In the evolving trajectory of Nigerian democratic government, many older adults are mired in the wake of poor or severe fracture of social welfare services necessary for good living and optimal functioning at a later stage of one’s life. This paper examined democratic governance and social welfare services for older adults in Nigeria’s fourth republic (that is, 1999 to date). The social contract theory was adopted as the theoretical framework. The study was purely qualitative and relied more on data gathered from secondary sources such as textbooks, Journal articles, internet materials, conference papers, policy documents, and others. The findings revealed that lack of a comprehensive and workable social policy framework for older adults in Nigeria, coupled with the persistent increase in bureaucratic corruption and a flamboyant/expensive political system and democracy, were the underlying factors to this unsavoury development. This has resulted in an increase in poverty level, inequality, and debt profile among Nigerian older adults, as they no longer have confidence in the development potential of democracy. The paper therefore recommended, amongst other things, the urgent need to review the national constitution and articulate a workable social policy framework for older adults in both formal and informal sectors of the Nigerian economy, declare an emergency on the war against corruption in public institutions and trim down the cost of governance.
Abonyi et al. (2026) studied this question.