CHAPTER ONE

PARTY POLITICS AND DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA’S FOURTH REPUBLIC FROM 2011 TO 2015

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Nigeria is strategically located in the West African continent with a population of over one hundred and forty million (140,000,000) (Ploch, 2012). The country is endowed with almost all the vegetational zones found in the tropic starting from the Sahel region in the extreme north through Savannah land in the forest region to the swamp mangrove down to the Atlantic oceans. (Cha, 2010:48). The country is bordered in the north with Niger, Cameroun in the east, Benin in the West and South to the Atlantic.

The Benue and Niger rivers which joint at Lokoja divided the country into three segment that approximated Nigerians political division up to 1963 i.e. northern, western and eastern regions. Though home to hundreds of other ethnic groups (each having its’ own political system, region, language and cultures). These regions were respectively dominated by Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo groups. To be sure Nigeria is the most populous black country in the African continent (Chukwemeka, 2009:405). The country has abundant human and natural resources such as petroleum, cotton, cocoa, iron ore etc (USAID, 2007:1).

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Since the Berlins conference of 1885, when the Africa was partition among the European countries, Nigeria has been experiencing political domination, economic exploitation and cultural subjugation.

The country (Nigeria) was granted independent in 1960, through the struggle of the Nigerian nationalist in a peaceful process.

Historically, the beginning of political party in Nigeria by Herbert Macaulay as the leading figure of the first generation of Nigerian nationalist as the political party was the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) in 1920s.

The Nigerian National Democratic Party dominated Nigerian politics throughout the 1920s until the late 1930s when the Nigerian youth movement (NYM) emerged.

Furthermore, the political parties of the first republic were ethnically based that is to say the Northern People Congress (NPC) for the north, National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) for the east, and the Action Group (AG) for the west. The institutionalization of ethnicity as a political ideology characterized the politics of the first republic as could be discerned from the nature and character of the political parties that were formed.

The second republic also saw the emergence of multi – party system. The question of party politics became a constitutional matter. In view of the need for the limited number of National Political parties, the constitution specified certain conditions that parties had to meet in order to be registered

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they included; name, emblem, or motto of the party could not contain any ethnic or religious connotation or give the party the image of sectional party; membership in the party should be open to all Nigerians irrespective of ethnic or religious affiliations; the party headquarter must be in the Federal Capital; and the executive committee of the party should reflect the Federal character of the country. However, five political parties fulfilled the criteria for the registration and they were registered. Such political parties include National Party of Nigeria (NPN), Unity Party of Nigeria (UNP), People Redemption Party (PRP), Nigerian People Party (NPP) and the Great Nigerian People Party (GNPP).

During the aborted third republic attempts were made to sink ethnic differences in the formation and control of political parties. The Babangida Military Administration gave politician opportunity to form political parties; several political associations sought for registration as political parties but were denied. But later only two political parties were imposed by the electoral body known as National Electoral Commission (NEC). These political parties were Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Republic Convention (NRC). The innovation of the two party system in 1989 introduced some elements of discontinuity between the past in terms of selection, finding and the interest they serve. It removed the idea of owners, as the government financed the funding of the two parties and provide a level of playing field for all those who wanted to stake a political

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career from either of the two parties. However, the cancelation of June 12 Presidential Election in 1993 aborted this political experiment.

Following the collapse of the third republic and the emergence of Abacha’s military regime in November 1993, the nation was returned to a multi-party system. The following political parties were registered by the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON). These political parties were, United Nigerian Congress Party (UNCP), Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN), National Centre Party of Nigeria (NCPN), Grass Root Democratic Movement (GDM) and the Congress for National Consensus (CNC). All the above political parties endorsed General Sani Abacha to be the presidential flag bearer in their party. This experiment was short lived following the death of General Sani Abacha.

Moreover, the Abdussalam Abubakar Military administration ushered in the fourth republic, which began in 1999. Several political parties sought for registration and they were registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), these include People Democratic Party (PDP), Alliance for Democracy (AD), and All People Party (APP).

The civilian government of Obasanjo’s regime attempted to liberalize the political space by registering over fifty political parties. As the build of the 2015 General Election gather momentum some leading opposition parties announced their intention to merge and form mega party. The independent Nat