The Politics of National Leadership and Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria

Abstract

The politics of national leadership and democratic consolidation in Nigeria have continued to gain the attention of political scientists, historians, economists, and other social science and humanity scholars and writers. The fact may remain the rising worries over the trajectory of political democracy and national leadership in Nigeria as both are interwoven. The essence of this paper is to diagnose the gamut of the interwoven of politics of national leadership and democratic consolidation in Nigeria and with a view to chat a new course and develop a narrative that could help better the country’s national leadership and democracy. The role money plays is no longer a novel to the prospects of political democracy in Nigeria and who knows how poverty had dealt with it too. In an attempt to deal with the problems of politics of national leadership and democracy in Nigeria, fragmented and poverty syndrome of democracy in Nigeria theoretical paradigm was initiated and developed by this author in order to help chat a new and a better course for the country’s political democracy and national leadership using the secondary method of data collection and content analysis approach to assess the study. The electoral act should prohibit the sharing of money by any candidate of political party during party primaries. In that regard, this paper among other recommendations suggested the need for the Nigerian national legislature to create an act that would make provisions for national trust fund for national delegates of all political parties during general elections in Nigeria and in addition make the giving and collection of money during party primaries from party candidates by the party delegates a crime punishable by law.