Contemporary Nigerian Politics

Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-1-108-45974-7
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 300 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 441 g

In 2015, Nigeria's voters cast out the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). Here, A. Carl LeVan traces the political vulnerability of Africa's largest party in the face of elite bargains that facilitated a democratic transition in 1999. These 'pacts' enabled electoral competition but ultimately undermined the party's coherence. LeVan also crucially examines the four critical barriers to Nigeria's democratic consolidation: the terrorism of Boko Haram in the northeast, threats of Igbo secession in the southeast, lingering ethnic resentments and rebellions in the Niger Delta, and farmer-pastoralist conflicts. While the PDP unsuccessfully stoked fears about the opposition's ability to stop Boko Haram's terrorism, the opposition built a winning electoral coalition on economic growth, anti-corruption, and electoral integrity. Drawing on extensive interviews with a number of politicians and generals and civilians and voters, he argues that electoral accountability is essential but insufficient for resolving the representational, distributional, and cultural components of these challenges.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Levan, A. Carl

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction; 2. The end of a new beginning: Nigeria's transition, 1999–2015; 3. The rational counterterrorist? Economic policy and insurgent insecurity in Nigeria's 2015 presidential campaign; 4. Voting against violence? Economic uncertainty and physical insecurity in 2015; 5. Electoral integrity, ethnic affinity and religious revival in Nigeria's party turnover; 6. Subnational subversion and institutional stress; 7. Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Levan, A. Carl
A. Carl LeVan is Associate Professor at the American University in Washington, DC. His is the author of Dictators and Democracy in African Development: The Political Economy of Good Governance in Nigeria (Cambridge, 2015), co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Nigerian Politics (2018), as well as various articles on Boko Haram, civil society, Abuja's development, and authoritarianism. He also worked as a technical trainer for Nigeria's National Assembly during the 1999 transition. LeVan's other publications include the co-authored Constituents before Assembly (Cambridge, 2017), which demonstrates the benefits of participatory constitution-making worldwide. He has published articles on power-sharing, constitution-making, African cabinet size, and the US military in Africa.