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POLITICAL PARTIES AND DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION IN NIGERIA. A CASE STUDY OF PDP AND APC IN ANAMBRA STATE (2011-2018).

Dept: POLITICAL SCIENCE File: Word(doc) Chapters: 1-5 Views: 11

Abstract

Political parties play very critical roles in democratization of any nation. It is very much clear to every Nigerian citizen that political parties in Nigeria are far away from practicing true democracy. The major objective of this research is to examine the formation of political parties in Anambra State and how it has affected Anambra State democratic process. In Nigeria it is often argued that democracy is being consolidated but the evidence on ground contradicts this claim, competitive parties like PDP and APC is expected to deepen and consolidate the democratic transition which the country embarked on in May 1999, as well as the electoral politics. Taro Yamani formulae was used in calculating the sample size which resulted to the researcher using two hundred and forty (240) questionnaires as the sample size. The data sourced for this study include both the primary and secondary data. The study adopted group theory for its analysis, in order to analyze the data collected effective

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1           

Background to the Study

What is meant by democracy and democratic consolidation? Questioning the sufficiency of electoral democracy, democracy entails not only contestation and participation but also the establishment of various sites for maintaining accountability, popular expression, collective action, and a wide range of civil and political freedoms. Diamond, (2011). In other words, the substantive conception of democracy depicts better what is meant by democracy in this chapter than the formal or procedural conception of democracy. Whilst the procedural democracy which has been advocated by Omotola refers to the establishment of rules, procedures and institutions for arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a struggle for the people’s vote Omotola, (2008); substantive conception of democracy questions the sufficiency of formal democracy and asks for greater opportunities for people to affect debates about important decisions that shape their society. According to Przeworski, (2010) while the idea of formal democracy is related more to the process of regime transition, the shift in democratization studies to concentrating on regime consolidation has moved to discussion that goes well into areas of substantive democracy.

Consolidating Nigerian democracy through the conduct of credible elections has remained an albatross. The history of Nigeria’s democratic experiments demonstrates that elections and electoral politics have generated so much animosity which has, in some cases, threatened the corporate existence of the country (such as what happened after the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election) and in other cases instigated military incursion in to political governance. At the heart of electoral crisis in Nigeria is the lack of credibility for the official results of elections leading to the rejection of such results by a sizeable portion of the Nigerian voting public. Since the 1964 general election, the first to be conducted by the post-colonial Nigerian government, elections in Nigeria have consistently been characterized by the contestation of results and organized violence. While there is a plethora of factors that account for electoral crisis in Nigeria, the institutional factor (designing a credible electoral system) appears to be the most salient. In addition, the process of implementing such an efficient electoral regime is challenged by sociological variables such as the pluralist character of the Nigerian nation, underdeveloped political culture and irrational elite behavior. Omotola, (2008).

A party