Democracy and the Cycle of Legitimacy Crisis In Africa : An Empirical Exploration of Selected Cases

Democratic development and legitimacy crises in Africa have become persistent, endemic and cyclical. In fact, the failure of the colonialists to merge the different ethnic nationalities in Africa into a united political entity no doubt accounts for the fragile and muddy foundations of political and social failure facing the African continent in the process of nation-building and democratic consolidation. Indeed, Africa has remained a violent ridden continent in the pyscho-political map of the world in the sense that the continent is stereotypically perceived as synonymous with every political negativity known in the world. Also, in real terms, poverty, diseases, civil disturbances, revolt, insurgence, guerrilla warfare, domestic rebellion and more recently, terrorism have been defining features of Africa and these have been exacerbated by the crisis of legitimacy and of nation-building. regretfully, the wave of democracy which was expected to neutralise the above features has not been able to do so. Rather, the wave of democracy has brought with it rising tide of crisis characterised by electoral violence in various magnitudes as witnessed in Congo 2006; Nigeria 2007, 2011; Kenya 2008; Ivory Coast 2012; among others. It is against this backdrop that this paper examines the major explanations for legitimacy crises in Africa, and argues that the failure of most African states to establish democratic societies through free, fair, and credible election and party politics resulted in the resurgence in primordial allegiance, conflict, rebellion, terrorism, insurgency and legitimacy crises across the African continent. The article therefore, concludes that various attempt at nation building in Africa through democratic consolidation have not achieved the desired result.