Browsing by Author "Onwuka, Sunday Orji"

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    Development of Democratic Culture in Nigeria
    (National Institute Kuru, 2001-11-30) Onwuka, Sunday Orji
    The development of democratic culture in Nigeria has been a continuous issue before the present dispensation. This has been necessitated because the colonial masters left no positive legacy on evolution of democratic governance in the country. The study was actually embarked upon with the aim of making a modest contribution to the ideals of democratic governance in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Invariably a number of conclusions may be drawn from this work in specific terms. This work is a small-scale analytical inquiry which used statistical rule of evidence as the ultimate basis for decision-making. First and foremost, the Nigerian colonial experience impacted negatively on the evolution of democratic governance in the country. This is to the extent that the civil society, itself an essential vanguard for genuine democratisation, has been undermined, demotivated and systematically demobilised by the colonial masters. Secondly, the emergent political class at the time of independence had a lot of parochial tendencies and a highly divisive sense of sectionalism. Thirdly, the political party system that emerged was equally deficient in terms of mass participation and broad based ideology. In fact, all the political parties then were ethnic based and this contributed immensely to divisive tendencies which led to the fall of the first republic. Fourthly, the overt intervention in political processes by the military was a grievous error of political judgement. The military came on the political scene to solve a litany of socio-political and economic problems. It rather became the greatest problem to be solved by all Nigerians. With the long period of military rule, the development of democratic culture in the country was practically halted. Political apathy was ushered in and the civil society did not have a conducive environment to mobilise the people for democracy and development. Pro-democracy movements however provided the point of reference in the march towards democratic governance. Therefore; this work reasserts the fact that the enduring democratic culture can only be put in place if the basic fundamental attitudes, deserved cultures and political will are seen to be evolving systematically. This may sound interesting but it is not exactly so. What is required is the political will. Once the political will is there, every other thing becomes a matter of time and details.