Political Development and Revolution in Modern States: Interrogating the Necessity of Revolution in Nigeria
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Date
2021-03-07
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Crawford Journal of Politics
Abstract
This work identifies and discusses the phenomenon of revolutions. While there is no consensus as to what constitutes a revolution, revolution makes total alteration in the life of a political system. Several reasons have been deduced for revolutionary movements in countries. The reasons are so germane that when the government fails to carry out the
constitutional responsibilities of the state. This is essentially and particularly important in democratic societies when the ruling governments did not keep to the promises made to the electorates during electioneering campaigns. The failure of government sometimes influenced the military to stage a coup, and toppled the government, even the democratic government elected by the people. The dictatorial governments have been removed either by the military coup d'état or revolution. Consequently, the contagious effect of the ancient or pre-twentieth revolution affected the twentieth-century revolutions, and these revolutions equally spread to the current century, even the “Arab Spring” between 2010 and 2012: Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, to mention a few. The change of governments has restored the hopes and aspirations of the people and the future of the countries and the people at large. The work convincingly argues that there is no single environmental factor that makes the revolutionary movement prevail. Series of events are what make revolution possible. Nigeria as a country has not experienced the phenomenon of revolution but has had the government changed by the military on several occasions. The military In politics, Nigeria has made incremental adjustments; these patchwork's or reforms are not politically and holistically articulated, and perhaps the amendments have some political undertones. Today, both objective conditions are readily available to trigger a revolution, even another military rule, but it only needs subjective conditions to trigger it. This paper argues that revolution is inevitable—not even the change of government by the democracy or military will do—but a radical and fundamental adjustment to the political architecture of the country. Nigerians have been shortchanged for good governance. The paper concludes that to avert upcoming political upheavals and consequences of revolution, which may alter the Nigerian state convincingly, the political leaders need to redesign governance in the country to meet the aspirations of the people in all ramifications.
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Ogunwa S. A. & Ogunwa F. A. (2021).Political Development and Revolution in Modern States: Interrogating the Necessity of Revolution in Nigeria. Crawford Journal of Politics Vol. 2, 1.