ELECTIONS AND DEMOCRATIC DEFICITS IN NIGERIA’S FOURTH REPUBLIC: A COMMENTARY

Abstract

This paper is a commentary interrogating the phenomenon of democratic deficits in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic based on an exploratory analysis of secondary sources. The essence of government is the fulfillment of public good. Democratic government is acclaimed to be most suited to determine and implement such a mandate. Incidentally, this has not been a general experience across the world’s democracies. Successive democratic administrations in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic have left a lot to be desired in relation to fulfilling their democratic mandate through proper representation and good governance. Series of elections have produced different crops of supposed people’s representatives. Yet the existential conditions of the people have not been touched in a manner that justifies that these representatives rule at the instance of the people, let alone represent their interests and aspirations. The gaping deficits of democracy in that regard has warranted the submission of this paper to the effect that electoral democracy in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic has not brought about the needed democratic dividends in terms of efficient governance and effective representation.