In the democratic family of nations, Nigeria is reputed to host one of the most expensive democratic political systems. The Nigerian democratic system has become a new minting causeway producing nouveaux riches, political jobbers and a tiny political aristocracy who control the vast resources and opportunities in the state. In the midst of this megalomaniac plutocracy, a distended army of the Nigerian unemployed is palpable. This precariat class is a victim of a democratic system that seems to legislate wealth avenues for a minority while pauperising the majority. On the other hand, while China’s democratic system has earned epithets such as “pseudo democracy”, “flawed democracy” or socialist or communist democracy, the country is a modern example of an economic phoenix. Within 30 years, China rose from a dark silhouette as one of the poorest agricultural countries in the world to its second-largest economy status, lifting six hundred and fifty million of its citizens out of grinding poverty, about 80% of the entire world’s bottom billion. The Chinese economic model and particularly its positive and unconditional friendship to African nations have stood out. While its democratic model provides an alternative to the Western-chiselled liberal democratic orthodoxy, its approach to governance with zero tolerance for corruption and its lean political structure may become a learning point for Nigeria and its African kindred nations. This study aims to examine the scale of Nigeria’s expensive democratic politics, and investigate its impact on the festering unemployment situation in the country vis-à-vis the Chinese democratic model and its cost of governance. Lessons drawn from this analysis and using the Marxist and Deprivation theories are expected to compel the present political class in Nigeria to overturn its natural shenanigans for responsible and benign leadership, which has the potential of reversing the unemployment dead weight in Nigeria.
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