An Evaluation of Political Culture in Nigeria: Liberalism vs Leninism

This essay provides an evaluation of political culture in Nigeria, focusing on the contrasting ideologies of liberalism and Leninism. It begins by defining political culture and its impact on a country's political system, highlighting the role of societal values and beliefs. The essay then delves into the prospects of liberalism in Nigeria, examining its potential to address issues of governance, human rights, and socio-economic development. It discusses the historical context of Nigeria's political development, including the impact of colonial rule and constitutional changes. The essay also explores the challenges and opportunities associated with implementing liberal principles in the Nigerian context. Furthermore, it analyzes the prospects of Leninism in Nigeria, considering its potential to provide a stable governance structure and address issues of economic inequality. The essay discusses the core tenets of Leninism, including the role of a vanguard party and centralized control of the economy. It also examines the potential benefits and drawbacks of a Leninist approach in the context of Nigeria's political landscape. Finally, the essay concludes by synthesizing the arguments and offering insights into the future of political culture in Nigeria, considering the interplay between liberalism and Leninism and their implications for the country's development. The essay makes use of various sources, including academic journals and books, to support its arguments and provide a comprehensive analysis of the topic.

An Evaluation essay
STUDENT NAME:
I.D:
DATE:
PROFESSOR NAME:

INTRODUCTION
Political Culture is considered as a group of perspective, faith and emotions which provides the
structure and definition of a political process and which gives fundamental presumption and
regulations that control behaviour in a political system. Political culture describes how the
culture of a society affects the political system of a country. Politics is just not about the
expression and activity of the so-called Politicians; but at the moment it seems to be under the
tricks of these foul, cunning, power and might hungry men. Sometimes the essence of a polity is
not just the sum of all the people and organization at the moment, but it is much more than that.
But politics can be game of just a few people or individual who can blackout the role of others.
Politics is so profound in the brains and wisdom of the nation that the existence of a distinct
political tradition continuously counters equalizing forces at work in the economic and societal
domain of present-day life. (Pye)
The political culture, the knowledge that primarily exists in society, provides a better outlook of
politics to people living in the society. It is believed that a civic community, which has a greater
level of interest in politics, social impartiality, mutual faith, non-mandatory union and
independence of being vocal and right to keep forward a point of view leads to the excessive
likelihood of constructive democracy and governance. Thus a better political culture and outlook
could lead to an efficient political system which involves society too.
LIBERALISM: refers to the political and economic belief that focuses on individual freedom,
the impartiality of chances and opportunity and preservation of rights of people (like a right of
life, speech etc.) firstly against the government and later against both government and individual

profit-making people like businessman and industrialists. Liberalism in colonial countries has
proved to be the most significant force in countries. Liberals had constantly tussled against the
conservative forces of the society, for people’s right and societal reforms.
William E. Gladstone quoted “Liberalism is a trust of the people tempered by prudence.
Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear” (Meadowcroft).
PROSPECT OF LIBERALISM TODAY IN EX-COLONIAL NATION NIGERIA:
Nigeria has always been a country with people Impossible to be suppressed, the governance and
authority even in colonial rule realized that they could not stop the people from expressing their
views and raising their voice for development and growth. The Nigerian Press was the most
animated and spirited press among the colonial nation of Africa. There were endless struggles
and efforts by nationalists for change in the policy of the ruling country and eventually for
freedom from colonization. Nigeria was under the British colonial rule from 1901 to 1960 and
became a republic in 1963. There have been various constitutional changes in Nigeria since its
independence that has caused instability in governance. The issue of Democracy, Constitution
and Constitutionalism, governance problem etc. has been rising, and the prospect of
liberalization is to be looked upon as how it will affect the society and country. (Elaigwu)
Nigeria has gone through various phases of democracy change since its independence. One may
think that after these years of freedom they would have a well established and functioning
democracy but its opposite of that, as far as the liberal democracy and practice are concerned, it
is yet a dream and not a reality. Democracy is the central and most important feature for
economic development and safety, technological and scientific growth, educational advancement
and social reforms. Democracy though is a universal conception; it differs from place to place

