By Echezona, Nduba C.
The decade of the 1990s has witnessed an unprecedented surge in political activities on the
part of African masses in the direction of plural democracy in the African continent. Since
the post-independerrce decade, the masses in Africa were doused each time they rose up tq
challenge an authoritarian, dictatorial regime. What therh is responsible for this new found
"freedom" to seek a plural political order? Is this search for plurh democracy, Africa-wide
or is it locked in some enclaves in the African continent? What are the recurring themes
around which this quest for plural democracy converge? What are the possibilities that e
truly plural political system would be enshrined on the African continent? What is the role
of the army in all these ongoing processes? In treating these questions, I sought recourse to
a political economy approach which sees the prevailing African condition as one in which the
absence of a state and thus a class with a messianic development attributes causes a political
system whether pluplism or otherwise to be dictated to her from elsewhere. I examined all
the following attributes in a comparatiie perspective: multipartyism, nature of foreign pressure,
pressure by civil society and the role of the army