Authors :
Afolabi Adebayo Kehinde
Volume/Issue :
Volume 7 - 2022, Issue 10 - October
Google Scholar :
https://bit.ly/3IIfn9N
Scribd :
https://bit.ly/3Tybhr4
DOI :
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7242998
Abstract :
West Africa like other regions of Africa has
undergone unprecedented changes in relation to the
democratic process. Between the 1980s and 1990s,
discussions and commentaries on democratic process in
Africa were dominated by the controversy over the
respective influence of external and internal factors that
triggered this historical phenomenon. Almost three
decades after the end of the Cold War, the state of
democracy in West Africa could be best described
through the metaphor of a glass half full or empty.
Nigeria so far has experienced two decades of
uninterrupted democracy and democratic transition
from a military regime to a democratic regime from
1999 to date. However, history of failed elections has
eroded public confidence in the electoral institutions, a
challenge that hasantagonize Nigeria’s democracy and
has contributed to the country’s democratic regression.
This study was designed to examine the roles of the
electoral institutions in consolidating democracy in West
Africa. (A Case Study of Nigeria electoral institution).
As it is, democracy in Africa faces the risk of being
trapped in the electoral fallacy. Regular elections take
place, but the democratic franchise has not become
sufficiently diffused and entrenched as a mode of
governance across political and social institutions.
Therefore, it becomes interesting to examine the role of
electoral institutions in consolidating and deepening
democracy in Nigeria. The study, therefore, will use
phenomenological research design that has the formed
pattern of a qualitative research strategy to ascertain the
empirical facts.
West Africa like other regions of Africa has
undergone unprecedented changes in relation to the
democratic process. Between the 1980s and 1990s,
discussions and commentaries on democratic process in
Africa were dominated by the controversy over the
respective influence of external and internal factors that
triggered this historical phenomenon. Almost three
decades after the end of the Cold War, the state of
democracy in West Africa could be best described
through the metaphor of a glass half full or empty.
Nigeria so far has experienced two decades of
uninterrupted democracy and democratic transition
from a military regime to a democratic regime from
1999 to date. However, history of failed elections has
eroded public confidence in the electoral institutions, a
challenge that hasantagonize Nigeria’s democracy and
has contributed to the country’s democratic regression.
This study was designed to examine the roles of the
electoral institutions in consolidating democracy in West
Africa. (A Case Study of Nigeria electoral institution).
As it is, democracy in Africa faces the risk of being
trapped in the electoral fallacy. Regular elections take
place, but the democratic franchise has not become
sufficiently diffused and entrenched as a mode of
governance across political and social institutions.
Therefore, it becomes interesting to examine the role of
electoral institutions in consolidating and deepening
democracy in Nigeria. The study, therefore, will use
phenomenological research design that has the formed
pattern of a qualitative research strategy to ascertain the
empirical facts.
