The political economy of Nigeria's post-military elections, 1999-2007

This article is a structural and empirical analysis of the interface between the economics and the politics of elections in post-military Nigeria. Structures and strictures of contemporary economic globalization and market reforms have weakened nationalistic fractions of the state/political elite, led to the emergence of a largely externally-oriented national bourgeoisie and virtually removed politics from the public sphere. The result has been the increased alienation of the popular classes from politics and the apparent inability of the state/political elite to satisfactorily deal with this alienation. Market reforms during the Obasanjo years, 1999-2007, fuelled astonishing corporate and private profit for transnational capital and the state/political elite through the misuse and abuse of the oil industry. The character of the superintending state, the democracy it purveyed and the elections it organised were anything but redemptive. This article makes a case for a democracy with social relevance through the agency of political struggles whose objective will be to recover the state and politics from the stranglehold of globalisation-induced structural relations of power; they should be re-inserted into the public space where they really belong and used for public purposes such as social justice, credible and legitimate elections and participatory democracy.