Contentious political pressure and democratisation in Nigeria - a focus on Mosop

Abstract

The paper is on contentious political pressures and democratization in Nigeria - A focus on MOSOP. The aim is to show the impact of contentious political pressures on the process of democratization in Nigeria using MOSOP as a case study. Political economy refers to the rapacious exploitation and devastation of Ogoni kingdom by Shell as well as government support of this nefarious activity and the resultant resistance by MOSOP. Content analysis and historical approach as methodological guides were largely applied to explain the relationship between contentious political pressure and democratization in Nigeria. The study discovers that the unfeigned and consistent contentious political pressures mounted by MOSOP in an attempt to protect its environment and people from complete devastation had serious contributing effects on the transition from autocracy to electoral democracy in Nigeria. Arising from this, the paper recommends that more of contentious political pressures should be encouraged among depressed societies to compel unresponsive regimes to address the problems of the society.

Global Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 6 (1) 2007: pp. 77-84