A Sociological Study Of Demagoguery In The Democratic Governance Of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic

 ABSTRACT

There are concerns about the feasibility of democratic governance in Africa generally, and in Nigeria particularly due to pervasive demagoguery in the practice of democracy, which is still relatively understudied (particularly as it relates to the Nigerian context). In spite the seemingly remarkable progress of democracy in Nigeria, its survival, deepening and dividends are threatened by anti-democratic behaviour and practices that are antithetical to the universally acknowledged principles, values and culture of democracy. The objectives of the study were to examine the ways in which demagoguery manifests itself in Nigeria‘s democracy, examine the role of demagoguery in Nigeria‘s democracy in the Fourth Republic, identify the factors that make demagoguery thrive in the democratic politics of Nigeria, and examine the implications of demagoguery on democracy and good governance in Nigeria. The study adopted triangulation of methods, collecting data from both primary and secondary sources. A total of 658 respondents and 20 interviewees drawn from political parties, security agencies, Independent National Electoral Commission and political office holders participated in the study. Data were analysed using frequency and percentage distributions, cross tabulations and regression (for the quantitative data), and content analysis (for the qualitative data). Results from the quantitative data, which were complemented by the qualitative analyses, show that demagoguery pervades Nigeria‘s democracy and determines the country‘s politics. Also, the study shows that election outcomes are no reflections of a free, fair and credible democratic process, but are the outcome of a constellation of demagogic factors such as monetary inducement, intimidation, the use of security agencies and thugs to disrupt or manipulate democratic processes or outcomes, and election fraud. Two hypotheses were tested in the study. The first hypothesis showed that outcome of elections in democratic contestations in Nigeria‘s Fourth Republic is significantly influenced by a combination of acts of demagoguery including monetary inducement, intimidation and election fraud at a p-value of .000. The second hypothesis showed that money, though important, is not a significantly sufficient factor in determining the outcome of elections in Nigeria. The implications of demagoguery for democracy and good governance are that democracy loses its idea as the government that attains or retains political power through the people and makes it a venture of self-interests through Machiavellian politics. The findings of the study inform the recommendations that highlight the importance of citizens‘ education, strict and impartial implementation of sanctions against violators of democratic and electoral laws, accentuating the impartiality of security agencies and the need for constitutional amendment to protect the democratic rights of citizens against the impunity of democratic institutions, especially political parties.