Exploring Competitive Strategy for Capturing Political Power by Political Parties in Nigeria

Abstract

In Nigeria, many political parties are stuck in the middle as lack of competitive strategy abound. They fail to explore competitive strategy with a view to gaining sustainable competitive advantage in the contest for power. This phenomenon is responsible for their dismal performance in elections. To enable a political party gain sustainable competitive advantage in elections, competitive strategy is now imperative. While the smaller political parties with lesser access to resources should pursue a differentiation focus strategy, the larger political parties with greater access to resources, should pursue a differentiation cost strategy. It is a dynamo of danger to embark on a political struggle without a competitive strategy.

There are several factors which affects the effectiveness of political parties in political contest in Nigeria. As a result of my ontological position which is within the domain of relativism, the focus of this study is only on the impact of competitive strategy on the success of political parties elections. This research is based on existing theoretical and practical knowledge on competitive strategy. Data was collected from the literature on competitive strategy by means of critical analysis of the literature. Data analysis for purposes of explication of understanding was done through critical analysis of literature and dialectic reflection about my understanding of it.

Key words: Competitive  strategy, focus strategy, differentiation strategy, differentiation focus strategy, cost leadership, political gain, voters, voters population, political contest, political struggle