EXPLORING AN ALTERNATIVE TO NIGERIA'S DYSFUNCTIONAL DEMOCRACY

Abstract

In the history of mankind, every society has worked hard to bring about the best form of government that will help in bringing about the needed development, happiness and human flourishing; hence, varied forms of government such as monarchy, theocracy, aristocracy, autocracy and democracy have all been practiced at one time or the other by different societies. In modern times, the most desired form of government which has been adopted by different countries is democracy. It is very popular because it is fundamentally based on the principles of freedom and equality. These principles are metaphysical human values which the human spirit desires for flourishing and fulfillment in life. Contrariwise, other forms of government can bring about economic, technological and infrastructural developments but cannot guarantee freedom and equality for all in the society. Worthy of note is the fact that democracy cannot bring about the needed values the people desire when its basic principles are not strictly followed. This is the case with Nigeria, where democracy is being practiced in theory but in actual fact totalitarian democracy which is characterized by expediency, transaction, thuggery, vote buying, a win it by all means syndrome, and a Machiavellian pragmatic politics that leaves less to be desired. Hence, this paper argues that Nigeria's form of democracy is dysfunctional and has failed in meeting up with the desires of Nigerians and there is an urgent need for a change to a new form of government which this paper calls Ohacracy. Ohacracy is a participatory and egalitarian form of government in Igbo political administration. Ohacracy will be based on the Igbo town union governance structure. The critical analytic method of philosophy was used in this paper.