Democracy now! The resurgence of Nigerian civil society

Spurred by the annulment of the Presidential election of 1993 by the Nigerian military government, an election which elected Chief Moshood Abiola as the nation's third democratically-elected leader, the Nigerian political landscape, between 1993--1998, was pervaded by an expansive opposition to that decision, and the growth of an even larger and more formidable resistance movement emerging from civil societal sectors against continued and sustained military rule in that country.Democracy Now!: The Resurgence of Nigerian Civil Society is a dissertation on the pro-democracy struggles which occurred during Nigeria's phase of democratization between 1990--1998. Drawing upon the events depicted during this period, the objective of the present study seeks to determine the extent to which these democratic struggles in Nigeria contributed to democratic advancement in that country. By examining the extent to which a strong array of social movement organizations has provided the basis for limiting military-state power in contemporary Nigerian politics, in this dissertation, I especially seek to explain the paradox of a country endowed with a longstanding, rich and vibrant civil associational life but yet a country that as late as the 1990's struggled with the development of a sustainable democratic polity.In theoretical perspective, I have attempted to reflect the general trend among contemporary social science, which is examining the Post Cold War emergence and resurgence of pro-democracy struggles in Africa by resuscitating the 16 th Century western European-originated concept of "civil society" and applying this concept to explain contemporary democratic struggles. However, written at a time when the theoretical debate over civil society in Africa is at the cutting-edge, the present study on civil society adopts a revised application of civil society. A revised application of the concept will more effectively explain the resurgence of democratic struggles in contemporary Nigeria by adopting an "organizational" approach to the analysis of civil society, whereby organizations within civil society are examined to determine their capacity to exercise democratic power.A comparative case study of pro-democracy organizations in the forefront of the democracy movement, the dissertation researches data derived from three Nigerian pro-democracy organizations. They include Campaign for Democracy(CD) National Democratic Coalition group NADECO and the United Democratic Front of Nigeria (UDFN). By also examining socio-economic and politico-cultural conditions by which these organizations have emerged, I select a methodological framework that will demonstrate the manner in which social mobilization for democracy in Nigeria by these organizations has been precipitated by domestic political re-organization, a change in the international economy, and a Post-Cold War environment that facilitated the promotion of democracy to remaining authoritarian states.I conclude the dissertation by critically assessing democratic outcomes realized by organizations constituted as the Nigerian pro-democracy movement. The organizations researched demonstrated that they did effectively utilize organizational power for pro-democracy advocacy, using this technique in the expansion of democratic consciousness throughout the populace and in the limitation of military power in Nigeria. However, the effectiveness of the organizations to realize more conclusive democratic outcomes was mitigated by the Nigerian-democracy paradox---a condition of entrenched social interests and cleavages that each organization also embodied in its own internal organization.