¹ Huntington, Samuel P., The Third Wave , London, University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.Google Scholar

² Amuwo, Kunle, ‘The Political Economy of Nigeria’s Local Government Election of December 1998’, Transition in Nigeria, Issue: Journal of Opinion, XXVII:1 (1999), pp. 21–5;Google Scholar Kayode Soremekun, ‘Disguised Tourism and the Electoral Process in Africa: A Study of International Observers and the 1998 Local Government Elections in Nigeria’. Transition in Nigeria, pp. 26–8; Darren Kew, ‘Democrazy-Dem Go Craze, O: Monitoring the 1999 Nigerian Elections’, Transition in Nigeria, pp. 30–2; Amadu Sesay and Charles Ukeje, ‘The West and Elections in Nigeria’, Transition in Nigeria, pp. 34–8.

³ Judith-Ann Walker, ‘Civil Society and Election in Nigeria’, Transition in Nigeria, op. cit., pp. 54–5. See also Olowolabi, Yemi, ‘Born-Again Helmsman: A Trust of Faith Presents Obasanjo with a Second Chance’, Tell , Lagos, 31 05 1999, pp. 20–21.Google Scholar General Obasanjo was thrown into gaol by Abacha, following an accusation of plotting a coup in 1994.

⁴ In an editorial, captioned ‘Nigeria’s Last Chance’, the new democratic government was described as Nigeria’s last opportunity to redeem itself from the inclination towards self-destruction, which has been in motion for four decades. Tell, Lagos, 31 May 1999, p. 16.

⁵ Huntington, The Third Wave, op. cit., pp. 109–315.

⁶ Ibid., pp. 40–7.

⁷ Pinkney, Robert, Democracy in the Third World , Buckingham, Open University Press, 1993, pp. 120–2.Google Scholar

⁸ Huntington, The Third Wave, op. cit., pp. 582–6.

⁹ Pinkney, op. cit., pp. 120–1.

¹⁰ Huntington, The Third Wave, op. cit., pp. 110–23.

¹¹ Ibid., p. 24.

¹² Sorensen, Georg, Democracy and Democratization , Boulder, Colo., Westview Press, 1998, p. 28.Google Scholar

¹³ Pinkney, op. cit., p. 121.

¹⁴ For instance, see Goran Hyden and Donald C. Williams, ‘A Community Model of African Politics: Illustrations from Nigeria and Tanzania’, Society for Comparative Study of Society and History (1994), pp. 68–96; Nnoli, Okwudiba, Ethnic Politics in Nigeria , Enugu, Nigeria, Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1982;Google Scholar Achebe, Chinua, The Trouble with Nigeria , London, Heinemnn, 1983.Google Scholar Achebe reviewed particularly the second republic and came to the conclusion that there is nothing especially wrong with the Nigerian people, their climate or their society, except the inability of its leaders to rise to the challenge of able leadership.

¹⁵ Pinkney, op. cit., p. 150.

¹⁶ Huntington, The Third Wave, op. cit., 1993, p. 311.

¹⁷ Ibid., p. 38. See also Binder, Leonard et al., Crisis and Sequences in Political Development , Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1971, pp. 12–17; 18–52 and 296.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Rustow, Dankwart A., ‘Transition to Democracy,’ Comparative Politics, 2 (1970), p. 362.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Montville, Lijphart, ‘The Power Sharing Approach’, in J. V., Conflict and Peace Making in Multiethnic Societies , Massachusetts, Lexington Books, 1990, p. 494.Google Scholar

²⁰ Binder et al., pp. 58–60; 182–96. For similar views by Huntington, see his guidelines in The Third Wave, op. cit., from pages 138–63.

²¹ Potter, David et al., Democratization , Cambridge, Polity Press, 1997, pp. 17–18.Google Scholar

²² Whitehead, Laurence, ‘The Drama of Democratization’, Journal of Democracy, 10:4 (1999), p. 85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²³ Ibid., p. 85.

²⁴ Turner, Terisa, ‘Commercial Capitalism in Nigeria: The Pattern of Competition’, in Cohen, Dennis L. and Daniel, John (eds), Political Economy of Africa, Selected Readings , London and New York, Longman, 1981, p. 155.Google Scholar

²⁵ Clement Obayuwana, ‘1983 Coup Brought Abacha to Limelight’, Daily Champion, Lagos, 9 June 1998, p. 6. The coup of 1985 was remarkable because of its crafty planning that caught General Tunde Idiagbon hands-down. Many Nigerian political observers had doubted the possibility of such a coup with the personality of Idiagbon as Buhari’s number two man. The former was on a haj to Mecca when his administration was overthrown in 1985.

