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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Democracy by Fiat: Why it Will Not Work?
Author:Amuwo, 'KunleISNI
Year:1995
Periodical:Africa Quarterly
Volume:35
Issue:3
Pages:19-31
Language:English
Geographic terms:Nigeria
Africa
Subjects:democracy
military regimes
Politics and Government
Military, Defense and Arms
Abstract:Taking the example of Nigeria, the author analyses why a 'transition to democracy under military guidance' cannot but fail. In Nigeria, there was ostensibly a well-defined 'theory of transition', as claimed by the Babangida intellectual network. But if such a 'theory' existed, it was obvious throughout the period 1985-1993 that the military sought to control and manipulate the political process, promoting class, clique and personal interests at the expense of general or societal interests, creating political disorder where necessary in order to justify the extension of the transition programme. After the initial romance between the Babangida regime and a cross-section of the country's potentially vibrant and assertive civil society, popular social forces - labour, academia and student organizations - were decimated. Nonetheless, a strong democratic undercurrent persists and inhibits even the most rabid authoritarian regime from turning Nigeria into a police State. University students, lawyers, the press, political scientists have all at one time or another indicated that they cherish their liberty and internal autonomy. It is this plethora of autonomous groups that would in all probability be called upon to organize a genuinely democratic transition programme when the Nigerian polity is demilitarized. Ref.
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