Description
Democracy represents one of the most formidable forms of government designed to promote citizens’ participation and choices in elections. However, in Africa, recent development suggests a declining state of confidence in democratic governance. Drawing on a social constructionist thematic analytical lens, the paper analysed Nigeria’s recent elections in 2023 to understand public perceptions and attitudes towards democracy and the electoral processes. Data was drawn from newspaper sources and government reports, including openly available data on social media handles of major news outlets in the country. The study finds that there was a perceived sense that democracy appears to have failed and denotes the problematisation of international bodies both within the African continent and beyond reluctance to intervene in the electoral processes or call out the irregularities in the elections, which appears to be marred by corruption, lack of transparency and voters’ subjugation. The study recommends the need to reignite citizen trust in democratic processes through early intervention to instil confidence in democracy and dispel the quest for military rule and takeover.
