THE ROLE OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION IN NIGERIA FOURTH REPUBLIC, AS CRITERIA FOR THE AWARD OF HIGHER NATIONAL DIPLOMA IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

ABSTRACT

In democratization of any nation political parties play a very critical role. Central to the successes and failures of electoral politics is the cardinal and strategic functions of this all important and an integral organ of democratization which is core to its development, and this organ has not lived up to expectation in its supposed role of consolidating democracy in Nigeria, via its inability to tackle its challenges towards that drive. The dawn of the Nigerian fourth republic has witnessed renewed and sustained activities of political parties which are the most complex and critical institutions of democracy but undoubtedly has either shaped or stagnated the deepening and consolidation of democracy. With heavy reliance on secondary data supported by analytical approach, the paper x-rayed the role of political parties in consolidating democratic process in the Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. The paper identified the challenges plaguing democratic consolidation since the commencement of the fourth republic to include: Lack of institutionalization and personalization of political parties; Godfatherism; absence of internal democracy within the political parties and incessant party/political violence. The party system in Nigeria is still weak and vulnerable with no visible signs of adding value to the democratic consolidation. It is recommended that for the political party to achieve its role in consolidating democracy, it ought to imbibe and inculcate organizational capacity, effective leadership, internal democracy, discipline, institutionalization and personalization, ideological platforms of mobilization and linkage to civil society.