An Appraisal of the Ideological Foundation of Nigeria’s Democracy

Abstract

Ideology plays a pivotal and crucial role in governance in particular and the organisation of society generally. This role is indispensable, given that it contains a road-map for societal organisation and development. It espouses a vision which outlines how a society ought to be organised, as well as the means of realising it for the survival and well-being of a society and its members. Hence, it is the foundation upon which the socio-political structure of society is erected. It determines the socio­political and economic goals of a society, how wealth is created and distributed, the views and interests that are tolerated, protected or even denied as well as whether benefits and burdens are equitably or unfairly distributed. It also determines whether a society would be liberal, social or eclectic. Little wonder then, ideological issues are fundamental, and questions arising from them are of utmost importance in society. After an expository analysis of the meaning of ideology and its implications for Nigeria, the paper posits that Nigeria’s democracy, rooted, as it were, in liberal-capitalist ideology, is defective. The reason for this being that, though Nigeria’s liberal-capitalist ideology acknowledges the importance of both civil liberties and socio-economic needs, it ignores the latter and guarantees only the former.