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No African country has tried so hard or for so long to create a lasting democratic system as has Nigeria, but success has been elusive. Political transition to democracy, under the auspices of a series of authoritarian military governments, has been prolonged and lacking in outcome; vast sums of money, and an increasing number of Nigerian lives, have been sacrificed, and the more intangible costs -to the relations among and between the country's complex mosaic of ethnicities, religions andregions, and to Nigeria's international relations - have been incalculable. Increasingly, the dilemma of democracy has become the axis around which all of Nigeria's public questions revolve.This book offers an innovative, multidisciplinary study of the historical, social and economic roots of both the effort and the failure to create democracy in Nigeria; it includes contributions by 13 of Nigeria's best politicalanalysts. Major episodes of transition to democracy (both ultimately unsuccessful) are studied in detail; new interpretations of the patterns of regional and ethnic interaction and conflict are developed; and the outlooks for democracy, internal peace and continued national existence are assessed.Professor PAUL A. BECKETT is Assistant Dean of International Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; CRAWFORD YOUNG is H. Edwin Young and Rupert Emerson Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisonsin-Madison.Contributors: FUNSO AFOLAYAN, ADIGUN AGBAJE, SABO BAKO, PAUL BECKETT, PETER EKEH, DAVID EMELIFEONWU, TOYIN FALOLA, ALEX GBOYEGA, JIBRIN IBRAHIM, RICHARD JOSEPH, PETER LEWIS, OYELEYE OYEDIRAN, JOHN PADEN, RICHARD SKLAR, ROTIMI SUBERU, CHUDI UWASURIKE, OLUFEMI VAUGHN, PAT AMA TOKUNBO WILLIAMS, CRAWFORD YOUNG