@article{Akinola_Adesopo_2014, title={Reconnecting Self-Organising Institutions to the formal Government Structure for Real Governance Impact in Nigeria}, volume={3}, url={https://www.ecsdev.org/ojs/index.php/ejsd/article/view/127}, DOI={10.14207/ejsd.2014.v3n2p53}, abstractNote={<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:RelyOnVML/> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 14.2pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-left: 14.2pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;" lang="EN-GB">The crisis of democratization in Nigeria has its roots in the centralised planning, monocratic decision making and repressive institutional arrangements the country adopted at independence in 1960, which invariably lack </span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;" lang="EN-US">a common thought between the assembly and the electorate. This is because indices of democracy and development have constantly eluded the electorate especially in the last ten years. </span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;" lang="EN-GB">Most socio-economic and political decisions in Nigeria did not reflect the wishes and aspirations of the poor simply because of the persistent and widening gaps between decision makers (the rich people) and the governed (the poor). </span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;" lang="EN-GB">Accordingly, </span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;" lang="EN-GB">the</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;" lang="EN-GB"> residents have learnt not to rely on governments, instead they have devised several coping strategies through self-organizing arrangements that draw inspirations from their culture and traditions. This paper critically examines </span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;" lang="EN-US">how poor people craft shared strategies and problem solving interdependencies from their old traditions to address problems of daily life by providing </span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;" lang="EN-GB">and maintaining infrastructure such as schools, health facilities, road networks etc. At the same time, the tenets of democracy exhibited by these self-governing institutions as well as their contributions to socio-economic development have made them highly relevant to governance of community affairs. This paper, therefore, suggests </span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;" lang="EN-US">polycentric</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;" lang="EN-GB"> planning and institutional arrangements capable of mainstreaming or reconnecting these self-organising or people-centred institutions into socio-economic and political decision making so that the poor in Nigeria can participate effectively in decisions that concern their lives, thus entrenching self-governance in Nigeria’s democratisation project. </span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;" lang="EN-US">It is in the light of this exigency that this paper adopts African Public Sphere Restructuring Model (APSRM) that could help in restructuring the public sphere for synergy and African Electoral Reform and Democratisation (AERD) for inclusive democratisation</span><span lang="EN-US">. </span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: 0cm;"><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></strong><em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;" lang="EN-US">Key Words:</span></em><span lang="EN-US"> Democracy, Government structure, Self-governing institutions, Polycentric Planning</span></p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:HyphenationZone>14</w:HyphenationZone> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>IT</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> 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mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]-->}, number={2}, journal={European Journal of Sustainable Development}, author={Akinola, Samson R. and Adesopo, Ayo}, year={2014}, month={Jun.}, pages={53} }