THE MISSING RIB OF NIGERIA’S DEMOCRACY

Abstract

Political parties are the pillars of democracy in all societies, either developed or developing nations. Hence, there cannot be a democracy without the political parties. Parties control the governmental machinery of every democratic nation, and through the policies and decisions they undertake, they steer the nation towards attaining its set development goals and objectives. To this end, vibrant, purpose-driven and well-structured party system is highly essential to both the growth and sustenance of democratic ideals and the actualization of a country’s development aspirations. In emerging democracies such as Nigeria, therefore, the need for a well-patterned and functional party system is of high imperative. Unfortunately, the character and nature of the Nigerian political parties in the Fourth Republic, and the pattern of party politics common among them runs in contradistinction to these widely held views and known facts. Rather than acting as catalysts to the growth and consolidation of democratic norms and values vis-à-vis the country’s overall development, the Nigerian parties have largely tended to be a cog in the nation’s wheel of social, political and economic growth and success. It is against this backdrop that this paper basically argues that all the ills besieging the Nigerian state since the advent of the Forth Republic is mainly due to the failure of the parties, especially the dominant ones to play their expected role in the country. To advance its argument, this paper is divided into several sections. The first segment consists of the introduction, while the second part examines the role of political parties in democracy. The third part dwells on the emergence of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, and the fourth periscopes the role of the political parties in the politics and governance of the Fourth Republic. The fifth x-rays major Nigerian problems and the contribution of the political parties to their persistence. The sixth part investigates factors responsible for the inability of the political parties to contribute impressively to resolving Nigeria’s problems. The seventh segment consists of the recommendations of the study, while the eighth part is the conclusion.