GRASSROOTS MOVEMENTS AND DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION IN ENUGU STATE

Abstract

This study examined the role of grassroots movements: town unions, market and trade associations, youth and women's groups, and faith-based community organisations in democratic consolidation in Enugu State, Nigeria. Anchored on Putnam's social capital theory, Tilly and Tarrow's social movement/contentious politics theory, and Linz and Stepan's framework of democratic consolidation, the study adopted a descriptive survey research design. A sample of 200 leader-respondents was drawn from a population of 400 registered grassroots associations across Enugu's three senatorial zones using the Taro Yamane formula and stratified random sampling. 190 questionnaires were validly returned and analysed. Data were analysed using frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations, and simple linear regression with the aid of SPSS version 25.0. Findings revealed that grassroots movements were highly involved in voter mobilisation, dispute resolution, and community-level monitoring of government projects, but were far less engaged in formal election observation and direct public-expenditure accountability demands. Politicisation and co-optation by political office holders, inadequate funding, and leadership wrangling were identified as the most severe challenges confronting these movements. Regression analysis showed a statistically significant positive relationship between grassroots movement activities and democratic consolidation (R² = .34, F(1, 188) = 96.85, p < .001). The study concludes that grassroots movements are a vital, if uneven and increasingly contested, pillar of democratic consolidation in Enugu State and recommends measures to insulate town unions and community associations fromelite capture while strengthening their formal accountability role.