²⁶ Joseph, Richard A., Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria: The Rise and Fall of the Second Republic , Cambridge and Ibadan, Nigeria, Cambridge University Press and Spectrum Books, 1987 and 1999. See especially pp. 55–68;Google Scholar Lewis, Peter, ‘From Prebendalism to Predation: The Political Economy of Decline in Nigeria’, Journal of Modern African Studies, 34:1 (1996), pp. 79–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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²⁹ Mohammed Yusuf, former press secretary to the Chief of General Staff, cited by Edokpayi, B., ‘The Guillotine’, Newswatch , Lagos, 14 09 1987, p. 17.Google Scholar According to the report, the paper was banned for six months. Although its house’s reopening was granted forty days before the expiration of its ban, all pleas for clemency in addition to court actions undertaken by Gani Fawehinme and Olu Onagoruwa (two radical Lagos lawyers and human rights activists) did not change the position of the regime. See also Babarinsa, Dan, ‘The Sword of Damocles’, Newswatch , Lagos, 14 09 1987, p. 20;Google Scholar and Mohammed, Yusuf, ‘The Press as Colossus: Fact or Fallacy?’, Newswatch , Lagos, 14 09 1987, p. 16.Google Scholar

³⁰ For details of Babangida’s schemes to remain in power, see Oyeleye Oyediran, ‘Transition Without End: From Hope to Despair’, proceedings of a paper delivered on Dilemmas of Democracy in Nigeria, at the University of Wisconsin, in November 1995; and Seye Kihinde. ‘Years of the Locust’, The News, Lagos, 18 October 1993, pp. 16–21.

³¹ Lewis, Peter, ‘Endgame in Nigeria? The Politics of a Failed Democratic Transition’, African Affairs, 93 (1994), pp. 323–46;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Claude E. Welch Jr, ‘Civil Military Agonies in Nigeria, Pains of an Unaccomplished Transition’, Armed Forces and Society (Summer 1995), pp. 593–614.

³² Babangida, Muhammed, cited in Post Express , Apapa, Lagos, 28 07 1998, pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

³³ General Abacha, Sani, cited in Post Express , Apapa, Lagos, 28 07 1998, p. 1.Google Scholar

³⁴ Schwarz, Walter, Nigeria , New York, Praeger, 1968, p. 14.Google Scholar

³⁵ Colonel Yakubu Bako, in an Interview with Tell, Lagos, 26 July 1999, pp. 16–20. Bako was among the middle-rank officers who were against the 1993 election annulment.

³⁶ Lewis, Rustow, op. cit., p. 2; also ‘How Does Democracy Come into Existence?’ in P. G. and Potter, D. C. (eds), The Practice of Comparative Politics , Harlow, Longman, 1973, pp. 117–32.Google Scholar

³⁷ See Njoku, Raphael Chijioke, ‘Consociationalism: Its Relevance for Nigeria’, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 5:2 (Summer 1999), p. 8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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³⁹ See Olowolabi, Yemi, ‘Abacha Declares War on the Opposition: The Crackdown Continues’, Tell , Lagos, 25 05 1998, pp. 22–3,Google Scholar and also Opara, Anthony and Okereke, Uche, ‘Abacha Survived Two Coups’, Daily Champion , Lagos, 9 06 1998, p. 6.Google Scholar Yar’adua and Obasanjo were jointly implicated in the 1995 coup hoax.

⁴⁰ See Joseph, ‘Africa, 1990–1997: From Abertura to Closure’, op. cit., p. 5. Onyeacholam, Godwin, ‘The Price of Democracy’, The Week , Lagos, 31 05 1999, pp. 8–13;Google Scholar Tijani, Aminu, ‘Abacha’s Murder Incorporated’, Tell , Lagos, 19 07 1999, pp. 16–24.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Joseph, ‘Africa, 1990–1997: From Abertura to Closure’, op. cit., p. 4. See also Mikail Mumuni, ‘Lagos: Go Now! Abuja: Go Now!’, Tell, Lagos, 16 March 1998, pp. 22–3.

⁴² Abati, Rueben, ‘The Nation Versus Abacha’, The Guardian , Lagos, 1 05 1998, p. 29.Google Scholar

⁴³ Ero, Adekunbi et al., citing an unnamed business associate of the late dictator, who wished not to be identified, Tell , Lagos, 22 07 1999, p. 28.Google Scholar See also Orvis, Stephen, who in ‘Chronology of Nigerian Elections’, Transition in Nigeria, Issue: A Journal of Opinion, XXVII:1 (1999), pp. 1–2,Google Scholar shares the unanimous view that Abacha’s government was the most brutal military administration the country had ever experienced.

