OHAZURUME - Unizik Journal of Culture and Civilization

This article explored the place of covenant making in traditional African societies and its implications on political campaign promises in the current democratic dispensation in Nigeria. An overview on the socio-political and economic scenes in Nigeria shows an ugly phenomenon in which political leaders usually make lofty political campaign promises during electioneering period but fail to fulfill them. Thus, Nigeria as a democratic state is now being characterized by innumerable problems resulting from this obvious failure of government to keep to her promises. The paper argues that to address Nigeria’s innumerable socio-economic and political vices, politicians need to learn the art of covenant making in traditional African societies which promotes unity, brotherliness, faithfulness and social justice and apply same today. To achieve this, the paper used the discursive approach in presenting data gathered through literature review and personal observations. It reveals that the socio-economic, religious and political vices in Nigeria are the consequences of the failure of government to fulfill political campaign promises. Therefore, it recommends a re-visitation of the art of covenant making in traditional African societies in form of oath-taking as a remedy.

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