Militarised Democracy: A Case Study of Nigeria

On 29th May 2019, Nigeria celebrated the twentieth anniversary of her latest democratisation process. Within this period, Nigeria has successfully organised six (6) elections with three changes of government. This is quite remarkable for democracy in Nigeria. However, because of the long years of military rule (31 years), it has been difficult to obliterate the hangover of the militarised psyche of Nigerian political actors. Despite the fact that we have civil rule, Nigeria still experiences abuse of the constitution, brutalisation of the citizenry, crackdown on the press, violent electioneering, significant influence of the military on political and social issues, which are identified with military rule. This study examined how democratic Nigerian democracy is since the last twenty years. It highlighted the features of military rule in our democracy. Workable recommendations such as ensuring proper devolution of powers, implementation of fiscal federalism, elimination of executive immunity etc are suggested for Nigeria to move from a militarised democracy to the ideal democracy.