree do you wish to pursue?

When do you want to start studying abroad.

September 2024

January 2025

What is your budget to study abroad?

How would you describe this article ?

Please rate this article

We would like to hear more.

Democracy in Nigeria

Democracy in Nigeria has been repeatedly promised by those in power for decades, but promises seem to fall short of their mark and Nigeria remains to be anything but a true democracy. For a democracy to be successful the people of a country need to feel like they matter, their vote matters, and that the government cares about them. A true democracy is “people initiated, people promoted, sustained by the people for the benefit of the people”, (Ogunleye, 2005) but in a country swept with corruption the only thing sustained by the people is the oil industry and croplands. Nigeria may be far from a working democracy but at least initiatives have existed to put one into place. For Nigeria’s future, it is not impossible to create a sustainable democracy, but a lot of work must be done. Ever since the British takeover left Nigeria to try and create its own stable form of government with many failed constitutions they have failed to reach a maintainable form of democracy. The country has had countless military rules and leaders that have promised a push towards democracy, but instead have used their place in power to set up policies to support themselves. On top of this, a reach in power is also usually followed by subsequent extending of power to other members of the family. In this way they are able to keep themselves in charge by controlling as many different branches and positions as possible. Along with this is the complete takeover of revenues by those higher up to corrupt the country’s largest source of revenue for their own personal gain. All of these problems work against one of the most necessary steps in creating a strong democracy: the trust of the people. Local governments need to have more power to properly give the people m... ... middle of paper ... ...hree years of democracy; Nigeria. The Economist. 1-3. Egbunam E. (1999) Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 29, No. 5, Special Issue: Political Strategies of Democracy and Health Issues and Concerns in Global Africa pp. 619-645 Olafemi A. O., Victor O. O., (2012). Political Marketing: An Effective Strategy for Quality Leadership and Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 5(1), 128-133. Shiner C., (1999). Healing Wounds and Building Democracy in Nigeria. Africa News Service Business Insights: Essentials. Yagboyaju, D. A. (2009). Ethnic politics, political corruption and poverty: perspectives on contending issues and Nigeria's democratization process. Ethnic Studies Review, 32(1), 131-142. Yagboyaju, D. A. (2011). Nigeria's Fourth Republic and the challenge of a faltering democratization. African Studies Quarterly, 12(3), 93-104.

A Look Inside Modern Day Benin

Osagie, E., Ph.D. (Presenter). (1999, December 10). Benin in Contemporary Nigeria an Agenda for the 21st Century. Lecture presented at Oba Akenzua Cultural Centre, Benin City, Benin.

Article Analysis: The Oil Spill We Don't Hear About

As the world frustrated and fumbled at BP over their oil spill on April 20, 2010, the largest marine oil spill in history. Does anyone know the people of Nigeria Delta had lived with oil spillage conditions for the last 50 years? With her op-ed piece “The Oil Spill We Don’t Hear About”, published in The New York Times on June 4, 2010, Anene Ejikeme emphasizes on the oil spills in Niger Delta which is far more alarming and threatening than the BP Gulf Spillage. With her article, Ejikeme’s want to address these problems which appear to be ignored by the international media. In her article she stated, “Media around the world are covering the Gulf oil spill in a way that not even the Nigerian media covers oil spills in Nigeria.” Ejikeme adopts an informative, yet sympathetic tone to deliver and provoke the interest of the phenomenon for her readers. Ms. Ejikeme received her PhD from Columbia University in 2003 and is currently an assistant professor at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. She is considered as a specialist on modern African history; she’s been writing a variety of books and teaching a wide range of courses on the matter. Prior to coming to Trinity, Ejikeme taught at Barnard College in New York, where she was the Director of the Pan-African Studies Program from 2001 to 2003. This op-ed piece continues her interest on the problems that affects African society.

