Political Parties as Instrument of Deepening Good Governance in Nigeria

Abstract

Political parties are capable of deepening good governance in Nigeria, just like in other advanced democracies of the world.  Unfortunately, political parties have not made enough contributions to the process of deepening good governance in Nigeria because they are virtually lacking in ideology, enmesh in intra and inter-party crises, very corrupt and not transparent in their activities. Instead of making life easier, comfortable and satisfactory for Nigerians they have done little or nothing to deepen good governance. Political parties that should be instrumental to unity, peace, integration and development of a state irrespective of their ideology and coloration do everything possible to neutralize opposition parties and retain power once they are in government. Thus, this study assessed how political parties can be used to deepen good governance, the ideologies upon which Nigeria’s political parties operate and the roles of key parties’ actors in the deepening of good governance. Data was collected from both primary and secondary sources. Primary data was collected by close-ended questionnaire and quantitative technique was used to analyze it. The secondary data was sourced through journal articles, dailies, magazines, internet materials, and relevant textbooks and analyzed by content analysis.

Keywords: political parties, ideology, governance, good governance, democracy