Democratic sustainability in nigeria’s fourth republic: Challenges and prospects

The desire of all governments to be labelled as “democratic” stems from the realization that real application of democratic tenets and principles to public governance helps the process of societal development. This realization alone propels all types of government to appropriate to itself and call its system democratic. Democracy is at the heart of growth and development. It is therefore, not unusal to argue that democracy has proved to be the perfect tools for service delivery and conflict resolution and subsequent enjoyment of the dividends of democracy. However, the present political situation in Nigeria has not given enough room for this. This paper there fore, attempt to take an overview of the various factors posing as threat to the sustainability of democracy in Nigeria. Utilizing secondary data and content analysis as its method of analysis, several factors ranging from lack of respect for the constitution, abuse of electoral process, god fatherism, bad governance, politics of exclusion, insecurity, e.t.c, were identified as the major problems confronting democracy in Nigeria. Thus, the study recommended total adherence to the constitution, development of a culture of proper participation in political and governance processes, tolerance, periodic training and re-training of INEC officials, immunity from criminal cases, among others.