Nigeria’s rating in global democracy and governance has recorded a raise from the 121 position in 2014 to 108 last year, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU’s) Democracy Index 2015.
The EIU is an independent business within the UK-based The Economist Group and the Democracy Index measures the state of democracy in 167 countries, of which 166 are sovereign states and 165 UN member states.
The index is also based on 60 indicators grouped in five different categories measuring pluralism, civil liberties and political culture. In addition to a numeric score and a ranking, the index categorises countries as one of four regime types: full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes and authoritarian regimes.
Nigeria shared the 121 position with Jordan and Gabon among the countries listed under authoritarian regimes in 2014, despite being run by a democratically elected government, under the immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Nigeria, however, leapt from the authoritarian categorisation of 2014 to the hybrid democratic and governance class, but falling short of flawed democracies and full democracies.
Norway, which tops the list of categorisations in 10 per cent grading, was followed by Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand and Denmark. The United States was ranked 20.
