Journal of Advance Public Policy and International Affairs (JAPPIA) Open Access, Double Blind Peer Review, Referral International Journal Indexed in Google Scholar, Thomson Reuter RID, Academic and Open Access Directory 90 Plural Society and the Challenge of Democratic Practice in Nigeria Elijah Okon John, Ph.D* & Usoro I. Usoro Department of Philosophy, University of Uyo, PMB 1017, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria Abstract Against the backdrop that democracy is a near impossibility in a plural or multi-racial nation, this work sets to examine the place of democratic consolidation in a plural society like Nigeria. It reveals that though more desirable than other types of government, democracy is exclusivist in nature and promotes diversity; thus, it can either encourage or discourage ethnic violence and mistrust depending on how certain factors are handled. This work concludes that despite the problems facing Nigeria’s attempt at democracy, the system, if properly modified and harnessed, has high hopes of ensuring a more peaceful environment. Hence, the study recommends that Nigeria needs to fast-trade concrete solutions to the country’s crises through political restructuring and democratic consolidation. Keywords: Plural Society, Democracy, Minority Consideration, Majority Power, Nigeria’s Democracy, Democratic Consolidation. Introduction For about five decades after the ‘flag independence’, Nigeria still totters on as a toddler, often pulled down by issues and questions of power sharing, integration, peaceful coexistence, etc. In other words, the major problem which the post-independent Nigeria has been trying to grapple with is that of inclusive government in a society that is made up of multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multi-cultural groups. Obviously, previous experiments with the unitary system and the military governments never met the expectations of the people. Thus, the expectation soon shifted to a system seen to be working wonderfully in other advanced nations like the United States of America (USA), Germany, Canada, etc. Many have attributed this development largely to the successive administrations’ aversion towards adhering strictly to the concept of justice and equity, fairness and good governance. Nigeria, apart from the foregoing, is assailed by a curious and depressing distribution crisis triggered most often by a dubious and unacceptable formula for the sharing of the somehow elusive national wealth, which many prefer to regard as the “national cake’’. The result has made the post-independent Nigeria, over the years, to witness friction and tension among the over 250 ethnic nationalities. This explains why Oladesu (2002:15) submits that the cultivation of national outlook by many has inadvertently given way to a continued lukewarm attitude towards nation-building by the frustrated groups within Nigeria. Such emotions are stirred by the clandestine tribal organizations, which inaudibly has culminated in the hot race for relevance within the nation’s political and socio-economic equations. In more succinct terms, the problem is that since the independence era of the 1960s to the beginning of the Civil War on July 01, 1967, Nigeria had witnessed a low degree of national cohesion. Its diverse ethnic nationalities, in response to this low level of integration, have decided to look inwards (among themselves) for political succour and survival in an incoherent polity.