DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA: UNDERSTANDING THE KEY CHALLENGES

The article presents a critical appraisal of the challenges, problems and prospects of Nigerian democracy. After more-than half a century Nigeria got political independence and adopted democracy as its system of governance, the country continues to grapple with the challenges of economic stability, insecurity and good governance. The optimism, hope and great expectations of Nigerians that democracy will facilitate the development of the country seem to be misplaced. Previous studies on the challenges facing Nigerian democracy identified corruption, mismanagement, public malfeasance, nepotism and lack of political will as the major impediments to the success of democracy in the country. The aforementioned notwithstanding, present challenges to Nigerian democracy, however, they are symptoms of an intrinsic but often neglected factors. The study identified two key factors that are sabotaging Nigerian democracy to include: imitation and replication of democratic concepts and militarized-democracy phenomenon. These two factors incubate the other vices that are preeminent in the Nigerian political sphere.