Undoubtedly, the events of the 2007 general elections coupled with the verdict
of both local and international observers clearly demonstrated that the entire
electoral process was controversial, thereby making the election flawed. The
concomitant effect is a crisis of political succession, which has always been
the bane of Nigeria’s march to democracy. Thus, the thrust of this paper is
an in depth analysis of the elections vis-à-vis political succession. After an
introductory overview the paper proceeds to a conceptualisation of political
succession, which forms its theoretical framework. Part three dwells on the
flawed elections, discussing what went wrong. The final section calls for
the restructuring of Nigeria’s electoral system and recommends a number
of remedies. The paper, however, infers that without a credible election
sustainable democracy in Nigeria may become a mirage after all.
Nigeria’s 2007 General Elections and the Succession Crises: Implications for the Nascent Democracy
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Journal of African Elections