and country to country according to possession of power and organizational arrangement.
Nowhere in the world, there is a democracy which has equal parameters. Thus due to widened
gap between those who have access to -power (officials, influential people), funding for people
and government expenditure, there exist a significant instability and imbalance in social,
economic as well as the political field. In other countries, democracy is practised in order to have
socio-economic benefit for the people in general, and the aim is that these advantages are
reached to more and more citizen, Nigeria, on the other hand, is having a democracy of their own
type where the benefit is for few people who are more powerful and privileged. The funds meant
for public is utilized by a few wealthy Nigerians. (Ajayi)
Liberalism would prove to be a massive prospect in a nation like Nigeria, which has always had
unstable governance and faced a problem with its democratic structure and stability.
Nigerian people in general through liberalism could have access to funds which are mainly for
them, could have the benefit of social reforms, economical as well as political development as
well as enhance and better the quality of their life. There has been a massive lack of
liberalization and liberal ideology in the course of political development in Nigeria. But before
the idea of liberalism and its ideology is imposed the necessary development and freedom of
people of the country need to happen. The human rights should prevail irrespective of the class,
religion, gender etc. and Nigerian liberals should stop acting upon presumption and should not be
biased when implementing their ideologies else the prospect and idea of liberalism would be
merely a dream. Liberal of Nigeria should look to decrease the mortality rates of children and
infant and should promote education as no of children out of school in Nigeria is high. These all
should be done if liberal governs the state or are officials in the government, which is possible
only through liberalism; thus, the need and prospect of liberalism are considerably high.

The various terrorist attacks and massacre of Christians and attacks on the church has led to not
only desire but also a need to liberalism in Nigeria. They face impartiality injustice being
provided to them as well as their rights and freedom are also not preserved liberalism and
reforms are the way to secure their rights, and it becomes their duty to interfere in the political
matter of the country however bad the game of politics be. (Kosc)
THE PROSPECTS OF LENINISM IN NIGERIA:
Leninism is a political ideology of Vladimir Lenin, a Russian Marxist revolutionist who
suggested the formation of dictatorship the wage-earners. It is a way of thinking as to how a
communist party should be arranged. It is considered to be the initial step of socialism. In
Leninism, a vanguard party is formed in order of democratic centralism, which would hold
power and governance on behalf of the wage-earning class and would form a single-party
socialist republic. The government would have control over the economy, monetary policy and
the production means would encourage socialism and would suppress the opposition as well as
remove the class differentiation. It aims at making the country and society both classless (no
existence of upper or lower class what so ever) and stateless (society not controlled over by the
state). Leninism generally opposed fascism and liberal democracy.
There has been a leftist approach, and Marxist-Leninism theory is ever-present in Nigeria and
exists for a long time now. Various experts consider it as the solution for the economical social
as well as political welfare of Nigeria as well as the method to end the crises governance and
development of the nation. Leninism-Marxism ideology has been present throughout the freedom
struggle of Nigeria, which makes this socialism a substitute to countries fraud, conservative and

incompetent democracy. The former freedom struggles which were led by the labour movement
also plays a vital role in making socialism a better substitute for current democracy (Mordi).
Thus Leninism’s prospect in Nigeria is considerably high because of the democratic structure of
the country and also due to the need of the hour. The constant change in the structure of
constitution and democracy and the hardship faced by people has now made the need for a stable
governance structure and body much more profound. Leninism in Nigeria could lead to a better
and smooth transition in case the leader of the country became incompetent or dies. The leader,
no matter how could not hinder the working of governance at any state. In Leninism, the party
members of the party devote their lives in acting upon the task and duty, which is or considered
to be in favour of the society. The economic development and reforms could also take place in a
better way as the organized economy has the likelihood to grow centralism as political organs are
secured in their economic arrangement, and it becomes easy to overcome problems and continue
reforms. But it can also be a threat to the country as in single party, single governance If the
party become corrupt it will lead to inefficient governance, corruption, as well as a disorder
which could further disrupt or worsen the situation of the country which is already facing
hardship and the people, will then have no hope for betterment.
Bibliography
Ajayi, Adeyinka Theresa, and E. Oladipo Ojo. ""Democracy in Nigeria: Practice, problems and
prospects." ." Journal of Developing Country Studies. (2014).

Elaigwu, J. Isawa. . Topical issues in Nigeria's political development. Adonis & Abbey
Publishers Ltd., 2012.
Kosc, Jozef Andrew. ""WHERE LIBERALISM HELPS."." First Things 286. (2018): 1-6.
Meadowcroft, Michael. "Liheralism and the Right by Michael Meadowcroft. Liberator
Publication , 1983.
Mordi, Emmanuel Nwafor. " "Naija Marxisms: Revolutionary Thought in Nigeria by Adam
Mayer."." African Studies Review 63.3. (2020): E44-E46.
Pye, Lucian W., and Sidney Verba. Political culture and political development. Princeton
University Press., 2015.