The Nigerian State, Democratization and Political Parties: A Counter-Elites Interpretation
Chimaroke Mgba

Abstract
The paper examines the implications of Nigeria’s multiparty/electoral democracy subsumed under democratization on the state and popular empowerment. With regular elections since 1999 that slightly improved in conduct in 2011, the paper avers that the end result is at best an electoral authoritarianism. Though with some positives leading some observers to make a case for democratic optimism in the country, the paper from a counter-elites perspective contends that multiparty/electoral in Nigeria is deeply defective as it is manipulated by the political elites who see it mainly as a strategy or means to capture and consolidate their hold onto state power and to serve their narrow interests. It is characterized by lack of an independent and effective electoral management body, internal democracy, ideology and a viable opposition among others. It is a system with a democratic exterior but lacking genuine change in its internal working and behavior of the political elites. On the whole, the paper argues that multiparty/electoral democracy has neither changed the authoritarian character of the state nor provided the expected ‘dividends of democracy’ or improved welfare of majority of Nigerians. The paper adopts the qualitative methods in generating data- depending on both primary and secondary sources. The qualitative methods align with the interpretative epistemology, which contextualizes knowledge and relies on the experiences and realties of a given people and environment.

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