Traditional Rulers, Electoral Process, and Nigeria’s Fourth Republic: Exploring Relevance

This study examines the role of traditional rulers in the Nigerian electoral process with a view to revealing perceptions arising from such engagement, specifically in democratic transitional process. The study also explores opinions of selected traditional ruler ship councils. It adopts a structural-functionalism approach and qualitative method of data analysis. Thus, the paper argues that there are various controversies surrounding the institution of the traditional rulers in Nigeria showing mix of conspiracy, corruption, dictatorship, and disrespect for the rule of law with incumbent political leaders; which suggests that such alignment indices by some traditional rulers are borrowed from modern democratic leaders. Thus, study concludes that the continuous contributions of the traditional rulers in electoral process will further guarantee their relevance in modern democratic governance.