Contemporary Nigerian Politics: Competition in a Time of Transition and Terror
Cambridge University Press, 1/17/2019
EAN 9781108459747, ISBN10: 1108459749
Paperback, 300 pages, 22.6 x 15 x 2 cm
Language: English
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.
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.