Party Politics and the Challenges of Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the factors that determined the emergence of party’s candidates and the impacts of party’s lack of internal democracy on democratic consolidation in Nigeria. These were with a view to examining party politics and the challenge of democratic consolidation in Nigeria. This area of political process has be a clog on the wheel of democratic consolidation in Nigeria since independence, 1960. Most research studies emphasize theories of democracy and political party and with little attention on party politics (intra-politics) and vis-à-vis democratic consolidation in Nigeria. However, the findings of the study showed that 95% of respondents agreed that money and class were the major factors that undermined or determined the position of candidates in Nigerian election, while 90% of respondents also agreed that the power of incumbency and godfatherism greatly determined the emergence of party’s candidates. Almost 90% of respondents agreed that tribalism, ethnicity, nepotism and sectionalism were major factors that have caused party’s lack of internal democracy in Nigeria. The study concluded that party politics in the area of nomination, selection and elections have negative implications on democratic consolidation in Nigeria. Among other things, the study also concluded that lack of internal democracy within political parties as a limiting factor in Nigeria’s attempt to deepen democracy.

Keywords: Party politics, Political party, Elections, Democratic Consolidation, Elite Theory