Teaching Comparative

Nigerian political culture

The International Herald Tribune has a good analysis article that considers the condition of Nigeria's political culture. I think it offers a good chance to ask students to cite evidence to support or refute the analysis.

Look for official election results and explanations about why the flaws in the system don't negate the legitimacy of the vote from the president and government spokesmen later today.


Elections disappoint, and Nigerians too beaten down to rise up

"Saturday's presidential vote denounced by the opposition and election observers as a sham was meant to set up Nigeria's first transfer of power from one elected civilian to another, a benchmark for democratic growth...

"But the day after a new president is sworn in on May 29, presuming Nigeria finishes what it started and the populace accepts the results, regular folks will awake as impoverished, disadvantaged and disaffected as ever. They're yet to see the promised benefits of civilian rule — and don't expect to soon.

"'All this is just a waste,' said 32-year old Lawrence Akro, looking at electoral material during the vote. 'It's like a dead lion, no use to anyone.'

"So where are the massive protests, the rising tide of anger to sweep away the corrupt political class that benefits at the expense of the average Nigerian? Where is Nigeria's Vaclav Havel, its Nelson Mandela, its Tiananmen Square?

"Nigerians say they have little time for revolutionary politics — they're so far removed from politics, particularly at the federal level, and their lives are so filled by fighting for survival in a country where the government provides little.

"Plus, they're been conditioned by years of military rule to understand that those who step out of line suffer the worst fates...

"Civilian rule that returned to Nigeria with Obasanjo's 1999 election was supposed to change the country's political calculus, by putting an end to the brutal military regimes that long lorded over Nigeria and handing power to the people.

"Obasanjo, himself a military ruler in the 1970s who handed over to a civilian government later overturned by the army, has made advancements, virtually clearing Nigeria's books of tens of billions of dollars of foreign loans and playing peacemaker for Liberia and other war-battered African countries.

"He has liberalized much of the country's moribund economy and tamed inflation rates that used to reach 400 percent.

"But after three consecutive elections — each more chaotic and heavily rigged than the one before, the opposition says — Nigerians don't see that voting has meant an improvement in their lives..."

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Labels: Nigeria, political culture

posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:26 AM