DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA UNDER FOURTH REPUBLIC
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Nigeria
is the tenth largest country in the world and the most populous country in
Africa. Nigeria was a collection of individual ethnic groups when Europeans,
Portuguese, Dutch and British first arrived in the late I5th and
early I6th centuries, Michael (1986).
There
were a series of civil wars, often connected with religion (Islam) in the early
19th century. The British annexed Lagos in 1861 and used it as an
antislavery base by 1885, British controlled most of the coast and between 1877
and 1888 the official name became Nigeria, its influence was extended inland.
In 1899, Britain proclaimed its rule over southern Nigeria and between 1907 and
1903, it conjured the North. In 1914, the North and South formally
administered as two protectorates were united as the colony and protectorate of
Nigeria. In 1960, Nigeria become independent, in 1966 a military regime under
Gen. Yakubu Gowon was established. In 1967, Gowon re-organized Nigeria into
twelve States, although the people of the
formal Eastern region
at tempted to
secede by establishing their own
Nation, Biafra.
The bitter civil war,
which followed, ended
in 1970 when the secessionists surrendered and their leader Col.
Ojukwu went into exile.
After the war, the
Government sought to restore unity and the Nation rapidly increased.
In 1975 another
coup brought Gen.
Muritala Mohammed to power but he was assassinated in a military coup in
1976, it was Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo who replaced him.
Nigeria
has 36 states in addition to the Federal Capita Territory, which is also
treated like a State and governed by a minister of the Federal Capital
Territory, the states here also been grouped on the basis of geographical proximity
or ethnic homogeneity and
other political
considerations, into six
geo- political zones; North,
East, North West, North Central,
South West, South East and South- South.
The zones differ from each other in size, population, and ecological characteristic,
language, culture and others Chukwuene (2003).
May 29, 1999 marked a clear
departure from military dictatorship, it was the beginning of new era in the
political system of Nigeria Cothins (2004; 22), believed that "May 29 its
quite impartment to Nigeria whose years of struggle and sacrifice led to the
exile of the unmilitary from the country's political scene". Undoubtedly,
the date has become the doing of the Federal Governments in roll out the drums
and organize special programmes in commerroration of the day the military left
the stage for the civilian players.
Civilian administration as
generally interpreted as the government of the people, as it would have a
listening ear to their plight and by extension, provide for their
socio-political needs.
Democracy as a form of
civilian-led Government in which all citizens enjoy liberty and freedom, where
the ultimate legitimacy of actions, choice appropriation and decisions vest
with the citizens. Supreme power through their elected rulers. It is the right
of every citizen to participate in the governance process. Democracy in a civil
administration is one that stands the test and effusion of time; grows
in
basic legitimacy and acceptability irrespective of the political party in power
and yields dynamic dividends — justice and equity, good governance and basic
freedom promotes rapid economic development; promotes and protects private enterprise
and property rights, Charles Soludo (2005).
Obasanjo and Mabogunje,
(1982) agreed that they see democracy as a philosophy of governance which
places a high premium on the basis of freedom or fundamental human right of
citizen, the rule of law, the right between alternative political positions
while politically it is concerned with institutions, processes and procedures
of governance elected toward consensus building.
But while public office
holders, politicians and their allies at home and abroad celebrated with
festivities, many citizens believe there is no much to be celebrated in as much
that democracy has not yielded the positive result.
Former External
Affairs Minister, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi while speaking on how he would rate Nigeria
democracy in the past years said that, in assessing that one would have to base
the judgment on several
factors. The main one is that, there has been
a successful transition from civilian rule to civilian rule.
The second factor, this has
to base one's judgment on the level of tolerance of dissent by all government
of constitutionalist the third one has been to what extent has the dividends of
democracy in terms of enhancement of the lived of the average Nigerians.
Although there has been
successful transition of Government but the elections operating under Nigeria
democracy lack credibility both in the
cases of the president, governor and others. No observer, whether
domestic or international, has been able to give this country a pass mark in
the conduct of her election.