Democracy in America

Throughout the course of history, mankind has been recorded to corrupt itself. Men have grown tired of simply surviving; they have had to take and conquer others. Absolute monarchies control wealth, land, and even lives of men. The conditions of the people were solely dependent on the conditions of the one who was in power in that particular place and time. History has proven that most men rule unwisely in their kingdoms. To avoid tyrannical rule, some make an attempt to set up a government in which the people ruled themselves. This form of government is called a democracy, or “rule of the people.” History has also revealed through the Greeks and the French Revolution, that a democracy that gives complete power to the people, “absolute democracy”, is nothing more than a short prelude to tyranny.

Hiv / Aids : A Manifestation Of Poverty

African governments have given in to the whim’s of international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) in social and health policies, and with this, has come a shift away from former emphasis on social justice and equitable market efficiency to public health services for all now being perceived as a major threat ...

Overpopulation and the Environment

Oghre, Ben. “Nigeria’s Population Is A Silent Killer .” Nigerians of America. N.p., 30 Sept. 2007. Web. 5 Feb. 2012. .

Equity And Efficiency Tradeoff Essay

Despite the numerous wealth generated on a daily basis from oil exportation over the years and the vast amount of untapped resources laying in commercial quantity, the country does not have a single or recognize means of directly addressing the welfare of its citizenry. Only the present democratic administration has promised to execute out a compulsory cash transfer of N5,000 to the poorest 25 million Nigeria (based on some conditions), pay graduating corp members some stipends for a year and design a one-meal a day for public primary school

Why Do Nations Fail? by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson

...esult, 1000 civilians died, but majority of the fundamentalist group was taken out. In 2009, Goodluck Jonathan assumed presidency when Umaru Yar’Adu died (BBC News Africa, 2013). In 2011 elections, Goodluck Jonathan took majority of the vote against military opponent, Muhammadu Buhari. Observers have stated this election is the most fair it has ever been in history, but Buhari’s supporters opposed the results. Quickly after, the fundamentalist group, Boko Haram, made resurgence and there were daily attacks in the country. As a result, the Nigerian government declared a state of emergency and dispatched troops. In January 2012, Goodluck Jonathan removed the country’s fuel subsidy to repair the tattered economy, but only caused fuel and food prices to rise. In response to the rise of prices, Nigerians began to protest, which eventually led to reinstating the subsidy.

The History and Culture of Bangladesh

May 9, 2001 African Networks for Health Research and Development; retrieved Dec. 9, 2003 http://www.afronets.org/archive/200105/msg00035.php.

The Effects of Petroleum Business on Nigeria

...rd but in the sense of Nigeria the corruption is amongst the elites and found at the highest level of federal power.

Essay On Resource Curse In Nigeria

Political instability and regime change in Nigeria will be observed in this paper. The resource curse has greatly weakened Nigeria as it has led to the numerous regime changes, the hindering of the nation’s democratization, corruption in the government, as well as, civil conflict. According to Samuels in Case Studies in Comparative Politics, Nigeria began as a group of states and empires, which were conquered by the British Empire who ruled Nigeria through indirect rule with varying degrees of rule in North and South Nigeria (Samuels, 323-326). Since they were granted independence in 1960, three republics have been created and each has ended by military rule, which led to the creation of the fourth, and current republic in Nigeria. In the current regime, Nigeria’s GDP is ranked 108 out of 156 and has been decreasing, lower than some of the non-oil-producing nations in Africa (“Nigeria”).

African Politics: No Longer at Ease by Obi Okonkwo

In Africa, the interests of various individuals and groups have transformed the possession of power into nightmarish dimensions due to the flaws in the political structures of the societies. Although some of these degenerative weaknesses have been explained by historical experiences, there still remains the fact that the progressive development of any society depends on a conscious pruning of flawsin the organizational structure of the society by those with the power to provide guidance and direction. Moreover, this burden of leadership could elicit either patriotic parasitic tendencies in the utilization and exercise of power. (Ehling 23-25)

Political Socialization in Nigeria

This essay is aimed to examine one of the agents of political socialisation for the way in which it operates and the effects it may have in Nigeria. Political socialisation is learning process that begins very early and continues all throughout ones life. Through political socialisation people acquire their perceptions and feelings about their political environment. It accounts for both the commonalties and diversities of political life. (DP Dawson p1).

