CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The democratic convulsions and delusions evident in Nigeria since May 1999 when military government handover to civilian’s government presented a worrisome dimension to the crisis of development in the country and the manifestation in the flight of transparency and accountability in governance. Accordingly, democracy -promotes competitive struggle with so many essential elements and attributes. In view of this, democracy has at least 10 essential elements which includes but not restricted to the right of choice; empowerment and equality; freedom from ignorance; promotion and defence of human rights; and accountability of leadership to the people among others (Onuorah & Appah, 2012). Characteristics of genuine democracy espoused by identifying responsiveness of the ‘government to preferences of its citizen’ in which case, the constituent peoples of a given society must have an unimpaired and unhindered opportunity to formulate their preferences; signify their preferences to their fellow citizen and the government by individual and collective actions and have their preferences weighted equally in the conduct of the government, that is weighed with no discrimination because of the content or source of the preferences. Ukaogo, (2013) opined that democracy identified three constitutive elements. In this regard, democracy is a system of government that meets three essential conditions, meaningful and extensive competition among individuals and groups for all effective position of governmental power, at regular intervals and excluding the use of force, a highly inclusive level of political participation in the selection of leaders and policies, at least through regular and fair election, such that no major social group is excluded; and a level of civil and political liberties: freedom of the press, freedom to form and join organisations sufficient to ensure the integrity of political competition and participation. Okoh and Ohwoyibo (2009) opine that accountability reflects the need for government and its agencies to serve the public effectively in accordance with the laws of the land.
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