DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA:A PHILOSOPHICAL STUDY

SOURCE:

Faculty: Arts
Department: Philosophy

CONTRIBUTORS:

ANUNIHU, J. I
MBAEGBU, C

ABSTRACT:

Democracy can, despite the conceptual definition contained here be briefly but rightly defined as ‘the government of the people by the representatives of the people for the people. At its entrance into Nigeria, democracy assured that it will better the material and abstract life of the people and further enhance the peoples’ contribution to the way they are governed. Many years into this democratic life, Nigerians have little or nothing on either side of the promise to show for their faith and patience in democracy, rather, it turned out to be a harvest of unfulfilled promises: ever increasing level of poverty, corruption, political and human right abuses; unfree, unfair and violence filled elections, total disregard for the rule of law and so on, leading to the masses seeing democracy as another tool of oppression for the elites to continue their oppression of the downtrodden masses, leading to the massive calls for any other system of government that can give them what they politically want. This study involves the analysis of actions, inactions and reactions of our leaders; as regard their democratic performance, therefore we adopted hermeneutics methodology which is historical and critical in its interpretation of texts. We discovered that the differing background of culture, history, tradition, values and needs from that of Nigeria, in which the Western democratic system was forged; coupled with the absence of the requisite knowledge for the understanding and practice, the absence of the robust economic status of the citizens, the repeated and abysmal failure of elite Nigeria leadership, the high level of corruption and so on, are behind the constant heart breaking failure. We therefore recommend: education of the people on democratic requirements. Nigerianization of democracy, leadership development and discipline, poverty eradication, accountability, transparency and so on, for relevance and effectiveness of the practice.