The Young League Forum

DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT       According to the Oxford Concise Dictionary of Politics, the term democratic deficit “denotes a perceived deficiency in the way a particular political arrangement works in practice against a benchmark as to how it is supposed to work in theory”.  This occurs when institution or organization or governments failed to live up to expectation in their administrations or in the management of the state.

                Merits or Advantages of Democracy      Democracy as a form of government has some invaluable merits that are rarely find in other forms of government. That is why democracy has remained the best form of government and that is why it flourishes in different parts of the world. Some describe it as the best thing that can happen to humanity. While some scholars and philosophers like Plato, Aristotle and other autocratic rulers described democracy as bad and corrupt form of government. They argued vehemently and logically that democracy is not the best form of government due to its numerous demerits or shortcomings which need not to be practiced. Some of the Advantages of Democracy are: 1.Democracy encourages equality in society 2.It guarantees accountability among rulers and ruled 3.It also guarantees and provides for the common welfare of the citizens. 4.It is based on consensus and people’s consent 5.It ensures that the fundamental human rights of citizens are pr

Types of Democracy There are two main types of democracy. These are: 1 .Direct Democracy : This is the type of democracy where all eligible citizens are allowed to participate in decision-making directly without electing their representatives. Direct democracy is anchored on the majority representation. It is the type of democracy that was practiced in the ancient Igbo traditional society and that of Greek city-state of Athens. 2 .Indirect Democracy : Another name for indirect democracy is representative democracy or modern democracy. Under this type, all qualified citizens elect their representatives into the parliament or other government positions who will make decisions on their behalf. In other words, it means that citizens are indirectly involved in decision making through their representatives unlike direct democracy where they (citizens) participate in the decision making directly. Representative democracy unlike direct democracy, reduced people to mere voters or electoral

Origin of Democracy GREEK:  Democratic system of government originated from ancient Greek city-state of Athens around 550BC. History has it that Athens was the first recorded democratic city-state in the world. Athens is a small Greek city-state where all qualified citizens (excluding slaves) were convened to take final decision on the issues or problems that are confronting them collectively. Athenians’ democracy is based on direct representative.  It is because of this democratic nature of Athens that made Aristotle to postulate that man by nature is a political animal due to the gregarious nature of democracy in Greek polis (city-state). IGBO: Before colonialism the Igbos were democratic and republican by nature. Igbo region practiced decentralized system of government and direct democracy more than that of Athenians, in which powers and authorities that exist in the region were decentralized or shared to all different political segments. Political powers and positions were di

Origin of Democracy GREEK:  Democratic system of government originated from ancient Greek city-state of Athens around 550BC. History has it that Athens was the first recorded democratic city-state in the world. Athens is a small Greek city-state where all qualified citizens (excluding slaves) were convened to take final decision on the issues or problems that are confronting them collectively. Athenians’ democracy is based on direct representative.  It is because of this democratic nature of Athens that made Aristotle to postulate that man by nature is a political animal due to the gregarious nature of democracy in Greek polis (city-state). IGBO: Before colonialism the Igbos were democratic and republican by nature. Igbo region practiced decentralized system of government and direct democracy more than that of Athenians, in which powers and authorities that exist in the region were decentralized or shared to all different political segments. Political powers and positions were diff

First Military Rule (1966-1979) The first military coup d’état in Nigeria occurred in 1966 which overthrew the government of Prime Minister Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and President Nnamdi Azikiwe. The coup was led by Major Kaduna Nzeogwu . After the coup Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi became the Head of state and the Federal Military Government of Nigeria. On 29 July 1966 Ironsi was overthrew and murdered six months in his regime. Ironsi was succeeded by General Yakubu Gowon , as the head of state. He established a Supreme Military Council. Gowon held power for 9 years until when he was overthrown in a place coup in July, 1975. General Murtala Mohammed succeeded Gowon and the Head of State. his span was cut short, in February 1976, Mohammed was assassinated by Buka Suka Dimka. OlusẹgunỌbasanjọ succeeded Mohammed as head of state. it was Obasanjo that handed power to the elected civilian government of Shehu Shagari/Alex Ekwume. The inauguration of civilian ushered in the

DEMOCRACY     The word “democracy” comes from the Greek words (“demos” meaning people and “Kratos” meaning power) which literally means “rule of the people.” Roskin et al (1988: 66) aptly stated that “within the entire vocabulary of political science, there is probably no single word which has been given more meanings than democracy.” They further assert that democracy today is “a political system which supplies regular constitutional opportunities for changing the governing officials, and a social mechanism which permits the largest possible part of the population to influence major decisions by choosing among contenders for political office” (Roskin et al 1988: 67). Shively in his liberalistic perspective view democracy as “a state in which all fully qualified citizens vote at regular intervals to choose, from among alternative candidates, the people who will be in charge of setting the state’s policies” (Shively, 2005: 179).      We can also define democracy as a system of govern

COUP D’ ÉTAT      According to Shively (2005: 187), “the most dramatic alternative to democratic government is military government, in which a group of officers use their troops to take over the governmental apparatus and run it themselves.” Andrew Heywood in his major work, Politics asked thus: when does the military seize power? This occurs when successful coup d’état happens, he answered.       Military coup has been defined by many scholars and analysts in different ways although, the meaning remains the same. Heywood (2007; 411) views it as “a sudden and forcible seizure of government power through illegal and unconstitutional action.” It can be defined as an illegal or unconstitutional means of overthrowing existing government by a section of the armed forces. Ugwuanyi (2008:37) views military coup as “illegal, forceful and often violent change of government by the military.”     Hence, military coup can be successful and unsuccessful or abortive. The first military coup i