The Dynamics of Civil Society and the Democratization Process in Nigeria

 The relations between state and society under authoritarian rule in Africa has been described as a case of states without citizens (Ayoade 1988). The consolidation of single parties, president-for- life, extensive security establishments, widespread inequalities, and personal rule has involved the denial of the peoples' right to participate in the decision-making process and sometimes the suspension of the constitution which defined those rights. Governance has often been reduced to the practical expression of the wishes, whims, and caprice of dictators and their cabal. Within this context, the democratic struggles of the 1990s led by Africa's "nascent" civil societies can be described as the consummation of "a second independence." Their activities held the promise of democratic expansion and the end of authoritarianism. However, as democratic governments began to be established in Africa, high expectations about the role and capacity of these civil society orga- nizations to promote governance reform and foster democratic deepening were exaggerated. The illiberal character of elected governments in most of the new democracies is a source of worry, which suggests that the celebration of the triumph of democracy was hasty (Zakaria 1997).