CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONs AND THE DEMOCRATIZATION PROCESS IN WEST AFRICA: AN INSIGHTFUL DISCOURSE ON NIGERIA AND GHANA.

Abstract

The system of governance in West Africa, Particularly Nigeria and Ghana can best be described as civil rule code-named democracy. To achieve Democracy, a society must first democratize. To democratize, non governmental organizations like civil society organizations (CSOs) must play active yet defining roles like the role of a watchdog, advocacy for inclusiveness and promoting political participation, holding governments at all levels to account for their actions and inactions, and raising an army of critical citizens amongst others. To carry out this study, the researcher adopted the descriptive research design. Data for the study were collected using the secondary instruments of data collection and content analysis used to analyze the data generated. The study adopted the structural functional theory as its framework for analysis. The major findings of the study is that despite the presence of many CSOs(both local and international) in west Africa in general and Nigeria and Ghana in particular, they have