Democracy In Nigeria Research Articles

Political Party Financing and Consolidation of Democracy in Nigeria, 1999 – 2015

Political Party Financing and Consolidation of Democracy in Nigeria, 1999 – 2015

The Crisis of Democracy in Nigeria: An Examination of Two Determining Factors

The Crisis of Democracy in Nigeria: An Examination of Two Determining Factors

An empirical appraisal of the role of money in Nigerian politics

This study was conducted with the aim of ascertaining the impact of money on the quality of democracy and democratic consolidation in Nigeria. To achieve this major objective, the study employed the use of both primary and secondary data. The primary data consisted of questionnaires, while the secondary consisted of published materials. The study found that the use of money by politicians to influence the outcome of elections through vote buying among other malpractices in the country is firstly a consequence of the prevailing poverty and the expectation of the electorate for the aspiring politicians to dispense money. This development resulted in the lack of credibility of election results and in Nigeria's democracy. It is recommended that funding the electoral process must be reformed to make access and participation possible for a broader spectrum of society.

Electoral Violence as a Threat to Consolidation of Nigeria's Democracy

Electoral Violence as a Threat to Consolidation of Nigeria's Democracy

Globalization and Democratization in Nigeria’s Quest for Democratic Governance in the Fourth Republic

Following the trend of global democratic change, Nigeria like many other developing countries struggle to abandon military rule for democracy. The fifteen years of fourth republic democratic experiment in Nigeria have been characterize with misfortunes of good democratic governance. Several efforts made to consolidate good democratic governance in the country were simply thrown away. The expectations of Nigerians in 1999 when democracy return after fifteen long years of military rule were high. However these expectations and optimism were unfortunately quashed. The paper critically investigates this situation and assess the challenges surrounding the quest for effective democratic governance in the country within the era of global democratic change. In conclusion the paper emphasize on restructuring attitudes, institutions and resources towards the principles of democratic governance. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n1p386

Enhancing Parliamentary Oversight for Effective Security Sector Reform in Democratic Nigeria

The provision of the most essential public good – security in accordance with the will of the people is very germane to the consolidation of democratic governance. Though, the Nigerian state is set to inaugurate her 8th National Assembly on 9th June, 2015, the capacity of the nation’s parliamentary body (National Assembly) to provide effective parliamentary oversight over the nation’s security sector for the establishment of a democratic security forces is grossly deficient. In light of this, the objective of this paper is to explore how the Nigeria’s parliamentary body can be energized in the performance of its oversight functions over the nation’s security sector. The study employed the descriptive survey research method. It was revealed that the inadequate capacity of the parliamentarians in the performance of their oversight functions partly accounts for the incessant violation of the fundamental human rights of the people by the nation’s security forces. Thus, it becomes imperative that the capacity of the nation’s parliamentary body to carry out her oversight responsibilities be greatly strengthened. This, the paper posits can be achieved when there is a considerable improvement in the knowledge base of the parliamentarians on the workings of the entire security sector and the logic and methods of her performance of the oversight functions and a comprehensive review of the constitution with a view to freeing the security forces from the exclusive control of the presidency. The paper concludes that it is only when there is an effective parliamentary oversight over Nigeria’s security agencies that the prevalent executive control over the sector can be moderated in line with democratic principles and practices. Keywords: Democracy, Nigeria, Parliamentary Oversight, Security Sector Reform

Democracy , Election and Political Participation in Nigeria : 1999 - 2011

Democracy encourages the citizens to take part in the political process and at different levels through different means .This paper examines the concept of democracy, elections and political participation in Nigeria since the return of democracy in Nigeria 1999 to 2 011. The framework of analysis adopted is Group Theory. The Theory talks about the role of the Group in the political process. After a critical analysis of democracy, elections and political participation in Nigeria since 1999 to 2011, it was discovered that participation was at steady decline as result of so many abnormalities inherent in our democractic process. The paper ends with conclusions, findings and recommendations. Some of the recommendations include among others strengthening the political institutions to serve as agent of change and serious punishment for electoral offenders.

