The practice of caricature democracy comes with itself consequences of subversion of the will of the people. One of the consequences is the enthronement of the regime of social vices, which is created by tenacious period of military authoritarianism but sustained by bad democratic governance. Good governance creates platform for inclusive governance process but what is abnormal is the increase in the spate of insurgency even in democracy in Nigeria. This paper examined the interface between democratic governance and terrorism in Nigeria. Insurgency and violence in Nigeria manifest in form of boko haram religious set which has vowed to Islamize Nigeria as a condition for peace. The activities of boko haram have assumed terrorist dimension, threatening the corporate existence of the Nigerian State. The paper generated the following research questions in order to raise critical issues of concern and deepen understanding on the relationship between democratic governance and terrorism in Nigeria: is there any relationship between democratic governance and terrorism? Is terrorism in Nigeria a consequence of bad governance and leadership failure? In order to illuminate the factors accounting for terrorist activities in Nigeria, the paper adopted both descriptive and analytical methods and also employed social contract theory to explain the factors precipitating the spread of terrorism in the country. The paper insisted that the genesis of terrorism could be traced to bad governance in Nigeria and put forth necessary recommendations to roll back the boko haram insurgency in Nigeria.