Post-militarism: Provenance of praetorian democracy in Nigerian, 1999 – 2007

Abstract

This paper attempts to capture the logic and character of Nigerian politics and governance from 1999 to 2007. The development of ‘command democracy’ took root during this period. On the basis of the empirical evidence adduced, the paper argued that the phenomenon of ‘praetorian democracy’ which became visible from 1999 to 2007 undermined the constitution and due democratic process. Executive contempt for the rule of law, gave the president the power of a military Head of State, while
the federal system was run like a unitary state. The dialectical confrontation between democracy and partocracy, in which a black market system of power evolved to leverage the dominant wing of People
Democracy Party leadership became the painful reminder of the inglorious military authoritarian antibodies constructed to resist democratic virus. Conscious of the crisis of power fixation that makes acquisition of state power the only guarantee of upward social mobility, shrinking the state to make it less attractive as the politics of the “belly domain” is recommended.