CHAPTER ONE

      INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

It is the desire of every citizen of a state, whether developed or developing to have organizations that will make government rule them in accordance with principle of democracy. The absence of such organizations often results to situation where the leaders rule the people with their own whims and caprices. Civil society and democracy have both contributed to the betterment of Nigeria due to the fact that the civic rights of citizens are not trampled upon and the wants and needs of the people are looked at and used for the governance of the people.

Omodia and Erunke (2007) thought along these lines when they observed that civil societies emerge because of the dire or strong need to institutionalize the culture of good governance within the regime of democratic government. The two scholars (Omodia and Erunke) see civil society as reinforcing mechanism for effective governance in the overall interest of the majority of the people. They believed that civil society become fully manifested when it is allowed to blossom bearing in mind its relative autonomy from both state apparatuses and machinations of selfish end of governmental survival.

Nigeria as a country has been grappling with the issue of consolidation of democracy since her independence in 1960. Ethnic and religious conflicts have been threatening the survival of democracy in Nigeria and indeed its survival as a single entity. The cause(s) of ethnic and religious conflicts can be traced back to maladministration, corruption, poverty, unemployment and the unfair administration of national resources by our political leaders. The above issues threatened the corporate existence of the Nigerian nation in the 1960’s and it resulted to the emergence of the military in politics. Now that the country has returned to civil rule, our political leaders have answers to this problem. The way the Nigerian government handles the issues of ethnic, political and religious problems will determine whether democracy will survive or not.

For democracy to survive in Nigeria there is need to have vibrant civil society organizations that will champion government reforms, confront corruption, advocate respect for human rights and defend democratic processes and institutions. Some scholars like Ihonbere (1995), Osaghue (1997) have argued that the role of the civil society organizations in the third world countries cannot be ignored in the consolidation of democracy.

Over the years, the impact of civil society has not been felt on Nigeria’s democracy because of long military rule in Nigeria. The military dominated the political scene for so many years. It was in 1999 that the military handed over government to the civilians. Since then, the country has been trying to sustain its nascent democracy with a lot of challenges. These challenges can be surmounted where there are vibrant civil society organizations’ operating in the country. As noted earlier, civil societies exist to champion reforms, confront corruption, advocate for human rights and promote and defend democratic processes and institutions.

Nigeria seems to have imbibed democratic norms as we have in advanced democracies like North America, Europe etc. Our elections are characterized by intimidation in politics of the country. A clique seems to have taken the political leadership of the country. There are cases of god fatherism and its like. This kind of situation calls for active civil society organizations in the country that will make the political leaders to be awake to the responsibility of delivering good governance.

The researcher, being aware of the role of civil societies and their increasing numbers in our country decides to embark on this study with the aim of finding out the impact they have had on Nigeria’s fourth republic.