INSTITUTIONAL WEAKNESS AND DEMOCRATIC FRAGILITY IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The Contemporary Nigerian State is being challenged by lack of progress and development as a result of pervading institutional weakness hence the fragile status of its democracy. Some reasons have been advanced by scholars for this ugly trend which include pervasive corruption, leadership deficit, weak legislature, inefficient policing, compromised judiciary, and the dependence of Nigeria’s political economy on western capitalism. The main objective of this paper was to investigate and interrogate the cause of institutional weakness and democratic fragility in Nigeria. The study employed the dependency theory to anchor its work. This theory attributed the pervasiveness of institutional weakness and democratic fragility in Nigeria to unbridled dependence on the western capitalist system thereby giving room for arrested development of institutions meant to nurture democracy ab initio. The paper engaged desk research methodology and found that indeed, the unmitigated attachment of the Nigerian political economy to the apron strings of western capitalism had gone a long way to hamstring its process of growth and development. The paper therefore concluded that unless something drastic and urgent is done, Nigerian democracy may be heading for the rock. There is therefore the need for the review or outright reconstruction of the Nigerian state so as to allow the emergence of strong institutions that will constrain individuals in governance to confine to the dictates of constitutional provisions. It is only when this is done that Nigeria can be said to be threading the path of a consolidated democracy with strong institutions servicing a strong state. This is the only credible trajectory towards an unhindered and accelerated development.