Amoral Politics, The Fourth Republic And The Future Of Nigeria’s Democratic Project

Abstract

The political climate in Nigeria since 1999 when the country returned to electoral democracy has been unstable. It has been characterized by electoral violence, ethnic and religious crises, communal clashes, political prostitution and/or vagrancies, and political assassinations, political party disintegration and series of unconstitutional impeachments. These, are both symptoms and consequences of amoral politics. The task in the paper is fourfold: one, the paper argues that politics in Nigeria since 1999, like ever before, is devoid of moral content and that this explains the high level of instability in the polity; second, it identifies and discusses both the symptoms and consequences of amoral politics, third, it explicates the implication of political amorality for democratic consolidation in the country and lastly the paper offers some prescriptions for the sustainability of Nigeria’s democratic project. The paper’s main thesis is that the crisis of governance in Nigeria is a crisis of morality and that democracy cannot thrive in an amoral political milieu.