ABSTRACT:

The paper examines the practice of democracy, particularly in relation to the conduct of election in Nigeria; so as to discover the nature of change, if any that has occurred in the country's democratic practice. It utilizes the unified Structure Agency Model (Giddens' Structuration Theory) to attempt an explanation of the observed change in Nigeria's democratic experience. The paper shows that the defects in the country's conduct of elections in the past were factored by institutions which were themselves defective and, politicians lading in democratic value. It concludes that changes in the system which brought about reforms in some of these institutions responsible for election administration and the entry of credible individuals into decision making centres helped engineer a more credible electoral process in Nigeria.