Abstract
The human society is very dynamic with its accompanying dark times as well as flourishing periods. This dynamic reality affects governance in the society. Little wonder, many philosophers, especially political thinkers devoted much of their thoughts on the affairs of the society: its organization, growth and governance. John Locke’s notion of ‘Civil State’ indicates a refined society with its defined characters: protection of lives, respect for human rights, efficiently organized for development. It is an organized state, where the people voluntarily surrender their power to the government in a social contract for the sole purpose of protection of lives and development of the society. However, that has not brought to perfection the democracy that Locke and the society of now require. The problems of war, anarchy, underdevelopment, chaos, rivalry and power struggle persist. These breed uninhabitable environment and unfavorable living. Even with the proposals of many philosophers of politics, states still experience deficiency in governance. This remains a problem that engineered this study. The objective of this write-up is to show some relevance of John Locke’s proposal to Democracy, particularly in Nigeria. The characters of Civil State as seen in John Locke should be beneficial to Nigeria Democracy. Among the findings of this study is non adherence to the core principle of democracy and the glaring pathway John Locke has offered toward recovering of true democracy by nations. The purpose of the study is to find the best way to navigate the affairs of the state with more efficient result with our current realities and peculiarities in view. This write-up, will be of great significance to the democratic governance in particular and leadership in general. It will be of important to the Nigerian state that is currently derailing away from the true tenets of Civil State and democracy. This write-up through a comparative analysis will critically discuss and pragmatically substantiate John Locke’s concept of the ‘Civil State. This paper concludes that that Locke’s Civil State remains a vital framework for strengthening Nigeria democratic institutions and ensuring accountability.