The Challenges of Sustaining Democracy in a Divided Society: The Nigeria Experience

by

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to take this chance for thanking my research facilitator, friends & family for support they provided & their belief in me as well as guidance they provided without which I would have never been able to do this research.

DECLARATION

I, (Your name), would like to declare that all contents included in this thesis/dissertation stand for my individual work without any aid, & this thesis/dissertation has not been submitted for any examination at academic as well as professional level previously. It is also representing my very own views & not essentially which are associated with university.

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ABSTRACT

This study tries to explore the theory of democracy n a wider framework. The main focus of the research is on the “democratic governance in Nigeria”. The research also analyzes many aspects of “Democratic governments” and different challenges faced in sustaining a “democratic government” in “Nigeria”. It covers different aspects of democracy and provides a description about various forms of democracies. The research gives an idea of the role played by the democracy in divided society. In addition to this, the first two chapters cover the scenario of democratic government in Nigeria. It explains that even though, Nigeria has been practicing democracy since 1999, he political and election process contains a lot of problems with numerous irregularities starting from snatching of ballot box, harassment of political opponents, permeable electoral activities and a lot more. Additionally, the research covers the aspect of instability in the Nigerian government and different problems faced by the government and citizen of Nigeria. It research explains that there is a common perception developed in the state, which is used as an instrument for accumulating the wealth among the elite politicians. This highly influence and has a negative impact on the welfare of the citizens. The research details that every citizen has political rights but not all individuals have equal opportunity to utilize their democratic rights. In other words, people of the state lack the essence of exercising those rights. The research also explains the methodology that has been used in order to conduct research. It explains why the reason for choosing that particular methodology and how that methodology will help in our research. Furthermore, the last chapter contains a conceptual analysis of the research that has been conducted through the secondary data.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

DECLARATIONIII

ABSTRACTIV

CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK1

3.1 Theory of Liberal Democracy4

3.2 Theoretical Models of Democracy7

3.3 Analyzing theories of democracy in Nigeria9

3.4 Examining suitable theories from Nigeria experience19

3.4.1 Authoritarian Democracy19

3.4.2 Electoral Democracy20

CHAPTER 4: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MODELS OF DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIAN CONTEXT23

4.1 Expected impacts of democracy in Nigeria23

4.1.1 Expected impact of democracy:23

4.2 Sustaining democracy in Nigeria27

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS29

5.1 Conclusion29

5.2 Recommendations32

REFERENCES42

CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

If democracy is considered to be a challenging practice, the task of its consolidation, is certainly not very easy. Democratic consolidation, also known as sustainability of democracy, connotes a process by which democracy becomes so broadly and profoundly legitimate and so habitually practiced and ...