Party Politics and National Integration in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic

Abstract

This paper recognizes that political parties are agents of interest aggregation, and argues that the Nigerian party should be such that offers a platform for the intercourse of interests, out of which, interest aggregation could occur, particularly, on the ways that the structure and process of governance in the country could lead to national integration. Intra-party politics would then become the articulation of positions by members and the competition among these positions on the issues of national integration, leading to the aggregation of particular positions by each party on the diverse issues confronting the nation at any period. Inter-party politics then becomes the competition among the parties over which of their positions will become the basis of governance and policy for the purpose of national integration in the country. Unfortunately as the paper observes, this is not the situation in Nigeria. Using qualitative methodology, the paper finds that instead, party politics has not been the platform for interest aggregation but rather one for interest disarticulation, and has as such, continued to promote national disharmony and aggravate conflicts and crises in the country. The paper recommends that the political party as well as party politics in Nigeria must be restructured such that both can serve as agents of achieving and consolidating unity in diversity and contribute to the resolution of the numerous challenges of national integration in the country.