The Irony of Democracy in Nigeria

The Irony of Democracy in Nigeria

The David and Goliathh or from the Ruling to the Opposition Political Party: The PDP, Crisis of Internal Democracy and 2015 Election Outcomes in Nigeria

Generally, Nigerian political parties in the present republic have been hampered by crisis of internal democracy thus undermining their political leadership recruitment function. Also, this has negative implications for party discipline and unity. The resultant effects are party factionalization, defection and carpet-crossing. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a good example of one of these Nigerian political parties that lacks internal democracy. In fact, PDP was a leviathan. The 2015 Election symbolized a contest between David and Goliath. The electoral outcome is that PDP has transformed from a ruling party to an opposition party. The study, by relying on the theory of relative autonomy of the state and secondary sources, concludes that the PDP authoritarianism deepened crisis of internal democracy in Nigeria and that this authoritarian character of the former ruling PDP was a reflection of the authoritarian character of the Nigerian state which is currently shaping the ruling APC. The implication being that this lack of internal party democracy in Nigerian political parties generally undermines the credibility of the entire electoral process thereby rendering the entire process undemocratic. The study is essentially qualitative, historical and inductive.

The opportunism of political music culture in democratic Nigeria

This paper attempts an intervention in contemporary popular music classification. It argues that popular musicians do not only choose the titles to their works, but go further to define the genres of these works. The dynamic at play is such that most popular musicians claim to produce works of different and new genres with each new work they create. By engaging with the works of a selection of Nigerian popular musicians, the paper shows a trend of opportunistic productions within the political music genre by artists not otherwise known for political songs. Through a discussion of the textual and contextual elements of the material, the paper argues that an increased number of popular musicians have started producing protest political music and unity political music, following Nigeria's democratization in 1999, as a way of alerting audiences of their political astuteness and in an attempt to court political relevance.

State and Democratization in Nigeria

The articles interrogates the relationship between democratization and people power in Nigeria. It argues that the broadening of the Nigerian public sphere has not led to reciprocal development of democratic principles and practice. As civilian rule reigns and economic growth is reported, Nigeria’s democratization is fraught with many challenges. Democratization remains questionable in Nigeria; it is rudimentary and distorted by irregularities. These have had implications for national development and human securities as the poverty level worsens and acclaimed economic growth and “democratic dividends” fail to enhance Nigerians’ quality of life. The trivialization of democratization raises critical questions about its state and relevance to Nigerians and the Nigerian state. Is Nigeria democratizing or de-democratizing? How does the democratization process bring the Nigerian people closer to state (power)? How has it helped their developmental quests? The article contends that Nigeria’s democratization process is indeed on trial. As Ake argues, Nigerian state democratization does not only trivialize the essence of democracy—it also continues to reverse the democratization process. Against this background, the article concludes that the democratization process in Nigeria requires elite political will and people’s consciousness to advance to the next stage for better democratic consolidated and economic development relevant to Nigerians.

The Irony of Democracy in Nigeria

Democracy as a form of government means different things to different people depending on their location, situation, and circumstances. Democracy, which in the popular imaginary is a government by the people, is sustained through inclusivity and broad participation. Furthermore, it comes with many benefits - good governance, rule of law, political stability, and economic advancement. These democratic benefits are absent in Nigeria. Democracy in Nigeria has been reduced to a mere periodic ritual of elections, without any credence to the credibility, fairness, freeness and popular will of the people. The aim of this paper is to look at the challenges to democracy in Nigeria. One of the suggestions of this paper is that the will of the people must prevail. At present the will of the people is subordinate to that of the elites.

The Pursuit of Primordial Interest as an Explanatory Factor for the Prevalence of Governance Crisis in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic

The prevalence of governance crisis in Nigeria is obvious. Inadequate structural facilities continue to impede quality of life while public office holders live in opulence. With abundant resources serving the interests of the individual in positions of power, the Nigerian state continuously slides backward in sustainable development. This paper investigated effect of illicit satisfaction of politician’s cronies’ selfish interests over national interest on governance crisis. The paper contended that politicians cronies in a bid to satisfy their primordial interests unduly revel, worship and perpetually make demands on leaders as soon as they ascends power. This in turn propel political officeholders to abandon provision of public good in a bid to satisfy the quests of their cronies. Since they rely on public treasury to satisfy these needs, political leaders therefore resort to looting to access sufficient fund. The paper argued that proclivity towards satisfying the quests of politicians’ cronies at the expense of public goods aggravates governance crisis in Nigeria. Thus, corrupt public office holders continue to enjoy the support and receive accolades from the people who benefitted thereof. The paper further argued that, in spite of efforts of anti-corruption agencies and civil society organizations in the fight against impunity and bad governance in Nigeria, the effective and rapid promotion of good governance demands a multi-faceted approach in its practice as it affects democracy in Nigeria. To this end, the paper suggested additional ways of addressing the problem of primordial interests and governance crises in Nigeria.

