Nigeria, a country in West Africa, has a large population comprising of more than two hundred ethnic groups. Historically, Nigeria has suffered several military coups since gaining its independence in the 1960s from the British imperial government.
The impacts of these military regimes devastated Nigeria’s development until recently, when the country had a robust democratic upheaval. The transformation of the political arena in the early 1990s saw the country embrace democracy and political expediency. It endeavored to begin social reforms while ensuring proper economic administration.
Critics of the Nigeria’s political system argue that the reinvention of the Nigerian governance in the 1990s was just a mirage used to attract international association, legitimization and financial aid. In this regard, unfounded democracy became a victim of non-representative regimes, which was inspired by non-liberal and bad governance.
At the time, the market-focused kind of politics led to the impoverishment of a country endowed with resources such as oil. The electorate was subjected to coercive state arms, while the judiciary was highly influenced by the incumbent politicians. In many cases, the rule of law became insignificant in the administration of justice and policy establishment.
The power to put leaders to their positions was often arbitrarily allocated to the people who controlled the state resources. At the same time, policies were implemented with disregard to need to balance distribution of state resources. This is evidenced by the Structural Adjustment Program, which had earlier been abandoned by the electorate but was upheld by the government despite the knowledge of its adverse effects on the economy and political stability.
Previous general elections were marred with malpractices as the ruling incumbents sought to lengthen their tenure with disregard to law, which governs the electoral process. The electorate was denied the right to exercise their democratic will, and this inherently, contributed to the post-election upheavals. The wielding of power by these corrupt leaders brought about the individualistic abuse of state apparatus and manipulation of the electoral results.
The Nigerian political regimes have been faced by various challenges such as voter apathy, impunity and corrupt politics. The results of the 2007 election portrayed the country’s inability to utilize its resources in order to achieve a salient political democratic rule. The challenges affecting the Nigerian politics have not been different from those affecting its African counterparts.
Corruption and culture of impunity have been the main challenges to democracy in most African states. The inability of electoral bodies to run credible elections has been a challenge to the electorate’s aspirations to wipe out corruption of the ruling elites. Money politics have come to play, which creates a tendency to negate democracy and militarize the political democratic space.
The liberal will and empowerment of the people has been the aim of political restructuring of the state systems in Nigeria. The unending effort to oust the corrupt and undemocratic leaders by the electorate has countered the terms of these political dictators. Most recently, the Nigerians used legal means to thwart the efforts of the incumbent president to prolong his rule.
Actions strikes and the rise of civil society organizations have championed the democratic rights of the citizens, and thus, securing the demands of the people, as evidenced in the President Yar Adua’s first month into term.
This brought about the minimization of corrupt policies such as the increased oil prices by the end of President Olesegun Obasanjo’s rule and the restructuring of the electoral processes. This means that the political arenas within the African context have to be leveled in order to obtain an impeccable democratic political rule.