Government has shown very
little tolerance and there was not being an appreciation in the living standard
of the people, security is provisions of social services are low. So really
overall, the score will have to be quite law, Bolaji (2004).
Statement of the Problem
Nigeria has gotten her
democracy since seventeen years ago but economically, socially, politically,
and educationally, Nigeria is yet to be developed. Babawale (2006) view
democracy as a way out of the increasing monopolization of power by the ruling
minorities in different societies. Not only can democracy give effective
guarantee against tyranny, it can as well allow man to take part in the determination
of issues that affect his existence.
In Nigeria, democracy has
been on the retreat since the immediate post- independence era.
The lack of a democratic
system has encouraged corruption, tyranny and a general under - development of
African states. The main point is that despite the fact that this military era
has gone and Nigeria has had successfully transitional rule, Nigeria is yet to
be developed in all facets of life.
Objective of the Study
The main objective of this
work, is to critically assess the development that Nigeria has undertaken under
this forth republic, i.e. to assess the extent in which democracy has affected
the life of the masses in Nigeria.
Significance of the Study
This research work is
important because it would elucidate the performance of government in this
forth republic and will also bring out the lacking of the government and the
work will also proffer solutions to Nigeria problem (democracy), at the end it
would be believed that Nigeria government will implement the recommendations in
so doing the lost glory will be restored.
Definition of Major Terms
Democracy within the last
decade can arguably be said to be the most sought after and
yet the least understood system of Government known to mankind.
Democracy has be defined in
relation to this work.
Tunde Babawale, (2006)
citing Robert Dahl, democracy according to him has three essential conditions
for democracy to function, these
Include;
(i)
High level of civil
liberties
(ii)
Political pluralizing
(extensive competition by
contestants including
individuals, groups or parties for government) and,
(iii)
Political participation that provides the
choice for the electorate to select candidates in free and fair elections.
Democracy government by
inference implies the art of governing people in line with the tenets of
democracy. This concept has also been popularized as "good governance” by
International Financial Institution the World Bank and IMF by which they refer to the exercise of
political power to promote the public good or the welfare of the people.
Appadoria (1975) defines the
concept as a system of government under which the people exercise their
governing power either directly or in directly (through representative elected
by them.
Babatunde (2006) citing
Abraham Lincoln defined democracy as the government of the people by the people
and for the people.
Democracy can even be
defined in terms of its features, i.e. where its features lies there is democracy, these include:
·
Free and fair election
·
Political participation
·
Rule of law
·
Independence of judiciary,
etc.
Development
Walter Rodney (2005),
defined it as increased skill and capacity, greater freedom, creativity, self-discipline,
responsibility and material well-being.
Economic development means
"a society develops economically as its members increase jointly their capacity for dealing
with the environment.
(Ibid) this capacity
for dealing environment is
dependent on the extent to which they understand the laws
of nature (science) on the extent to which they put that understanding into
practice by devising tools is organized.
Political development on its
own implies the level of political civilization in a political system.
Civil Society
Hassan (1999) citing Larry Diamnd defined it as the realm of organized
social life that is voluntary, self-generating, self-supporting, autonomous
from the state and bond by legal order involves of shared rules.
It involves citizens acting
collectively in a public sphere to express their interests, passion, and
exchange of ideal, and information, achieve initial goals, make demands on the
state, and hold state of facials accountable.
Hall
(1992), defined civil society as "an opposite of
disposition” a space in which social group could exist and move, something
which exemplified and would ensure soften, move tolerable conditions of
existence.
Civil Administration
It implies government of the
people and as such would have a listening ear to their plight and by extension
provide for their socio-political needs.
Theoretical Framework
The theory employed for this
work is system analysis theory. System analysis which is today prominent in
political science does not have its origin in the discipline, but rather, it
was borrowed from Biology However, the theory in its operational part in social
sciences is said to have been developed first in Anthropology from where it was
adopted in sociology, and still later in political science. However, writing as
early as 1651. Thomas Hobbes in leviathan also adopted the motion of systems to
explain human relationships Varma, (1982).