⁴⁴ This was the understanding deduced by Pinkney, who made a critical review of Huntington’s book The Third Wave, in his own very impressive work Democracy in the Third World, op. cit., pp. 120–1.

⁴⁵ Lijphart, Arend, ‘Power Sharing Approach,’ in Montville, J. V. (eds), Conflict and Peace Making in Multiethnic Societies , Massachusetts, Lexington Books, 1990, pp. 497– 9;Google Scholar Halpern, Sue M., ‘The Disorderly Universe of Consociational Democracy,’ West European Politics, 9:2 (04 1986), p. 182.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Kola Olufemi, ‘The Limits of Electoralism’, Transition in Nigeria, op. cit., p. 9. In Nigeria’s political discourses, the term ‘northernization’ represents the notion of moving federal institutions under northern control.

⁴⁷ Toyo, Eskar, ‘The National Question in Nigeria’, The Guardian , Lagos, 15 11 1998.Google Scholar

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⁴⁹ According to Olufemi, in ‘The Limits of Electoralism’, op. cit., p. 9, the Joint Action Committee of Nigeria ( JACON), a coalition of radical human rights and pro-democracy activists insisted on the imperative of political dialogue and restructuring through dialogue in the form of a national conference.

⁵⁰ For the gory details on Abacha’s execution team, see Babarinsa, Dare, ‘Echoes from June 12’, Tell , Lagos, 19 07 1999, p. 3;Google Scholar Tijani, Aminu, ‘Abacha’s Murder Incorporated’, Tell , Lagos, 19 07 1999, pp. 16–24.Google Scholar

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⁵² On the one hand, Oliver De Coque, Nigeria’s highlife maestro has earned himself the reputation as the most notorious praise-singer for evil men. Between the Babangida and Abacha era, the musicians produced several records, calling the duo the best leaders of Nigeria. On the other hand, there were a few shining exceptions of religious leaders like Hassan Kukah, Abiodun Adetiloye, Bolanle Gbonigi, Tunde Bakare and some Nigerian Catholic Bishops and priests, who stood behind the people in the heat of opposition against Abacha. See Babarinsa, Dare, ‘The Gun and the Pulpit’, Tell , Lagos, 25 05 1998, p. 3;Google Scholar and Gbonigi’s, Bishop radical interview granted to Tell , Lagos, 25 05 1998, pp. 12–21.Google Scholar In the interview which was published barely two weeks before the death of Abacha, the Anglican bishop did not entertain the slightest hesitation in declaring that the dictator was a ‘ruthless, heartless and a thoroughly wicked man & a man without a human touch at all’.

⁵³ Oka Orewa, G., We Are All Guilty: The Nigerian Crisis , Ibadan, Nigeria, Spectrum Books Limited, 1997.Google Scholar My present study on African issues is taking an approach of the investigation into the psychological and moral conditions of African leaders and the nature of their various societies. Ayandele, E. A. in his book, The Missionary Impact on Modern Nigeria 1842–1914 , London, Longmans, 1966, pp. 329–45,Google Scholar had raised the notion that the kind of education, combined with the inf luence of foreign ideology, brought some amount of positive as well as negative inf luences on the post-independent generation of Africans. The persistance of social ills in the African continent calls for further studies in this direction into the causes of much societal maladjustment which has kept the African continent perpetually underdeveloped.

⁵⁴ The surveys are extracts from a preliminary study on ‘The Social Psychology of an Aspiring Democracy.’ [Raphael Njoku, Working Paper, Lagos, 1998].

⁵⁵ See Richard Joseph, ‘Africa, 1990–1997: From Abertura to Closure’, op. cit., pp. 8–9. Bratton, Michael, ‘Second Elections in Africa,’ Journal of Democracy , 9:3 (1998), p. 58.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Soyinka, Wole, cited by Graham Fraser in ‘Nobel Laureate Lauds Federalism’s Ordinariness’, The Globe and Mail , Toronto, 8 10 1999, p. 4.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Amuwo, op. cit., in pp. 21–5 contends that the distortion of the political landscape by the military cannot be checked by advertised elections, controlled by big money. See also Enemuo, Francis C., ‘Elite Solidarity, Communal Support, and the 1999 Presidential Election in Nigeria’, Transition in Nigeria, Issue: A Journal of Opinion, XXVII:1 (1999), pp. 3–4.Google Scholar Olufemi, op. cit., p. 8.

