More systematic application of thresholds

Democracy was introduced to Nigeria by the Hugh Clifford Constitution of 1922, through the Elective Principle which authorizes the election of four Nigerians – three from Lagos and one from Calabar into the Legislative Council, under Limited Franchise. Nigerians of annual income of £100 who might have resided in these cities for a minimum of twelve months were eligible to vote for the elections in these cities. The impact of this development was the upbeat of political activities with formation of the first political party in the country – Nigerian National Democracy Party in 1923, by Herbert McCarthy. This party won the 1923, 1928 and 1933 legislative council elections in these two cities and facilitated the agitation for further democratisation process in the council. This must be understood given the autocratic nature of colonial Rule which did not give room for broad based indigenous participation and representation in decision making in the country.

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The continuous demand of the educated elite for participation in governance and indeed self-government generated the formation of Nigerian Youth Movement in 1936 and the National Council for Nigeria and Cameroun were also formed to put pressure on the British to further democratise the existing system. Aided by the Atlantic Charter of August 9, 1941 which supported the right for self-determination by people all over the world as the new principle of Post World War II, the demand for further opening resulted in the Richard’s Constitution of 1946 which increased Nigerian representatives in the legislative council to twenty – eight. The constitution also provided Regional Assemblies for the three regions, which served as the Electoral College for the indirect election of twenty four indigenous members to the legislative council out of the twenty-eight. The remaining four continued to be elected directly as provided for in the Clifford Constitution. More so, Nigerians outnumbered the Britons who have only sixteen officials in the council, empowered to consent to legislation before it becomes a law by the governor. Again, there was improvement on the limited franchised as £50 was required as the annual income for voters as against the £100 stipulated by the Clifford’s constitution. However, the constitution was fabricated without consultation with Nigerians and the executive arm continued to be highly personalised and appointed by the Governor, so also was the restriction of Nigerians to discussion rather than participation in the management of the country’s affairs.

The inadequacy of Richard’s democratic experiment and persistent pressure from Nigerians for greater participation and democratisation led to the replacement of Arthur Richards with John Macpherson, who did not only acknowledge the weaknesses of Richards’ effort at democratisation of the country, but took concrete steps to correct them.

Macpherson therefore embarked on nation-wide consultation with Nigerians across board. This was followed by series of conferences from the village, divisional, provincial and the regional levels. The recommendations of the regional conferences were submitted to the general conference of 1950 in Ibadan.

The resolutions and recommendations was submitted to the legislative council for ratification before it was passed to the secretary of state for the colonies for final approval. This constitution came into effect on June 30, 1951, with a provision for the House of Representative whose one hundred and Thirty (130) members were elected through Regional Assemblies with full power to legislate for the whole country and sometimes override the legislation of the Regional Assemblies. At regional level, the legislatures were empowered by the constitution to legislate on limited matters clearly specified on concurrent list such as education, agriculture and local government. However, the executive

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arm of government was less democratized as the British continued to denominate, even at regional levels, but twelve indigenous ministers were appointed from members of the House of Representatives (four from each region) to increase Nigerian Element at Council of Ministers, under the Chairmanship of the Governor which was the chief policy making body of the Central Government. This implies Nigerians involvement in the management of the affairs of their country for the first time at the highest level with such numerical strength. The constitutions also enfranchised all tax-payers in the country.

The limitation of Macpherson’s constitution was corrected to some extent by Littleton constitution of 1954 after the London conferences of 1953 and Lagos conference of January 1954. This constitution fashioned out Federal Structure for the country, with unicameral legislature whose members were elected directly by the electorates. The Regional Assemblies were further strengthened make laws on the concurrent and residual list. The electoral system gave way and ministers were still appointed from the House of Representatives. It gave greater autonomy to the Regions with the creation of the position of Regional Governors who were given the power to levy taxes and developed their regions.

Thus, regional civil services were created as well as judiciary. However, the status of the council of Ministers remained the same and the Governor-General at the centre as well as the Regional Governors were still powerful enough to negate legislation both at Central and Regional levels. They were still British officials. Nevertheless, there was improvement in Nigerian participation and management of their affairs.

The weaknesses of the Littleton constitution – absence of Prime Minister, fear of minorities and probable date for national independence, amongst others led to the London Conference of 1957, 1958 and 1960.

The outcome was the granting of self government to Western and Eastern Regions on August 8, 1957, the creation of the post of Prime Minister occupied by Tafawa Balewa in 1957, the creation of Senate as the upper house – thus the introduction of Bi-cameralism at independence. In deed these conferences led to the democratisation and restructuring of the polity and establishment of institutions leading to the attainment of independence on October 1, 1960 and the subsequent Republicanism in 1963. Thus at independence, the British supervised democratisation process ended in Nigeria and resumed during the military regime of General Muritala Mohammed/Obasanjo in 1975.

Fortunately, this administration laid the foundation for Constitutional–

Evolutionary model of military disengagement from politics which entails absolute withdrawal and neutrality of the Armed Forces in the process which is distinguished from the Military – turned political model witnessed in Africa as in Ghana during Jerry Rowling

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metamorphosis in 1992. Constitutional evolution lays emphasis on methods and procedures such as writing of a new constitution, convocation of Constituent Assembly empowered to debate and ratify the draft constitution, lifting of ban on political parties activities political restructuring and delimitation of constituencies and electoral processes to determine the successors to the military and formation of the new government. Consequently, despite the death General Muritala Mohammed , Obasanjo implemented the democratisation of the regime to the letter, starting with the creation of additional seven states and constitution drafting in 1975 – 76, Local Government Re-organization, Reforms and Elections as well as summoning of a Constituent Assembly to deliberate on the Draft constitution (September 1976 – October 1978); Electoral Constituency delimitation and lifting of ban on political party activities (October 1978), Elections into the state and Federal executive and legislative arms in 1979. Thus the administration adopted the American model of Presidential system of Government in 1979 in the Federal structure with Executive President, Bi-cameral legislature and multi-party system, with Shehu Shagari and his National Party of Nigeria (NPN) emerging as the ruling party at Federal level. However, this democratic experiment was suspended with the military intervention of General Buhari on December 31, 1983.

Attempt at democratisation was made by General Babangida between 1985 – 1993. He created two government founded political parties. The Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC). After series of manipulation in a convoluted transition programme by General Babangida, the process came to a halt with the annulment of the June 12, 1993 perceived to have been won by Chief – Moshood Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The stepping aside of General Babangida and subsequent inauguration of Interim National Government headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan Created a legal pitfall which lead to its demise by General Abacha coup in November 18, 1993. However, Abacha’s attempt at democratisation was designed for self-succession which ended with his sudden death on June 8, 1998 and the emergence of General Abdulsalam Abubakar as the Head of State on June 9, 1998.

Abubakar had the shortest democratisation programmes which lasted for about eleven (11) months within which he organized elections in various tiers of government. He did not bother to create states and other time wasting institutions but rather adopted the 1979 constitution with minor modifications and renamed it as 1999 constitution. Three political parties were registered for the elections and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was declared the winner and has indeed been the ruling

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party since the inauguration of the Fourth Republic which has lasted well over a decade; the longest in Nigeria’s political history.

All said democratisation process in Nigeria can be divided into two phases: democratisation into nationhood under the supervision of the British colonialist and transition to democracy after interruption by military rule.