30. Populism in Africa and the Anti-Corruption Trope in Nigeria’s Politics

The author of this paper focuses on the anti-corruption trope as a populist factor in Nigeria’s politics in the prevailing fourth republic. It is the context of the historicity of populism in Africa’s politics and the recent world-wide rise in populism. In the paper the author argues as follows: One, that populism has electoral value in societies with a disarticulated economy and massive social disempowerment because it provides a basis for competing claims of freedom from the social conditions that plague them. And two, in the developing world, anti-corruption as a streak of populism converges with aspects of neoliberal economic policies, such as openness, transparency, and the rule of law embedded in the Monterrey Consensus. Therefore, attracts overt sympathy to the populist regime from agencies of global governance. The paper concludes that populism in the main is hollowed and serves no transformation goal other than legitimizing military coups and as an enhancer of electoral value in the prevailing context in Nigeria. More importantly, populism harbors the potential for inflaming identity crisis in a multinational society like Nigeria.