The 2011 General Elections And The Challenges Of Democratic Consolidation In Nigeria

Abstract

The experience in Nigeria has shown that elections are characterized by subversion of the electoral process, manifesting in rigging and other forms of irregularities by the political class. For decades, the citizens have developed a culture of struggle for democracy but have failed to produce enduring democratic governance, essentially because of non-observance of the principles of the rule of law by those in authority. Contemporary literature is replete with impediments to democratic
consolation as lack of development, poverty, corruption, weak institutional structures, ethnic-based conflicts, etc. These factors either in isolation or in combination can exert adverse influence on democratic consolidation; but what was lacking was the challenge of rule of law. In this study therefore, our central problem is to determine how the Nigerian government can enhance the observance of the rule of law to further consolidate on the gains of the 2011 general elections. In the investigation of this study, we employed the basic assumptions emanating from political economy approach as our theoretical framework of analysis and observe that the economically powerful, who reproduce themselves as the politically dominant class arbitrarily abuse the due process of the law. The paper therefore concludes that the observance of the rule of law and due process by all, but, particularly the government, is the road map to democratic consolidation. The paper recommends among other things that government should build capabilities around institutions and strengthen the already existing ones; and develop capacity to sanction political office holders that abuse the process of the rule of law while in office.