DEMOCRATIZATION AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

2015 -2019

Abstract

The focus of this paper is to examine the nexus between democratization and rural development in Nigeria. The democratization process cannot occur until Nigeria has an overall culture conductive to democracy’s success that can stimulate rural development. Ethnic conflicts, religious violence, gender discrimination and severe class divisions are all serious and
contending hindrances in Nigeria and can even destroy it. The objectives of this paper are; to find out the basic conditions that tend to foster democratization in Nigeria, to evaluate the challenges of free and fair elections that can guarantee grassroots development in Nigeria, and to explore the principles of rural development programmes that can be stimulated through democratization process in Nigeria. The study was guided by democratic participating theory. The paper relied on secondary sources of data collection. Hence, historical and explanatory research models were employed in its analysis. The paper finds out among others that the principles of representative and liberal democracy are not implemented in Nigeria. The paper therefore recommends among other that those principles of representative and liberal democracy that can engineer rural development in Nigeria should be implemented.