The fundamental hindrance to the survival of democracy in Nigeria lies in the obvious division of ruling class elite along ethnic, religious, regional and class lines.
The failure in Nigeria democratic practice has also been intensified and exacerbated by the high rate of illiteracy and poverty in the country. This illiteracy factor has made it possible for the politicians to manipulate the masses with relative ease and this raise the ethnic bogey to win the support of the people, thereby raising the level of the ethnic consciousness. The issue of poverty makes it possible for politicians to bribe their way through the masses. This again is worsened by the depoliticization of the people through thuggery and violence, thus creating a total alienation of the people from the political process. The net result of all the foregoing is that politics therefore becomes the exclusive preserve of the nascent petty bourgeoisie who are engaged in intra-class struggle among their various factions for the control of the state apparatus. This is the situation in today’s Nigeria, this tendency has always reared its ugly head in Nigeria’s polity following the demand by the various ethnic groups that it is their turn to produce the next president of the country, thus dividing the nation along ethnic lines which is not healthy for the country’s democracy. As such, when political struggle are constituted around such ideas and social formations, they tend to be very intense and violent leading to ethnic conflicts.
Related to the political impediment toward the survival of democracy in Nigeria is the economic angle, wherein the practice of democracy since 1999 till date has been characterized by severe economic and social problems. The adoption of the on-going economic reform policy by President Jonathan administration has further widened and heightened the incidence of poverty and economic underdevelopment of the majority of the people due to the loss of jobs, increase in the price of petroleum products, infrastructural decay etc. With the likely effect of further aggravating decades of mistrust, fear and lack of enthusiasm by the governed in the democratic process as epitomized by the inevitability of suffering, injustice and inequality which is increasing has been exacerbated in the present democratic transition in Nigeria.
From my critical examination of the Nigeria political terrain, the practice of democracy in Nigeria only caters for the interest of the dominant class only at the detriment of the larger population. This led to the present crisis in Nigeria today.
Majority of Nigerian leaders lack the norms and values of democratic representative that is why they truncate the principles of the rule of law, separation of powers, fundamental human rights and free and fair elections as well as freedom of the press to disseminate information.
As a result of these shortcomings of democracy in Nigeria, politics becomes do-or-die affair and no politician can afford to loss for the consequences of loosing is unimaginable. All this has contributed negatively to the socio-economic and political development of Nigerian state.
Conclusion, it is clearly a fundamental test that institutionalization of democratic governance does not occur simply by holding elections, changing leaders, constitutions or public orientation to the process of governance. Nigerians must seize the opportunity that this present democratic experimentation provides to chart a new vision for the collective development of the nation through the institutionalization of an ethnic unity (advocated by Late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe) legitimate political order and refusing to be used by the ruling class to perpetrate electoral fraud and chaos in order to truncate the process.
Tsolaye Reden is a Political Scientist based in Warri, Delta State. GSM: 08027527005, 08077650175, 08033967030, Email: jebianjesus@yahoo.com
Copyright: Fresh Angle International (www.freshangleng.com)
ISSN 2354 - 4104
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