THE NEXUS BETWEEN DEMOCRACY AND NIGERIA’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Democracy has proved not to be an exclusive path to economic progress, if by economic progress is meant improvements in key economic metrics notably, production and income. Democracy has however held out with regard to economic development. Development here means the unfolding of abilities, capacities and freedoms, leading to a high quality of life for all, and an enduring competitiveness among nations. Nigeria has yet to experience the democracy that fosters such outcomes. That may explain why, nearly forty years of practicing democracy, and abundant as her endowments remain even today, neither economic development nor meaningful economic progress appears to have taken place in the country. If western liberal democracy is recognised as alien to the peoples of Nigeria, then the period following its adoption by the country could rightly be considered as a period of collective learning. The outcome of this collective learning indicates no clear grasp of how democracy works or how it can deliver its much vaunted dividends, what with the reality of the hegemon of globalisation and its proponents posing as altruistic do-gooders. The poor outcome could also only have been, given the ethnic-intense power tussle among the elite, and the lack of progress in forging one nation out of the several nations that constitute Nigeria. The obvious way forward is to do things differently. Using the dialectical, thematic approach, secondary and anecdotal data, and the hypothesis of Socio-economic formation, the study found that Western liberal democracy is incapable of being practiced in present day Nigeria. It therefore recommended a system that reflects the economy of Nigeria and its substructure. This can be found in the strikingly similar indigenous political systems in the nation-states that comprise Nigeria, and is best approached by true federalism and homogenous partitioning.