Nigerian Democracy and the Challenges of Credible Electoral System

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges facing the Nigerian state is how to engender a credible electoral system. Democratic experiments in the country have collapsed on the basis of disputes over elections. Over the year institutional factors such, electoral bodies, security agencies and legislative organ have been blamed for the failure of elections in the country. The paper, while accepting the importance of these institutions, however, attempts a holistic understanding of the failure of elections within the context of an understanding of the entire electoral system. In attempting this, it lays emphasis on the mindsets of individual political actors and that of those that occupy institutions important to the electoral process as the most important factors responsible for the failure of the entire electoral process. Aside this, it focuses on the need for the entrenchment of electoral regulations and laws which are panacea for the enhancement of credible electoral system in Nigeria.