Poverty and the Crisis of Democracy in Nigeria

With the triumph of capitalism over socialism and the consequent globalization of western democracy, the call for democratic governance is very strident, especially from the United States of America. Given also the benefits of democracy, this ideology of government seems more beneficial and even more attractive especially to countries like Nigeria that has hitherto been under years of military dictatorship. To this effect, Nigeria has severally experimented with democratic governments since independence. Past attempts were terminated by the military due to the failure of the politicians. But on May 29, 1999, the country successfully installed a democratically elected government.  Since then, Nigeria has had an unbroken 13 years of democratic government to date. This is the longest period in the history of Nigeria since independence. Unfortunately, after13 years of democratic governance, the expected benefits of democracy has eluded the citizenry. Democracy seems infeasible in Nigeria. Using the minimalist conception of democracy as a framework, the paper sought to discover why there is a crisis in Nigerian democratic experiment. The paper reveals that poverty is the major reason behind the failure of Nigerian democracy. Western democracy was implanted into a poor, weak and fragile economy with poor electorates that are handicapped to take informed decisions or make rational choice of leaders but are contrariwise susceptible to manipulations by politicians. The conclusion arrived at is that unless something is done to liberate the mass of the Nigerian electorate from poverty; democracy will remain infeasible in the country. It recommends a selfless leadership that will liberate the people from the throes of poverty and give them the strength of moral character to make rational and informed choice of leaders through the ballot.