Strengthening Consociational Democracy for Nation-Building in Nigeria

Democracy aims at self-determination and runs government on the general will of the people. A good democratic system for any country is the one that adequately serves its existential realities. Nigeria is facing sociopolitical instability due to its cultural plurality. The country is composed of heterogeneous, communalistic cultural groups, suspicious of each other’s domination and inwardly cleaving to protect groups’ interests against marginalisation, which hinder sociopolitical opinion mobility, national cohesion and stability. The country has embarked on some centripetal and consociational policies to promote unity, such as federal character and concentration of power at the centre, but the distrust persists because the policies failed to address the threat of domination. The policies made the central government too strong, so that any group that controls the presidency controls all, exposing others to its mercy. This paper perceives that a coalition of elites of the different cultural groups can promote understanding and respect for each other's interests in nation building. It, therefore, calls for the strengthening of consociational democratic policies to recognise the different communal groups and accommodate their leaders in a coalition government to broaden participation, allay the fear of marginalisation and strengthen nation-building. The study adopts a philosophical hermeneutic analysis of Nigeria’s historical sociopolitical development and crisis of nation-building.

Consociational democracy, plural society, cultural identity politics, coalition government

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