POLITICAL CULTURE OF IMPUNITY AND THE CHALLENGES OF DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The political culture of any political system is the prevailing behavioural orientation and attitudinal proclivity to the political system, which the members of the political society have been habituated to over time through networks of psycho-mental and dispositional characteristics generally summed up as their way of life. It is however ironic, indeed paradoxical, that after about fifteen years of Nigeria’s return to civilian rule, via barracking the military, the unfettered crusade for democratization/ democratic consolidation is still at its crescendo. This paper sees the often-over-bloated idea of democracy/democratization as a fundamentally political culture issue, seen, however, by those that subscribe to it as a model for the attainment of the greatest happiness of the members of the society. Relying on the laws of dialectics as theoretical guide, the paper situates the apparent imbroglio associated with the democratization process in Nigeria at the militarization of the political system. It contends with conviction that many years of military rule has promoted a political culture of impunity and arrogance which cohere with the military attitude of operation without constitution, legality and due process, corresponding to the very antithesis of the doctrines of democratization. Data for this study was generated through documentary method and analysed through content analysis of written records. The paper, therefore, recommends amongst other vital ones, the inculcation of the right political attitude to children and the youths through civic education and the promotion of same through the National Orientation Agency.