'Lai Olurode References Online Internet Centre for Corruption Research http://www.icgg.org/corruption.cpi_olderindices_historical.html Transparency International Websites http://www.transparency.org/cpi2014/results#myAnchor1 http://www.transparency.org/cpi2013/results http://www.transparency.org/research/cpi/cpi_2009/0/ United Nations Development Programme Website http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/table-2-human-development­index-trends-1980-2013 24 Chapter Two Stakeholders and the Electoral Process in Nigeria: Review of 2011 Elections and Projections for 2015 Attahiru M. Jega 2.1 Introduction From universal experience, elections are the best means of deepening democracy and promoting good governance. Credible elections make leaders accountable and responsive to the yearnings and aspirations of the people from whom they derive their mandate to govern. Free and fair elections offer citizens the opportunity to elect leaders from whom they can demand good governance, and who they can hope to reject in subsequent elections if such demand is not met. Elections, therefore, promote citizens' participation in governance through the exercise of their right to choose or reject leaders, based on the performance of such leaders in fulfilling the social contract. While elections may not be a sufficient condition for true democracy, they constitute an essential ingredient. Nigeria is a country in transition. We are still in the process of weaning the political culture from anti-democratic tendencies that many years of military rule we had lived under fostered in our national life. Since elections constitute an essential ingredient of every participatory democracy, our electoral system is a work in progress. In other words, we are still undergoing reform processes and policy initiatives aimed at refining the system; hence, the system is not yet perfect. 25