Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home AfricaBib Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Democracy and the future of the Nigerian State
Author:Gberevbie, Daniel EsemeISNI
Year:2009
Periodical:Journal of Social Development in Africa (ISSN 1012-1080)
Volume:24
Issue:1
Pages:165-191
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Nigeria
West Africa
Subjects:governance
democracy
corruption
political history
1950-1999
2000-2009
politics
Nigeria--Politics and government
Abstract:Democracy gives citizens the opportunity to participate in government, which in turn promotes development. The author examines the theoretical linkage between democracy, good governance and development. He then discusses democratic governance and political intolerance in Nigeria in the period 1960-1966 and under successive military regimes between 1966-1979 and 1983-1999. The military governments were characterized by a concentration of power at the centre in a unitary system that rendered Nigeria's federal structure of governance ineffective. The citizens were marginalized, there was extreme corruption and a lack of accountability and transparency in the handling of public resources. When the military handed over power to an elected government in 1979 hopes for democractic governance were high. Instead, the Second Republic (1979-1983) was likewise characterized by electoral malpractice and high levels of government corruption. Under the Fourth Republic, inaugurated in 1999, there has to date (2006) been no change in the attitudes of Nigerians and government officials towards such issues as political thuggery and assassination, electoral fraud and corruption. Looking at the future of the Nigerian State, the author concludes that government at all levels should imbibe a political democratic culture which promotes values such as the popular participation of citizens in decisionmaking, fundamental human rights, a free press, the curbing of corruption, the shunning of all anti-democratic vices in dealing with issues of the State and the application of the principle of true fiscal federalism. Bibliogr., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract]
Cover