Globalization, Democratic Culture Evolution and Political Re-orientation in Africa

Conveners: Dr. Ehiyamen Mediayanose Osezua (Osun State University, Osogbo, Nigeria); e- mails: osezuaomo2002@yahoo.com, ehiyamen@gmail.com, Dr. Tajudeen Adewumi Adebisi (Osun State University, Osogbo, Nigeria); e-mails: tajudeen.adebisi@uniosun.edu.ng, jonathanadebisi@yahoo.com, Dr. Clementina Oghoadena Osezua (Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria); e-mails: tinaosezua@yahoo.com, tinaosezua@oauife.edu.ng

This panel will weave together four themes in the evolution of democratic culture in African continent in the last two decades. The first paper appraises the relevance of a vibrant, informed eclectic civil society in birthing and nurturing a healthy democratic culture in African states in the light of the overarching and ambivalent effects of globalization on most countries in Africa. The paper concludes that a highly engaged civil society will mitigate the adverse effects of globalization in post-colonial Africa democratic processes. The second paper elucidates the torturous processes experienced by the most populous African nation-Nigeria its transitional bid from military rule to democratic governance in the past few years. The paper observed a critical change in the transitional process in the changes in voting patterns arising from the adoption of new informational technologies. The paper maintains that these changes may negatively impact on the adult citizens of the Nigeria who constitute a viable number of prospective electorates in any election. The paper therefore concludes that there is a need for re-orientation of the adult population in order to strengthen the emerging but fragile democratic culture in the face of critical security challenges Nigeria is presently undergoing. The third paper underscores the emerging evolution of nascent democratic culture being witnessed in an African State-Nigeria, among the women folks. The paper observed these changes are attributable to the active deployment of the mass media enabled by the new technologies in the communication world. The paper concludes by underscoring the role of re-orientation and gender education as viable tools in engendering democratic culture and active political participation among women who constitute about half of the prospective electorates in elections. Finally, the last paper presenter identified the proclivity by political leaders to abuse political offices without recourse to democratic tenets as operational in advanced democracies. The paper argued that corruption among political office holders through irrational amassment of wealth have made political office

holders irresponsive to her citizenry and further created a negative value structure, which are potential threats to the fragile democratic culture in Nigeria. The paper concludes that democratic responsive governance can be achievable through what the author referred to as re- orientation counseling. All four papers affirm the imperativeness of an active and informed civil society which holds the potentiality of building and sustaining the nascent democratic culture in many African states, using Nigeria as a window.