Democracy and Nigeria’s Fourth Republic

Wale Adebanwi is Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Nation as Grand Narrative: The Nigerian Press and the Politics of Meaning (2016) and editor of The Political Economy of Everyday Life in Africa (2017). Jibrin Ibrahim is a Senior Fellow with the Centre for Development, CDD, where he had earlier served as Director. Ibrahim has lectured, published and consulted extensively on democratisation and governance in Africa. Browne Onuoha of the Political Science Department, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Nigeria. He has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Contemporary African Studies, Social Dynamics, Contemporary Justice Review, African Journal of Conflict Resolution, and Asia Journal of Global Studies. Adigun Agbaje is Professor of Political Science at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and Visiting Professor and Director-General, Oba (Dr) Sikiru Kayode Adetona I statute for Governance Studies, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria. He is the author of The Nigerian Press, Hegemony, and the Social Construction of Legitimacy, 1960-1983. Sa'eed Husaini is a Research Fellow at the Center for Democracy and Development (CDD) and a post-doctoral researcher on the UCRI-GCFR funded project on Migration, Urbanization, and Conflict (MUCA) at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He completed a DPhil in International Development at the University of Oxford in 2019. Aliyu Modibbo Umar was a Visiting Fellow at the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford (2019-2021), Lecturer in the University of Abuja (1993-1994). He was previously Nigeria's Federal Minister of State for Power and Steel (2002-2003), Minister of Commerce and Industry (2006-2007), and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja (2007-2008). V. Adefemi Isumonah is a Professor of Political Science and former Head of Department, University of Ibadan. He is co-author of Confronting Islamist Terrorism in Africa: The Cases of Nigeria and Kenya and Federal Presence in Nigeria: The Sung and Unsung Basis for Ethnic Grievance. Matthew T. Page is a non-resident scholar with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, USA, Associate Fellow with the Africa Programme at Chatham House, UK, and non-resident fellow with the Centre for Democracy and Development in Abuja, Nigeria. He co-authored Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2018). Olly Owen is an anthropologist and political economist, currently a Research Associate at University of Oxford Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology. He is also a Technical Advisor to Ekiti State Government. Sarah Burns is Founder and CEO of Nia Impact Consult Ltd. She has a DPhil from the University of Oxford, where she teaches on integrating the private sector with development. She has advised for the CDC, IFC, World Bank and HNWIs. Eyene Okpanachi is Marie Curie Fellow at the University of South Wales, UK. He was previously Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Victoria and Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar at the University of Alberta. Nkwachukwu Orji is a research fellow at the Institute for Development Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria. Between 2017 and 2022, he served as a Resident Electoral Commissioner in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Idayat Hassan is the Director of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), an Abuja (Nigeria) think-tank focusing on deepening democracy and development in West Africa. Her interests span democracy, peace and security, transitional justice, and ICT4D across West Africa. Gbemisola Animasawun is an Associate Professor (Reader) at the Center for Peace & Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin, Nigeria. His essays have been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, edited books, policy briefs, working papers and op-eds that have earned him national and international research grants and honour.

Foreword: Democratization and Nigeria's Fourth Republic: Successes and Challenges
Kayode Fayemi, Governor of Ekiti State of Nigeria

Nigeria's Fourth Republic: An Introduction
Wale Adebanwi

PART I: DEMOCRACY AND THE NIGERIAN STATE
1. Reconstructions, Resilience and Relevance: Political Elites and Ethnic Mobilization, 1999-2019
Eghosa E. Osaghae
2. Federalism, Constitutional Reform, and the Elusive Quest for "Political Restructuring" in Nigeria's Fourth Republic
Rotimi Suberu
3. Democracy in Nigeria: Crises and Consequences of Military Dictatorship
Browne Onuoha

PART II: PARTY POLITICS, THE PRESIDENCY AND THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
4. Democratic Regression, Political Parties and the Negation of the Popularity Principle
Jibrin Ibrahim
5. A Republic of Dashed Hopes? Party Politics and the Travails of Democracy in Nigeria's Fourth Republic
Adigun Agbaje
6. Governing Party Constituency-building in Nigeria's Fourth Republic
Sa'eed Husaini
7. Presidential Leadership Styles in the Fourth Republic
Aliyu Modibbo Umar and V. Adefemi Isumonah
8. Double Standards or Different Lenses? Comparing US Approaches to the Buhari and Abacha Governments
Matthew T. Page

PART III: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY: OIL AND ECONOMIC REFORMS
9. We live in the Future: Is Nigeria no longer an Oil State?
Sarah Burns and Olly Owen
10. Economic Reforms and Human Development in Post-Military Nigeria: A Critical Assessment
Eyene Okpanachi

PART IV: ELECTORAL GOVERNANCE, CIVIL-POLITICAL SOCIETY AND CONFLICT
11. The Promise and Problems of Electoral Reforms
Nkwachukwu Orji
12. From a Human Rights Movement to Civil Society: Changing Contours of Civic Groups
Idayat Hassan
13. Communal Conflicts, State Responses, and Local Peace Infrastructure
Gbemisola Animasawun

Afterword: Nigeria's Long Search for a Viable Political Order
Larry Diamond