British Colonial Policy And The Nigerian Civil War

While the outside world considered Nigeria to be a united and monolithic entity, even the British colonial administration was wary of the reality of Nigerian politics; the nation was not so much a “country” as it was more than three hundred different groups coalesced into one.4 5 These tribes were divided between three main spheres of influence: the Yoruba, the Igbo, and the Hausa. Historically, their interests were often opposed, and their cultures did not come into regular contact with one another until the British occupation. In spite of the differences British administration a...

Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood as an African Feminist Text

Okeke, Phil E. "Reconfiguring Tradition: Women's Rights and Social Status in Contemporary Nigeria." Africa Today 47.1 (2000): 49-63.

Uganda's Democracy: The Challenges Of Democracy In Uganda

Political greed, the greatest challenge to Africa’s democracy Uganda inclusive is political greed. Presidents in some African countries want to rule for life and extend the patronage to their family members. This greed has led to manipulation of parliaments, constitutions for example according to Uganda’s constitution of 1995; the president had only 3 terms of office. However when Uganda’s president term expired in 2005, he bribed members of parliament with 5millions Uganda shillings to scrap off presidential term limits without holding a referendum and it succeeded. This was a great blow to Uganda’s democracy and contempt of the

More about Democracy in Nigeria

Related topics.

Finish Your Essay Today! EssayBot Suggests Best Contents and Helps You Write. No Plagiarism!

Customer Reviews

offers three types of essay writers: the best available writer aka. standard, a top-level writer, and a premium essay expert. Every class, or type, of an essay writer has its own pros and cons. Depending on the difficulty of your assignment and the deadline, you can choose the desired type of writer to fit in your schedule and budget. We guarantee that every writer will be a subject-matter expert with proper writing skills and background knowledge across all high school, college, and university subjects. Also, we don’t work with undergraduates or dropouts, focusing more on Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral level writers (yes, we offer writers with Ph.D. degrees!)

Constant customer Assistance

Gustavo Almeida Correia

Know Us Better

• Knowledge Base
• Referencing Styles
• Know Our Consultance
• Revision and Refund Policy
• Terms Of Use

Viola V. Madsen

Testimonials

‘The Age of Magical Overthinking’ tries to pinpoint our mental health crisis

Amanda montell casts a wide net in her new essay collection. maybe too wide..

Every generation has its own crisis, the linguist and podcaster Amanda Montell writes. In the 1960s and ’70s, young Americans organized against “physical tyrannies” such as voter suppression and workplace discrimination. But times have changed.

The 21st century brought a shift in our attention from external threats to internal ones, Montell says. Rates of anxiety and depression among U.S. teens and adults have spiked. Loneliness is a public health threat . We’re glued to our phones, alienated from loved ones and surrounded by misinformation.

People everywhere, Montell writes, are facing a crisis of the mind.

From this grim landscape emerges “ The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality ,” Montell’s third book and a sweeping look at mental health, behavioral science, misinformation and online culture in the 2020s. In it, she argues that the ills of the internet era are best explained by looking back on humanity’s history, when our minds developed shortcuts to improve our odds of survival. Those shortcuts are called cognitive biases, and they may lead us to do strange things like fall for a conspiracy theory or accept mental health advice from an untrained influencer .

Montell leads us through an engaging roundup of “21st century derangement,” from celebrity worship to tradwife discourse , examining how cognitive biases may contribute. But by positioning her work as a response to America’s broad struggle with mental health, Montell promises more than she delivers. Rather than focusing on a tour of our shared cognitive glitches, she juggles meta-commentary on such vast topics as the modern mind and the internet, dropping balls along the way.

The book opens with an account of Montell’s struggles with anxiety and overwhelm, as well as the steps she took to feel better. “My most cinematic attempt at mental rehab involved picking herbs on a farm in Sicily under a light-pollution-free sky,” she writes.

