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Ethnic Militias and Democratic Governance in Nigeria

Uneven space that characterized the political space during the decades of military rule opened up at the triumph of democracy in 1999 offering minority ethnic groups initially emasculated under dominant ethnic group(s) opportunities to agitate for inclusion and prominence in Nigerian politics. Saturating the political space and contesting ferociously against one another, the Nigerian state is enmeshed in an almost state of nature where the institutional mechanism for dialogue and administration has plummeted. While the agitators find justification on the principle of democracy that creates for equity, fairness, open competition for political offices, the assurance of such remains illusory, thereby offering anchor for the emergence of ethnic militias to contest the closed space against minority groups. Certain questions emerge: why are ethnic militias used as an instrument of bargaining in Nigeria? What type of demands do they make? What are their implications on democratic governance in Nigeria? Drawing from secondary data and theory of state fragility the papers argues that responding to demands from ethnic militias creates more problems as it spurs a circle of agitations that weakens institutions of governance. Therefore, the paper advocates for robust civil societies to contain the state’s drift towards unaccountable governance that breeds sub-groups agitations.