English

International development agencies are important actors for democracy promotion, especially in developing countries. In this regard, there has been an upsurge of these agencies in Nigeria’s democratization process. This paper examines Democratic Governance for Development (DGD) as one of the initiatives of international development agencies toward promoting democracy in Nigeria. Specifically, the initiative has been providing assistance to state and non-state actors such as electoral commission, political parties and civil society groups towards promoting credible election in Nigeria. With the aid of qualitative data, the paper revealed that DGD project has provided technical and financial support to Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to monitor and observe elections, create public awareness and strengthen other forms of civic engagement in order to influence the conduct of credible election in the country. However, the paper shows that lack of proper coordination of support, inadequate data base of the CSOs; absence of reliable instruments for assessment of support, lack of internal democracy in the conduct of the CSOs as well as mismanagement of resources all combined and affect democracy support towards credible elections in Nigeria. Thus, the paper concludes that international assistance for credible election could only be meaningful and effective by eliminating the culture of impunity, providing instrument of evaluation of support as well as continuing capacity building of the CSOs in Nigeria. Key words: Nigeria, international development agencies, democracy promotion, election, CSOs.

Democracy in Nigeria and India : A Comparative Analysis of Challenges to Contemporary Democratic Government

Democracy that is said to be exported is representative democracy which traces its origin to the western world and more specifically the US and Britain who are the fathers’ of presidential and parliamentary democracies respectively that have dominated the rest of the world. The importers – Asia and Africa among others have had to face the challenges of adaptability according to the original models (American or British). Some of the challenges range from poverty, corruption, underdevelopment that is heavily alleged to the legacy of colonialism in these continents – Asia and Africa. In spite of all the odds, India defied the theories of democracy that development must come before democracy; but India had thriven amidst hardship, poverty, but good nationalist leaders that today India is a known existing democracy for decades as against Nigeria who virtually lacked the Indian – like nationalist leaders. Finally, exporters must be more realistic to consider that the terrain of importers is different in culture, national experience, and development from theirs.

Pentecostalism and Democracy in Nigeria

This article examines the political dimensions of Pentecostalism in Nigeria, beginning with the historical development of Pentecostal political engagement since independence in 1960. A common observation is that much of global Pentecostalism is apolitical, but an assessment of Nigerian Pentecostalism shows a diversity of political orientations in response to inter-religious competition, as well as changing socio-economic contexts and theological orientations. Herein, I focus on the “third democratic revolution” involving the struggle for sustainable democracy (the first two being the anti-colonial struggle that brought independence and the 1980s-1990s challenge to one-party and military rule). As well, I examine different political strategies employed by Nigerian Pentecostals and assess their impact on direct political behavior, civil society practices and political culture.

Romanticising Legal Pluralism Through Religious Revival in Democratic Nigeria: Crusaders, Criminals, and Casualties

The two epochal events that have shaped Nigeria’s socio-cultural, economic and political contexts are colonialism and the military authoritarian regimes. The former resulted in the emergence of post-colonial elites including the latter, with efficacy to effectively popularise, mobilise and manipulate primordial identities in their struggle over the control of public resources. The later militarised the Nigerian polity along primordial considerations to the detriment of national cohesion, integration and unity. One of the mechanisms used to execute this task is the deployment of legal pluralism as instrument of inclusion or exclusion. Hence, in deploying legal pluralism they are scaling up their tendencies to not only legitimise their instruments of control, but also legalise the resort to primordial identities. The paper relied on secondary materials in arguing that though the Nigeria’s Legal Systems have been influenced by customary and English jurisprudences, the curiously re-emergence of the Sharia debate and several other proselytised narratives are continuation of elites’ contestations. It is further argued that the state of insecurity is the translation or metamorphosis of the undercurrent in these social conflicts that finds expression in the activities of perpetrators of violence (crusaders or criminals). The resultant consequences of violence conflicts in Nigeria are seen in the country’s democracy and development challenges that manifest deaths, injuries, destitutions, displacements, disruptions, and destructions. As response to this menace, state and non-state institutions should be strengthened and encouraged in the promotion of understanding, tolerance, forgiveness, brotherliness, justice, fair-play and dialogue. Equally, efforts towards depleting the support base of sponsors of identity-driven programmes must be intensified by consolidating measures aimed at national orientation, patriotism and oneness. This is achievable through virile civil society organisations, labour unions, professional bodies, media and academia.

