POLITICAL PARTIES AND POVERTY OF IDEOLOGY IN NIGERIA

OLANREWAJU, JOHN.S (2015) POLITICAL PARTIES AND POVERTY OF IDEOLOGY IN NIGERIA. AFRO ASIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, VOLVI (3). pp. 1-16. ISSN ISSN: 2229 – 5313

Preview

Text AJOS.pdf Download (80kB) | Preview

Abstract

ABSTRACT Political ideology is an important vehicle of a political party. And there is no political party without one or two manifestoes during their electioneering campaign, Nigerian parties seem to be suffering from ideological barreness unlike what is obtainable in advanced democracy. Unless leaders of political parties form and maintain political ideologies on their stand, cross carpeting from one party to another will continue to exist, it is only in Nigerian that candidate worked against their parties when they failed to secure parties tickets to contest elections. Basically, Nigerian political parties have many similarities than differences, the only visible difference being their names, it is sad that we lack the opportunity to vote in term of party ideology rather we vote for personality. Political parties during the days of the late Obafemi Awolowo were driven by meaningful ideological stance. Today we lack parties that prioritize the needs of the citizens, what the country parades today are party that unashamedly lack ideology. Unfortunately, the electoral umpires continue to put on the ballot, parties whose manifestoes are unknown to the electorate, party which do not articulate any public policy decision. This paper address the importance of political party in a democratic atmosphere .It argued that despite the importance of political parties, Nigerian political parties have been manifesting ideological indisposition resulting to poverty of ideology. The paper adopts secondary source of data with clear suggestion that political party can only perform their fundamental roles as well as ensuring democratic consolidation through meaningful ideological disposition. Keywords: Political Party; Ideology; Poverty; Election; Democracy; Nigeria

Actions (login required)

View Item