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We begin this research with a simple question. Does Democracy engender Development? Democracy is ordinarily seen as a set of institutions and practices whose intention is to implement a certain kind of equal participation of citizens in the political process. Development on the other hand can be seen as argued by a few philosophers as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy. Focusing on human freedoms contrasts seriously with narrower age-long views of development, such as identifying developments with growth of gross national product, or with the rise in personal incomes, or with industrialization, or with technological advancement or with social modernization. As we shall see in this article, development goes beyond the physical accomplishments of a state to the ability for citizens to achieve more freedom to achieve their life goals. Specifically, it is stated in this article that it takes the institution of democracy to give citizens more freedom and this can only come through active participation of the citizens in the entire gamut of the democratic process. This is important because democracy as an institution is a product and a tool of the citizens to organise their society to achieve their goal of freedom and to make this happen, they must choose the kind of leaders and kind of ideology presented to them in a free, credible and fair democracy process. This paper reveals that the Nigerian populace is yet to achieve the dividends of democracy owing to the lack of participation by the people beyond coming out to vote on election days.
Engender, Accomplishments, Age-Long
