Democracy remains one of the fundamental core values promoted by the United Nations (UN). It is believed to be a powerful model for promoting people’s rights, development, security, and welfare. When countries pursue this concept, chances are high that the level of accountability will increase whereby the people enjoy good governance, the presence of strong institutions, and fair elections. Throughout the 20th century, many countries in the developing world began to pursue this critical value in an attempt to promote economic development and empower their citizens to achieve their potential. However, this goal remained a mirage for most of the nations in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. A detailed understanding of the major obstacles to the realization of democracy can guide political leaders to put their states on the right path. Since independence, both Nigeria and Pakistan have experienced numerous challenges and hindrances that explain why democracy has failed over the years, such as prolonged periods of military rule, coups, corruption, absence of strong institutions, and the ineffectiveness of different leaders. The purpose of this paper is to give a detailed comparative analysis and description of the reasons why democracy has failed in Nigeria and Pakistan. Why Democracy Failed in Pakistan and Nigeria The founding father of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, embarked on a new journey aimed at making the country a democratic state in 1947. However, this initiative or strategy failed since it took over six decades before similar ideas could become a reality in this nation. Several reasons can be presented to explain why this objective remained hard to achieve. Firstly, the first government after independence failed to implement powerful measures and structures to ensure that elections were conducted smoothly (Haq & Akbar, 2015). This kind of weaknesses created the best environment for leadership to change hands between the military and the civilian population. Such an occurrence is a clear indication that different rulers have been focusing on the most appropriate strategies to amass and maintain power, thereby making it for democracy to develop. Due to political instability, this country continued to record increased cases of corruption and civil-military conflicts. The military has managed to overthrow existing weak civilian governments three times in this country’s history. These events occurred in the years 1958, 1977, and 1999 (Alkifaey, 2019). The leadership of the military resulted in martial law that made it impossible for the people to pursue their democratic rights and liberties. The absence of powerful political institutions since independence made it impossible for democracy to thrive in this country. However, some liberties and rights have been recorded in the recent whereby the citizens are allowed to elect their leaders. Unfortunately, the only successful transfer of political power from a democratically elected president to another one took place in 2013 (Haq & Akbar, 2015). The occurrence of military coups in the past is something that explains why those in leadership positions have failed to implement powerful mechanisms to support democracy and meet the demands of the greatest number of citizens (Jaffrelot, 2015). With such occurrences, th