IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/aaechp/978-3-030-73375-9_1.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

A Stagnant or Retrogressive Democracy? Elections and Democracy in Nigeria, 1999–2019

In: A Sleeping Giant?

Author

Listed:
  • Hakeem Onapajo

    (Nile University of Nigeria
    Lagos State University)

  • Abiodun Fatai

    (Nile University of Nigeria
    Lagos State University)

Abstract

Many studies have highlighted that elections are a crucial element of democracy. This chapter analyses elections during Nigeria’s two decades of democracy (1999–2019) with the aim of evaluating the country’s progress in attaining democracy. Since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, the country has witnessed six electoral cycles. However, persistent concerns about the quality of the elections have a significant impact on the consolidation of democracy. Twenty years after the democratic transition, elections are still marred by cases of electoral fraud, violence and litigation. These issues are not disconnected from the prevalent culture of the political elites whose attitudes are not pro-democracy. We argue that genuine reform that addresses the challenges associated with elections is a precondition for democratic development in Nigeria. This will require that the political elites support a culture of democracy and that election-related institutions are strengthened.

Suggested Citation

  • Hakeem Onapajo & Abiodun Fatai, 2021. "A Stagnant or Retrogressive Democracy? Elections and Democracy in Nigeria, 1999–2019," Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development, in: Oluwaseun Tella (ed.), A Sleeping Giant?, pages 3-15, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:aaechp:978-3-030-73375-9_1
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-73375-9_1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:aaechp:978-3-030-73375-9_1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.