Reinventing Democracy in a Postcolonial State: E-Democracy and the National Assembly in Nigeria

This study adopts the concept of reinventing democracy to refocus attention on the theoretical framework of postcoloniality (in the humanities and social sciences). The study further highlights the eminent position of e-democracy in the current formations for moving contemporary society forward. In examining these issues, a case-study of the National Assembly in Nigeria has been made. We found that in this country, there seems to exist a sacrosanct brand of legislative institutionalism, which contradicts the current global revolution in information and communications technology (ICT). In the process, some level of immobility is introduced to critically desired service delivery in the country and attempts are made by the people’s representatives (of all people) to turn the nation into a colony of mere patriotic listeners. The study concludes that the postcolony must not convert to such a society of the underclass. A complementary concept of e-democracy is e-government. Further embedded in e-government are the dual components of e-readiness and e-participation. We found that this nation’s National Assembly appears to be deficient in e-readiness. The legislative body seems distrusful of e-participation. The study finally recommends that the rights of the citizens under e-democracy must be safeguarded by the central lawmakers, as it would guarantee the crucially expected reinvention of democracy, in such democracy-needy nation-states.