Incumbency Factor and the Politics of Succession in Nigeria: Travails of an Emerging Democracy

Abstract

This work is a periscope on the incumbency factor and the politics of succession in Nigeria especially as it affects her second and third tiers of government as provided in her federal system. The work highlights the syndrome as one of the major problems plaguing Nigeria's nascent democracy particularly that of the fourth republic. It showcased the various manifestations of its visible presence within the country's democratic corridor and at best, underscores the direct consequences of the interplay on the country's socio-economic and political development.  Employing the Marxian class theory of the state as the framework of analysis and a content methodology, the work was able to discover amongst others that the interplay of the incumbency factor and the politics of succession have exacerbated most of the post-election violence in Nigeria. More so, it has rekindled political instability, overheated the democratic space while at the same time reinforcing corruption and mismanagement of the state scarce resources. Based on the foregoing, the work recommends amongst others that since no meaningful development can take place in a rancorous environment, Nigeria's political class must imbibe the spirit of democratic principles so as to allow the general will of the people to prevail at any given time in order to stabilize the country's nascent democracy. Secondly, the country's electoral Act must be made more enforceable so as to forestall politics of impositions by the political elites on the electorates.