Political Nomadism as an Antithesis of Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria

Reflections on the 2015 and 2019 General Elections

Abstract

Twenty-one years after the return of democracy from its forced exile, it is still struggling to find its feet in Nigeria’s political landscape. Several studies have variously interrogated the dynamics of democratization in Nigeria in relation to other variables, including rudimentary party politics, albeit peripherally and perfunctorily. Reflecting on the 2015 and 2019 general elections and the political build-ups to them, therefore, this paper argues that the nature and character of defections and re-alignments did not only make a caricature of Nigeria’s electoral democracy, but has reduced the act of defection to mere political nomadism. It contends that in advanced democracies, party defection is rare, and when embarked upon, is usually for the purposes and on the basis of propagating and defending abiding principles and political philosophies to which one is convinced; and not for primitive political opportunism as the case is in Nigeria. Following the analysis of data collected via documentary method as well as the deployment of the Post-colonial State theory, the study found that political opportunism rather than altruism was the predominant objective and fundamental impetus behind the nomadic defections that played out in the 2015 and 2019 general elections, and that this has fundamentally undermined democratic consolidation in Nigeria. The study therefore recommends, among others, that INEC charges political parties to adopt clear cut ideologies in addition to prevailing over political office holders who wish to switch political parties to first resign from such current positions.