⁵⁸ Amuwo, pp. 21–4; Soremekun, op. cit., pp. 26–37.

⁵⁹ Joseph, ‘Africa: 1990–1997: From Abertura to Closure’, op. cit., p. 4. According to the author, ‘virtual democracy’ is defined as those transitions that are marked by co-option of rival parties, and in which the result of the transition is by recalcitrance and piecemeal reforms. The overall objective is to present a mere visual notion of democracy, in conformity to foreign pressures to democratize.

⁶⁰ Schirmer, op. cit., p. 839.

⁶¹ Huntington, Samuel P., ‘Reforming Civil–Military Relations’, Journal of Democracy, 6:4 (1995), p. 10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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⁶³ Lincoln, Joshua, ‘The “President” Federation: Nigeria and Its Federal Future’, in Transition in Nigeria, Issue: A Journal of Opinion, XXVII:1 (1999), pp. 17–20;Google Scholar see also Ibrahim, op. cit., p. 15. The Hausa-Fulani oligarchy had persuaded the northern citizens, who altogether constitute about 53 per cent of the population of Nigeria, not to put up a candidate in the 1999 presidential election, which saw two southern Yoruba candidates, Messrs Olusegun Obasanjo and Olu Falae standing in the election.

⁶⁴ A World Bank Communiqué cited in Body and Soul, 3 August 1999, pp. 12–14. See also Africa Recovery 13:1, ( June 1999), pp. 11–12.

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⁶⁷ Abati, op. cit., (p. 29), identified these negative forces as the dynamics conditioning the minds of new generations in Nigeria. See also Agekameh, Dele, ‘The Killing Field’, Tell , Lagos, 26 07 1999, pp. 22–5.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Offi, Steep, ‘To Make or Mar: Ibrahim Salisu Buhari, Speaker of the House of Representatives, is Enmeshed in a Flood of Allegations Bordering on Insincerity. Can he Survive?’, Tell , Lagos, 26 07 1999, pp. 26–7.Google Scholar The embattled former parliamentarian was found guilty of forgery and subsequently fined 2000 Naira.

⁶⁹ See Mba, George, ‘The President’s First Headache’, Tell , Lagos, 7 06 1999, pp. 22–4.Google Scholar Most conspicuous in the list of the present cabinet are personalities like Theophilus Danjuma, Jerry Gana, Laila Dongoyaro, Muhammed Arzika, Dotun Philips, Dapo Sarumi, Philip Asiodu and Joe Nwodo, among others. Amaechi, Chinyere, in ‘Contending with Political Marginalization’, The Post Express , Lagos, 8 10 1996, p. 17,Google Scholar observed that the exclusion of women from public office was rooted in colonial times and persisted in the contemporary era. See also Kukah, pp. 162–72.

⁷⁰ Whitehead, op. cit., p. 90.

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⁷⁴ Huntington, ‘After Twenty Years’, op. cit., p. 5.

⁷⁵ UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children 1999 Report, cited in Africa Recovery ( June 1999), p. 12.

⁷⁶ Potter, op. cit., p. 29.

⁷⁷ For full details of the ‘The Inevitable Purge’, see Tell, Lagos, 28 June 1999. While the public welcomed the purge by Obasanjo, there was also pressure for a probe into the background individuals like Babangida, and other close friends of the previous military regime. See also Bako, , ‘More Officers Should be Sacked,’ Tell , Lagos, 26 07 1999, pp. 16–20.Google Scholar

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⁸⁰ The office of the presidency in Nigeria is modelled on the United States system. The executive is both the Chief of State, Head of Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. These attractions have made the election for the presidency hotly contested.

⁸¹ Enemuo, op. cit., pp. 3–4.

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⁸⁴ Huntington, After Twenty Years, op. cit., p. 11.

⁸⁵ See Linz, Juan J. and Stepan, Alfred, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post Communist Europe , Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press, 1996, pp. 3ff.Google Scholar

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⁸⁹ Przeworski, Adam, in Diamond, Larry, Plattner, Marc, Yun-hum, and Tien, Hugo-mao, Consolidating The Third Wave of Democracies: Themes and Perspectives , Baltimore, MD, The John Hopkins University Press, 1997, p. 297.Google Scholar The $6,000 figure is purchasing power parity to the US dollar.

⁹⁰ Huntington, After Twenty Years, op. cit., p. 5.

⁹¹ Sorensen, op. cit., p. 28.