DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION: THE STUDY OF POST-THIRD WAVE DEMOCRATISATION IN GHANA AND NIGERIA

The practice of democratic consolidation in Nigeria and Ghana is primarily based on performance of political system in the West African sub-region. While many studies have strongly affirmed this assertion, the incumbent political party and the opposition parties contested for power by election. Democratic consolidation is an institutional arrangement that reflects upon competition with the aim of changing leadership consistently in the political system. The opposition parties in each country have formed an alternative government (power) in the post-third wave democratization. Consequently, the assertion that the performance of the ruling party corroborates the practice in Nigerian and Ghana that the legitimacy of rulers usually depends on the extent to which the contestants meet the expectations of the voters determine who the vote for as their rulers. In this study, the qualitative research method is adopted. Ghana perfectly consolidated with little electoral challenges, while Nigerian is lagging behind due to inter and intra party crises that resulted in party disunity. The study finds that the practice of democratic consolidation requires electoral setting fashioned along the line of allowing peaceful changes in government where the people so wish. The study concluded that the politicians and electorates must allow democratic tenets to thrive; and recommended that African nations need in the present time to charter a course thet will allow democratization and guarantee development of genuine institution of democracy.