The central and guiding
concept in the general systems. Theory is the concept of system' systems are
generally relationships or better still a whole which is compounded of many
parts an ensemble of attributes" Hence system emphasize relationships and
not individuals.
For instance, in natural
science the concept emphasizes the need for inter-disciplinary co-operation in which case there would
be room for exchange of ideas to solve a similar problem in another discipline.
The same thing is true of body system. Although one can concentrate on studying
different parts of the body, but there is a revolution which says that the
study should be based on system i.e. relationships.
Three elements of system can
be identified
·
Parts of the system
·
The parts should be related
to the whole. The part and the whole constitute what is called the 'structure'
·
The contributions each part
make toward the survival of the whole.
This third element
is called the function. This is the essence of
functionalism.
A look at the three elements
shows that General system theory postulates harmony as against conflicts,
integration as against competition. As against power, it postulates systems or
relations. As opposed to shifting alliances, equilibrium (homeostatis).
David Easton was the first
political scientist to develop a systematic framework on the basis of the
systems analysis applied for the study of political, instead of merely adapting
it from Anthropology in sociology. He published "the political
system" in 1933 with a claim that he was attempting to construct a theory
to embrace all the social sciences. He selected the political system as the
basic unit of analysis and concentrated on the intra system behaviour of
various systems as principal areas of research.
Easton (1979) defined the
political system as that system of interactions in any society through which
bindings or authoritative allocations are made. The political system takes
inputs from society consisting of demands for particular policies and
expressions of support for the regime and converts them into outputs
authoritative policies and decisions. Feedback mechanisms put outputs back into
the systems as inputs, thus, completing a complex cyclical operation (outputs
are what governments actually do or the services they render). Many demands
will be made or "articulated" but some are lost in the conversion
process and do not reach the output stage.
Some of the criticisms of
the systems theory include the following:
·
The approach is rather too
abstract. The conceptual structure used by the approach may be very difficult
for empirical test which invariable makes hypotheses and generalizations
difficult.
·
Conceptual categories that
general system theory use try to force all phenomena into the frame work of a
system into input and output functions.
·
There is the problem of how
to operationalize the theory. There are difficulties that surround the central
motion of system e.g. how does one separate the analytical motion of system
from its biology or physical motion of system? Charles worth (1967).
In spite of its critique, it
has been employed because in a civil society decision and policies are expected
in come from the people of the society
and also government articulated that means the government will be affected
because the two go together the important reason why government is formed is to
allocate the scarce resources in a judicious way, people formed government and its responsive
to the people.
The civil society and
government is a body that will not function if a part or system is down.
Hypotheses
Nigerian leader have made
development so difficult, i.e. the public office holders cause retardation in
the development of Nigeria because of low political civilization and culture
among them.
Null Hypotheses
Democracy has imparted very
low development in Nigeria polity i.e. democracy as a system of government has
failed because is foreign system of government
Scope of the study
The scope of this work is
based in this forth republic (1999-2009) and development that occurs (either in
positive or negative way) politically, economically, and socially, would be
examined critically.
Limitation of the Study
The limitation to this work
may include outdated books and inadequate of correct journals in the library.
Organization of Chapters
This research work is divided
into five chapters, the first chapter forms the introductory aspect, scope of
study, methodology, definition of terms and limitation to the work.
The second chapter forms the
literature review that deals with meaning and indices democracy in line with
the meaning of development and various developmental sectors.
The
third chapter critically examines democracy and political development that has
taken place under this forth republic and why election failure Nigerian which
retarded development.
The forth
chapter explains why democracy appears to be failing in Nigeria
political system.
The last chapter porters
solution to the problem in Nigeria political system in relations to summary,
conclusion, and Bibliography.
