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Political Parties And Democratic Consolidation In Nigeria’s Fourth Republic: 1999-2015
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1.2 Statement of the Problem
Consolidating Nigerian democracy through the conduct of credible
elections has remained an albatross. The history of Nigeria’s democratic
experiments demonstrates that elections and electoral politics have
generated so much animosity which has, in some cases, threatened the
corporate existence of the country (such as happened after the annulment
of the June 12, 1993 presidential election) and in other cases
instigated military incursion in to political governance, most notably
in 1966 and 1983. At the heart of electoral crisis in Nigeria is the
lack of credibility for the official results of elections leading to the
rejection of such results by a sizeable portion of the Nigerian voting
public. Since the 1964 general election, the first to be conducted by
the post-colonial Nigerian government, elections in Nigeria have
consistently been characterized by the contestation of results and
organized violence.
While there is a plethora of factors
that account for electoral crisis in Nigeria, the institutional factor
(designing a credible electoral system) appears to be the most salient.
In addition, the process of implementing such an efficient electoral
regime is challenged by sociological variables such as the pluralist
character of the Nigerian nation, underdeveloped political culture and
irrational political parties’ behaviour.
Since the
inauguration of the Fourth Republic, a pattern is already emerging which
points to the fact that political elites have not learnt much from the
mistakes of the past. The various crises plaguing the major parties and
emerging ones and the various inter-party crisis of the defections in
the National Assembly, cross carpeting of governors among others are
vivid instances of this tendency. Lack of party discipline continues to
feature prominently in all the major parties. One of the fallouts of
lack of party discipline among party men is factionalisation within the
parties. The registration of new parties in preparation of 2007 has
raised the phenomenon of carpet crossing and decamping. This tendency
has further oiled “the zero-sum game†of the Nigerian political
landscape. This action ends up heating up the polity; a situation that
portends dangers to democratic consolidation. This danger has
resulted to the high level of political abduction, harassment, arson,
and assassinations, withdrawal of credible and qualified professionals
in the race. It is against this backdrop that this study seeks to
examine the relationship between political parties and democratic
consolidation in Nigeria’s fourth republic from 1999-2015 with a special
reference to Makurdi Local Government Area (LGA) of Benue State.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The major objective of the study is examine the relationship between
political parties and democratic consolidation in Nigeria’s fourth
republic from 1999-2015. Other specific objectives are:
1) To examine the relationship between political parties and democratic consolidation in Nigeria’s fourth.
2) To explore the effect of inter-party crisis on the democratic process.
3) To investigate the influence of the electoral process on power transition in Nigeria’s fourth.
4) To find out the challenges of political parties in Nigerian Fourth Republic.
1.5 Research Questions
The questions that this study seeks to address are:
1) What is the relationship between political parties and democratic consolidation in Nigeria’s fourth?
2) Will inter-party crisis have any effect on the democratic process in Nigeria?
3) To what extent will the electoral process have an influence on power transition in Nigeria’s fourth?
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