Democracy and Prebendalism in Nigeria—Critical Interpretations

Celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the original publication of Richard Joseph's seminal book Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria, this state-of-the-field collection brings together some of the leading names in academic research on Nigeria for a creative and robust engagement with Nigeria's experiments and experiences with liberal democracy. What kinds of transformations have marked or defined political praxes since 1987, and are these sufficient to vitiate the prebendal principle as a methodological and conceptual tool for understanding Nigerian political life? Indeed, is the prebendal principle still operative? If so, how salient is it, and what new trajectories has it assumed against the backcloth of emergent class, ethno-regional, and religious realignments? What comparative insights are attainable from juxtaposing Nigeria's clientelistic model with processes in other African countries? One dimension of Joseph's analysis is the leading role of the then National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and the 'Kaduna Mafia' in the encrustation of what the author described as a 'Northern primacy'. The NPN is no more, while the 'Kaduna Mafia' has all but receded into an even more shadowy existence. But is 'Northern primacy' in Nigerian politics a thing of the past? If not, how is that 'primacy' still enacted, and what is the role of the 'Kaduna Mafia' - or indeed other forms of 'embryonic state class' such as Afenifere, Ohaneze Ndigbo, Arewa Consultative Forum, and the various corporate subalternities challenging these classes - in the enactment? What is the role of oil (a seemingly marginal presence in Joseph's analysis) in the hardening of 'economic statism' in Nigeria, and what concrete connections are discernible between the structure of elite accumulation in Nigeria, and the opportunities that are part and parcel of neoliberal capitalism? How has religion melded with class and ethno-regional categories, and in what ways, if any, has religiosity contributed to nascent expressions of prebendalism? Across varied methodologies and disciplinary backgrounds (including anthropology, political science, sociology and history) these and other pertinent questions raised by the politics of prebendalism in a democraticcontext receive a penetrating and comprehensive analysis.