Eventually, she had an aha moment: The same cognitive biases she encountered while researching toxic social groups for her second book, “ Cultish ,” could explain why the internet age felt like a “mass head trip.” Glutted with more information in a day than we can ever hope to process, we fall back on mental habits developed when humans were simpler creatures, Montell writes. For example, social media celebrity worship could be fueled by the “halo effect,” where we assume a person with one good quality (writing hit pop songs) has other good qualities (a perfectly tuned moral compass). Or perhaps we spend hours comparing ourselves with other people on Instagram because the “zero-sum bias” has convinced us that life is a game of winners and losers.

Montell backs up her connections in many instances with nods to evolutionary biology. For early humans, it made sense to attach ourselves to the strongest and most powerful, so now we glom onto Taylor Swift or Charli XCX. Resources like mates and status were limited in ancient human communities, Montell notes, so it’s natural that we view hot people on Instagram as immediate threats to our survival.

Montell finds examples of cognitive bias in internet culture flash points, such as the millennial obsession with New Age therapy-speak. Faced with big problems, such as anxiety or depression, our minds seek big explanations, such as childhood trauma or a scarcity mind-set, rather than examining all the smaller problems at play.

In other spots, she shares stories from her own life. In her late 20s, she struggled to end an abusive relationship, terrified that giving up meant she’d wasted years of her life — a classic “sunk cost fallacy.” Humans are social creatures, Montell notes, afraid of inviting scrutiny by admitting mistakes.

“My hope is for these chapters to make some sense of the senseless,” Montell says early on. “To crack open a window in our minds, and let a warm breeze in.” And indeed, in some moments, her sharp descriptions of behavioral foibles and her talent for cutting through doublespeak clear room for hope: Maybe noticing our warped thinking will make its effects less painful. Maybe our generational “crisis” is a story of not-enough-neurons encountering too-many-terabytes.

When confidence in Montell’s analysis wavers, it’s because the targets are too broad, the claims imprecise. For instance, we’re never quite sure of the shape of the national mental health crisis she repeatedly references. Early on, she draws a distinction between Americans’ current mental health struggles and 20th-century battles against bodily oppression. This neat separation doesn’t reflect reality — “The Age of Magical Overthinking” was published after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and during ongoing fights for voter access, health care and the right to protest. It also doesn’t reflect what science has shown about illnesses like depression, which are often tied up with a person’s physical and political well-being. Ultimately, we’re left with the sense that Montell’s crisis of the mind begins and ends with the vague feelings of anxiety and dread many people feel after scrolling on social media apps.

Montell implies that the breakdown of Americans’ mental health began after 2000, brought on by internet access and introspection. Conflating “the internet” with social media, she draws loose connections between online scrolling and mental turmoil, making no reference to the complicated science around how social media use affects our brains. Some studies have found bumps in anxiety and depression associated with social media use, but more recent meta-analyses call their methods and findings into question . To date, researchers have found no consistent causal link between spending time on social apps and experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Of course, future research may uncover new ways to measure how social media use or other online activities affect the mental health of different populations. Perhaps we should rely on a different measure altogether, like qualitative research into young people and their families. Rather than critique the existing science or offer an alternative lens, Montell picks two studies that support her thesis and hand-waves at the dire state of things.

Finally, although Montell says cognitive biases affect everyone, she aims her jabs at the safest of targets: “Disney adults,” “male girlbosses,” “Facebook-addicted Karens.” Readers hoping for fresh or counterintuitive takes on internet culture — and its heroes and villains — may walk away disappointed.

Montell says from the jump that her analysis of 2020s malaise is “not a system of thought,” likening her work instead to a Buddhist koan — meant to be pondered, not understood. That’s fine, and “The Age of Magical Overthinking” ultimately features interesting topics, fun research and vivid stories. But in Montell’s effort to critique the spirit of our times, she asks imprecise questions and offers unsatisfactory answers.

Tatum Hunter is a consumer technology reporter at The Washington Post based in San Francisco. Her work focuses on health, privacy and relationships in the internet era.

The Age of Magical Overthinking

Notes on Modern Irrationality

By Amanda Montell

Atria/One Signal. 272 pp. $28.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.