Nigeria's 2019 Democratic Experience

Nigerias democratisation efforts since attaining political independence from Britain have been tumultuous and have spanned over three successive republics. A persistent bug decimating Nigerias democracy and repeatedly leading to military coups has been brazen electoral violence perpetrated by the nations political elite. Nigeria's 2019 Democratic Experience analyses and explains what went wrong in Nigerias experiment with democracy. Nigeria, Africas most populous nation and the worlds seventh most populous nation, also contributes 70% of West Africas population. She is sub-Saharan Africas largest oil producer and has remained Africas largest economy by GDP since 2014. The country has hundreds of diverse ethnic nationalities and languages grouped into 36 states (or federating units) and an independent federal capital territory. Though recognized as Africas largest democracy, her democratisation process since the 1960s has remained tumultuous with massive electoral violence and political intolerance. This repeatedly compelled the military to intervene in the nations political history in the years 1966, 1983 and 1985. It is these developments that provided the motivation for this volume to capture for posterity the conduct of the 2019 General Elections in Nigeria.