The Exercise of Power in Nigeria’s Democracy: A Moral Examination

Abstract

It was Lord Acton who once said that “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely”. The full import of this statement seems to find expression in most third word democracies of which Nigeria is a case in point. Most political office holders in the course of exercising their “state sanctioned” powers often tend to abuse the rights and privileges the office confers on them and sometimes with impunity. Paradoxically, they violate the same laws they swore to uphold and in the process introduce moral problems to the body polity. This work is an attempt at showing that these anomalies or aberration of power abuse is incongruent with the spirit of democracy and that the moral burden for a viable democracy rest on the people.

Keywords: Power, Nigeria, Democracy, Morality, Abuse, Rule, Law