Democracy, Good Governance and Sustainable development in Nigeria: Retrospecting the Obasanjo’s Fourth Republic

ABSTRACT The very essence of democracy and democratization and its practices anywhere in world resolves, and should of course, be contingent on the aspirations of the people which such government serves. However,the misfortunes of democratic project in Nigeria since the beginning of Nigeria’s nationhood is largely bereft of ideas, lack of progress, arbitrariness and the overall insulation of the people’s rights and privileges as enshrined in the Constitution. This tendency therefore corroborates the lack of relationship between democracy and good governance as the former may not necessarily translate to the eventual realization of the latter in the real sense of the word. This paper recaps the importance of institutionalizing a free democratic space where the people’s attitudes, institutions and ideas are overhauled for the corporate interest of the Nigerian state. The paper therefore looks at the concepts of democracy, factors good sustainable governance, civil society participation for good governance and the imperatives of good democratic governance in Obasanjo’s Fourth Republic,respectively.The argument in this thesis points to the fact that non-democratic states of Japan,Singapore,North Korea,etc, are not democratic in outlook,and yet, posses vibrant socio-economic base thereby making life meaningful for its citizens.The paper equally measures the economic perfprmance index of the Obasanjo’s Fourth Republic vis-avis Nigeria’s GDP growth rates, educational development and healthcare delivery,respectively.Viable policy options were also made to serve as a guide for future administration in the Nigerian state system at large.
KEYWORDS: Democracy, Good Governance, Sustainable Development, Civil Society, Nigeria’s Fourth Republic.