Challenges, Democracy, Survival & Nigeria

Nigeria as sovereign nation got her political Independence from the British Colonial Masters on the 1st October, 1960. She practiced democratic administration amidst of electoral violence and crisis between 1960 to 1966 and the military seized and hold onto power up to 1999 though, with a deceptive intermittent democratic rule for these period. Nigerians happily, joyfully and massively came out and elected leaders of their choice at the poll in 1999 with the enthusiasm and hope that Nigerians must have learnt their lessons to practice the long awaited democracy with the maximum cooperation of all Nigerians so that our nation could join the rest of the democratic nations of the world to enjoy the fruits and dividends of democracy. However, to the utter dismay and disappointment of rational and reasonably thinking Nigerians, the entrance into democracy by the Nigeria state was rather a curse than a blessing. It is in the light of the above that this paper examines the challenges of democratic survival between 1999-2011 in Nigeria. The paper equally concludes that the major problems of Nigeria is selfishness of Nigerians on the basis of tribal, religious and ethnic bigotry. The paper recommends that Nigerians should shun placing ethnic, religion and tribal consideration above national integration because it is only on this premise that Nigeria would thrive and survive democratically