Civic Engagement and its Role in Mitigating Electoral Violence in Nigeria: Implications for the 2015 General Elections

In May 1999, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, made an epochal transition to democratic civilian rule following roughly thirty-three years of military dictatorship. Since 1999, Nigeria has held four successive elections, which have all been (more or less) undermined by electoral violence. Despite this recurrent and disturbing trend of electoral violence, few works have attempted to systematically engage with three key questions: why is electoral violence a recurrent phenomenon in Nigeria? Why have there been so few constitutional provisions to mitigate its recurrence? What lessons can be learned from Nigeria’s turbulent electoral past, especially with regards to the role of civic engagement? These are the core questions this paper seeks to address. This paper draws its data primarily from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)-Electoral Violence Education and Resolution (EVER) programme, with which the authors were actively involved during the 2007 and 2011 general elections in Nigeria. To balance any inconsistencies, data derived from a content analysis of IFES reports and cumulative observations will be triangulated and cross-validated with reports of different Election Observation Missions to Nigeria (1999-2011), as well as reports from local and international observation teams and key International NGOs working in the areas of elections and democracy in Nigeria, including National Democratic Institute (NDI), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and International Republican Institute (IRI). The paper thus argues that as Nigeria prepares for 2015 elections, important lessons should be adapted from the IFES-EVER project to ensure robust civic engagement in preventing and mitigating electoral related violence. The use of electoral support networks, link with Nigerian police and other security agencies, constant engagement and information sharing between INEC and all relevant stakeholders as well as biweekly reportage and publication of incidents of electoral violence with names of perpetrators will go a long way in preventing and mitigating incidents of electoral violence in Nigeria 2015 General Elections. Furthermore, crucial attention should also be paid to Nigerian legal and constitutional provisions on electoral violence with the view to reviewing the standards and level of sanctions to perpetrators.

Democracy and the Challenges of Consolidation in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic

With the inauguration of the Fourth Republic on May 29, 1999, Nigeria began a democratic journey that has lasted fourteen uninterrupted years. High hopes and expectations greeted the return to multi party politics in 1998 and consequently civil rule in 1999. Despite a return to civil rule, there are still great doubts over the health status of democracy in Nigeria simply because it is yet to achieve the desired ends which prompted heightened expectations in 1999. This essay therefore critically examines the challenges of consolidating democracy in Nigeria s Fourth Republic. The study argues that sustained poor political leadership has seriously threatened the survival of democracy in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. The absence of good governance explained in terms of defective constitutional arrangement, corruption, economic mismanagement, undemocratic internal party politics. fraudulent electoral system, rule of man as against rule of law and lack of accountability and transparency are the major impediments to democratic consolidation in Nigeria s Fourth Republic. The methodology is both descriptive and analytical. The study suggests that it is imperative to re-write the defective 1999 constitution to accommodate the desires of Nigerians and restructure the present lopsided federal arrangement to truly reflect the diversities and potentials in Nigeria in order to achieve a consolidated democracy.

Toward Consolidating Democracy in Nigeria: Is All Progressive Congress A Credible Opposition Party?

The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) since the beginning of the Fourth Republic on May 29, 1999, has been severally criticized for its failure to give focus to attempts to correct perceived structural deformities and to lay an institutional foundation for a just and equitable sharing of the political space by ethnic nationalities that comprised the federal polity. The country has, as a result of this, continuously and consistently degenerated to a level of being perceived as a failed or ‘collapsed’ state. Some scholars have even referred it to as a one-party state despite the avalanche of registered political parties in the state. It is therefore, against this backdrop that the paper examines the potency of the fused opposition party- ‘The All Progressive Congress’ (APC) that was formed essentially to challenge the ruling party- PDP The paper questions the credibility of the APC in the context of having what it takes to consolidate democratic governance in Nigeria.