PARTY-POLITICS AND INTRA-PARTY DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA: A HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVE

Alfa Patrick Innocent

Department of Social Science and Humanities

The Federal Polytechnic, Idah Kogi State, Nigeria

E-mail:  alfaintellectual@yahoo.com.

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes party politics in Nigeria from the First Republic to date.  Its input is that the dearth of intra-party democracy in Nigeria’s political parties is not a recent phenomenon but is rather endemic despite the variations in scale and intensity.  The paper drew its insight from the secondary data and personal experience and observations of the authors. Group theory was used to explicate the tendencies of political parties and their embracing or otherwise of internal democratic doctrines.  The paper posits that there is profound lack of intra-party democracy in the operations of political parties in Nigeria and recommended ways of ensuring that intra-party democracy is enforced in Nigeria’s political parties.