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Nigeria's Stumbling Democracy and its Implications for Africa's Democratic Movement is the first book to recount and analyze Nigeria's controversial general elections of April 2007. Because Nigeria's immense and diverse population of 140 million people and its wealth of natural resources make it a microcosm of Africa, Nigerian politics are an ideal case study and bellwether by which to view and understand African politics and the ongoing democratic experiments on the continent. Ten leading scholars of Nigerian and African politics, variously based in Nigeria, the US, and Europe, contribute original chapters commissioned by Professor Okafor to provide an account at once deep and comprehensive of what went wrong with these disputed presidential, federal, and state elections; together with their implications for the future of the democratic movement, both in Nigeria and in Africa as a whole.
Although the 2007 general elections resulted in the first-ever handover of political power from one civilian government to another in the history of Nigeria, by which the two-term Christian president Olusegun Obasanjon was succeeded by a Muslim, Alhaji Musa Yar'Adua, they were condemned by internal and international watchdogs for pervasive vote-rigging, violence, intimidation, and fraud which were, as this book documents, perpetrated by and with the connivance of the nation's security forces. The disappointment of continental hopes that these elections might finally break with Nigeria's history of tainted elections has grave repercussions for the democracy movement not only in Nigeria but throughout Africa-as seen in the knock-on effect upon the disastrous general elections in Kenya later the same year.
List of contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: An Overview of Nigerias Political History
Chapter 3: Nigerias Disputed Elections and the Resultant Leadership Legitimacy Crisis
Chapter 4: Democracy on Sale: The 2007 Elections and the Future of the Democratic Movement in Africa
Chapter 5: Dialectics of Patronage Politics and Representative Democracy: the Case of Anambra State of Nigeria
Chapter 6: Is Electronic Voting an Answer to Nigerias Electoral Problems?
Chapter 7: The Role of Geographical Zoning in Nigerias Democracy
Chapter 8: Nigeria's 2007 Elections and the Future of Democracy in Africa: An Optimistic View
Chapter 9: Nigerias 2007 Elections: A Great Danger for the Future of Democracy in Africa
Chapter 10: Nigerias 2007 Elections in Comparative Perspective: Democratic Capitalism and the Crisis of Democracy in Africa
Chapter 11: Democracy and Development in Africa: Important Lessons from African American History
About the author
Victor Oguejiofor Okafor is Professor of African American Studies at Eastern Michigan University. He directed African American Studies at North Carolina State University. He is the author of several books on Africology, including A Roadmap for Understanding African Politics: Leadership and Political Integration in Nigeria, which won a 2007 International Cheikh Anta Diop Conference award. As senior editor of the news department of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, he covered Nigerian national elections. He served as a staff reporter for The Daily Times of Nigeria.
Summary
Offers an analysis of Nigeria's controversial general elections of April 2007, and the implications for the future of the democratic movement in Africa. This book provides an account of what went wrong with these disputed presidential, federal, and state elections.
