Democracy and political participation in Nigeria: The case of imo state in the 2007 general elections

Abstract

One of the contributions of democratic practices has been the development of a system of checks and balances to ensure that political power is  dispersed and decentralized. It is a system founded on the deeply held  belief that government is best when its potentials for abuse are curbed and when it is held as close to the people as possible. That is the reason why democracy as a system of government is now the most central and  ascendant idea in world politics. Democracy is a culture that is lived out through participation. As a culture, it is patterned by the people,  environment and the regulatory instruments of the people. The study tried to find out why people.s participation which should be the hallmark of  democracy is only minimally witnessed during general elections in Nigeria by evaluating people.s participation in the 2007 general elections in Imo State.The study revealed that many people within the voting age did not vote and were not adequately mobilized to do so. It also showed that  almost all the political activities before, during and after the general  elections were carried out by the political party members other than the people or masses. Again, most political actions were carried out without taking into consideration the constitutional provisions for such.The paper concludes that Nigerian democracy not only lacks people.s participation in all those political activities that gave meaning to democracy but also flouts some democratic principles.

Keywords: Democracy, Elections, Political Participation and Evaluation