Abstract

Since the fall of the Berlin wall or the end of the cold war in 1980s, many African leaders appear to be championing the cause of democratic transition in their states whereas in the real sense of it they directly or indirectly engage in systems that are quite antithetical or in contradistinction to the project in question. The paper, therefore, appraises the Obasanjo’s eight years administration arguing that his regime was more of patrimonialistic than democratization he widely claimed to have adopted.

Key words: Patrimonialism, clientelism, prebendalism, dictatorship, rent-seeking.