Are Multiparty Elections in Nigeria Competitive or Confrontational? Interrogating the Democraticness of Political Parties in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic

Abstract

Political parties have significantly influenced the political process and the development of the Nigeria as a political entity. Parties as institutions of democratic governance are recognised as one of the foremost in the country’s struggles for self-government and independence. As a quasi representative institution under colonial government, political parties in Nigeria played leading role in the emergence of ‘limited and controlled’ representative government. Parties in colonial Nigeria were instrumental to the recognition of the Natives’ right to participate in colonial government and to a large extent the introduction of electoral principle in the determination of how and who could truly represent the people in colonial government. As popular platforms that were actively involved in liberation struggles, political parties in colonial Nigeria, performed major functions of mass mobilization and enlightenment, agenda setting and political structuring through various constitutional and political conferences, which culminated to political independence and the enthronement of a West Minister model of democracy in the country. This is not however to suggest that the establishment and functioning political parties in colonial Nigeria was devoid of crisis and political tension within and between parties. Thus as parties competed for support and followership on different national, regional and local issues, there were confrontations and violence in the political system. Suffice to say that the nature of competition within and between parties in colonial Nigeria was not only confrontational but also somewhat violent.