ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the fundamental factor responsible for the failure of the democratic experiments and the inability to establish sustainable democracy in Nigeria should be located in the modernization paradigm that underlined the liberal democracy model that was transplanted into the country. The experiments are the First Republic (1960-66) and Second Republic (1979-83), and an aborted third democratic experiment. However, only the Mohammed/Obasanjo regime successfully implemented a transition to civil rule program that resulted in the inauguration of the Second Republic in October 1979. In January 1986, Ibrahim Babangida took the first step in his program of transition to civil rule by inaugurating the 17-member Political Bureau that included two women. The experience with the third democratic experiment has shown that the conditions for the establishment of sustainable democracy in the country are most probably lacking, as the country has been crises-laden.
