POST-AUTHORITARIAN NIGERIA: DEMOCRATIZING UNDER PERVASIVE CORRUPTION

Abstract

This article, adopting descriptive, historical and analytical methods of inquiry and using the post-authoritarian Nigeria as research backdrop, examines the contours and terrains of democratization processes, in Africa, under condition of pervasive corruption. It observes that democratic institutions, in Nigeria since the termination of the authoritarian order in 1999, have performed abysmally in checking the incidences of corruption contrary to the expectations in the donor community, based on the experiences of the advanced democracies, that democracy and its appurtenances once launched, could reduced the incidence of corruption. It notes and argues that this state of affairs is not unconnected to a non-autonomous and a prebendal state, which offers almost limitless opportunities for official corruption to thrive.