Abstract

The paper takes an incisive look at the dynamics of citizenship participation and inclusion in Nigeria. Citizenship participation has been quite low in Nigeria for many years, arising from electoral violence, rigging, intimidation of opponents, assassinations and arson. Several aspiring political actors in Nigeria withdraw from the scene for security reasons and this tends to promote politics of exclusion. The new political trend from late 2010 to 2011 presents a totally new phenomenon, as serious and conscious efforts are now being made to promote citizenship inclusion, unlike in the past, when the votes of the masses did not count in the emergence of ‘elected’. Candidates since such leaders were elected were the products of ‘selection’ by a select few; the new political game is taking a new turn with the masses getting more proactive and less passive. The paper concludes that the new citizenship participation strategy would most likely help in check-mating violent pro-democracy protests as the world witnessed in recent times in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria.