Examines Nigeria's challenges with consolidating democracy and the crisis of governance arising from structural errors of the state and the fundamental contradictions of society in Nigeria's Fourth Republic.


'Today we are taking a decisive step on the path of democracy,' the newly sworn-in President Olusegun Obasanjo told Nigerians on 27 May 1999. 'We will leave no stone unturned to ensure sustenance of democracy, because it is good for us, it is good for Africa, and it is good for the world.' Nigeria's Fourth Republic has survived longer than any of the previous three Republics, the most durable Republic in Nigeria's more than six decades of independence. At the same time, however, the country has witnessed sustained periods of violence, including violent clashes over the imposition of Sharia'h laws, insurgency in the Niger Delta, inter-ethnic clashes, and the Boko Haram insurgency.

Despite these tensions of, and anxieties about, democratic viability and stability in Nigeria, has democratic rule come to stay in Africa's most populous country? Are the overall conditions of Nigerian politics, economy, and socio-cultural dynamics now permanently amenable to uninterrupted democratic rule? Have all the social forces which, in the past, pressed Nigeria towards military intervention and autocratic rule resolved themselves in favour of unbroken representative government? If so, what are the factors and forces that produced this compromise and how can Nigeria's shallow democracy be sustained, deepened, and strengthened?

This book attempts to address these questions by exploring the various dimensions of Nigeria's Fourth Republic in a bid to understand the tensions and stresses of democratic rule in a deeply divided major African state. The contributors engage in comparative analysis of the political, economic, and social challenges that Nigeria has faced in the more than two decades of the Fourth Republic and the ways in which these were resolved - or left unresolved - in a bid to ensure the survival of democratic rule. This key book, which examines both the quality of Nigeria's democratic state and its international relations, as well as issues such as human rights and the peace infrastructure, will be invaluable in increasing our understanding of contemporary democratic experiences in the neoliberal era in Africa.

Contributor: Wale Adebanwi WALE ADEBANWI is Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Nation as Grand Narrative: The Nigerian Press and the Politics of Meaning (2016) and editor of The Political Economy of Everyday Life in Africa (2017). --- Contributor: Jibrin Ibrahim Jibrin Ibrahim is a Senior Fellow with the Centre for Development, CDD, where he had earlier served as Director. Ibrahim has lectured, published and consulted extensively on democratisation and governance in Africa. --- Contributor: Browne Onuoha Browne Onuoha of the Political Science Department, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Nigeria. He has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Contemporary African Studies, Social Dynamics, Contemporary Justice Review, African Journal of Conflict Resolution, and Asia Journal of Global Studies. --- Contributor: Adigun Agbaje Adigun Agbaje is Professor of Political Science at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and Visiting Professor and Director-General, Oba (Dr) Sikiru Kayode Adetona I statute for Governance Studies, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria. He is the author of The Nigerian Press, Hegemony, and the Social Construction of Legitimacy, 1960-1983. --- Contributor: Sa'eed Husaini Sa'eed Husaini is a Research Fellow at the Center for Democracy and Development (CDD) and a post-doctoral researcher on the UCRI-GCFR funded project on Migration, Urbanization, and Conflict (MUCA) at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He completed a DPhil in International Development at the University of Oxford in 2019. --- Contributor: Aliyu Modibbo Umar Aliyu Modibbo Umar was a Visiting Fellow at the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford (2019-2021), Lecturer in the University of Abuja (1993-1994). He was previously Nigeria's Federal Minister of State for Power and Steel (2002-2003), Minister of Commerce and Industry (2006-2007), and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja (2007-2008). --- Contributor: V. Adefemi Isumonah V. Adefemi Isumonah is a Professor of Political Science and former Head of Department, University of Ibadan. He is co-author of Confronting Islamist Terrorism in Africa: The Cases of Nigeria and Kenya and Federal Presence in Nigeria: The Sung and Unsung Basis for Ethnic Grievance. --- Contributor: Matthew Page Matthew T. Page is a non-resident scholar with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, USA, Associate Fellow with the Africa Programme at Chatham House, UK, and non-resident fellow with the Centre for Democracy and Development in Abuja, Nigeria. He co-authored Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2018). --- Contributor: Olly Owen Olly Owen is an anthropologist and political economist, currently a Research Associate at University of Oxford Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology. He is also a Technical Advisor to Ekiti State Government. --- Contributor: Sarah Burns Sarah Burns is Founder and CEO of Nia Impact Consult Ltd. She has a DPhil from the University of Oxford, where she teaches on integrating the private sector with development. She has advised for the CDC, IFC, World Bank and HNWIs. --- Contributor: Eyene Okpanachi Eyene Okpanachi is Marie Curie Fellow at the University of South Wales, UK. He was previously Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Victoria and Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar at the University of Alberta. --- Contributor: Nwachukwu Orji Nkwachukwu Orji is a research fellow at the Institute for Development Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria. Between 2017 and 2022, he served as a Resident Electoral Commissioner in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). --- Contributor: Idayat Hassan Idayat Hassan is the Director of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), an Abuja (Nigeria) think-tank focusing on deepening democracy and development in West Africa. Her interests span democracy, peace and security, transitional justice, and ICT4D across West Africa. --- Contributor: Gbemisola Animasawun Gbemisola Animasawun is an Associate Professor (Reader) at the Center for Peace & Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin, Nigeria. His essays have been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, edited books, policy briefs, working papers and op-eds that have earned him national and international research grants and honour.

It succeeds as a well of knowledge and its contributors peel back the layers on a complicated subject in a complex country. --- Nigeria's Fourth Republic has lasted longer than its three predecessors combined, yet it is highly contested. What explains the paradox? Wale Adebanwi has assembled a dream team of scholars and analysts to explore key issues in government, politics, and public affairs: federalism, ethnicity, elections, human rights and economy. The contributors to this important volume explain the dynamics of party politics and the evolution of the federal system without major constitutional revision. During a period of heightened instability in west Africa, and global challenges such as the pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war, rising fuel and food prices, and climate change, much depends on the resilience of Africa's largest electoral democracy. An extensive bibliography complements the chapters in this vital sourcebook on Africa's pivotal nation. --- This book is the most comprehensive, dispassionate and critical evaluation of the trials and tribulations of Nigeria's democratic development in the Fourth Republic, undertaken by some of the most distinguished scholars on/of Nigeria. Fresh insights are offered by the contributors, towards a better understanding of the complex issues which constrain or obstruct progress and development, and which require the most urgent consideration and resolution. Reading this book is intellectual exciting and immensely beneficial.