Formation of Political Parties and Ideology in Nigeria: Comparative Analysis of APC and PDP
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives Of Study
The main objective of this study is to determine the formation and ideologies of political parties in Nigeria; a comparative analysis of APC and PDP. Specifically the aim of this study are:
- To examine if nigeria political parties have ideology
- To examine how the ideological condition shaped and influenced the course of party politics in the country
CHAPTER TWO
Conceptual Clarification
There are three salient concepts that would go a long way in the cerebral understanding of this study. These three concepts which must be conceptualised are – „political party‟, „ideology‟ and, the „state‟.
Political Party
The etymology of the word „party‟ has been traced to the Latin word „partire‟ meaning „to divide‟. This word however was not part of the vocabulary of politics until the 17th century. Prior to that, the idea „part‟ had already entered the French language as „partager‟ which in English means „partaking‟. By the time the word „party‟ was finally formed, it replaced the word „sect‟ (Sartori 1976). Having known the origin of the word „party‟, what then is a political party?
According to Lawson (1976) “no definition of party is ever entirely satisfactory…” (Lawson, 1976:2). Nevertheless, scholars, especially those in the discipline, Political Science, keep composing a definition that best captures the features and functions of a political party. According to the Irish political philosopher and statesman, Edmund Burke (1770), a “[p]arty is a body of men united, for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest, upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed” (Langford, 1981:317). To J. S. Coleman and C. G. Rosberg, political parties are associations formally organised with the explicit and declared purpose of acquiring and/or maintaining legal control, either singly or in coalition or in electoral competition with other similar associations over the personnel and policy of the government of an actual or prospective sovereign state (Coleman and Rosberg, 1964).
A political party therefore is “any political group identified by an official label that presents at elections, and is capable of placing through elections (free or non-free), candidates for public office (Sartori, 1976:63). It can also be seen as “any group, however loosely organized, seeking to elect government office holders under a given label” (Epstein, 1967, 1980:9). Succinctly, a political party is “an organized attempt to get control of government” (Schattschneider, 1942:35).
In Political Science, the scientific study of political parties is called „statiology‟. Notable among the many scholars that have contributed to the body of knowledge on political parties are – Moisei Ostrogorsky (1902); Sigmund Neumann (1955); Anthony Downs (1957); Maurice Duverger (1964); Samuel Eldersveld (1964); Joseph LaPalombara and Myron Weiner (1966); Lucian W. Pye (1966); Fred Riggs (1968); Kay Lawson (1976); Kenneth Janda (1980); Richard Gunther and Larry J. Diamond (2001); Andrew Heywood (2002) and; Williams J. Crotty (2006). Pertaining to the typology of political party, Gunther and Diamond (2001) were able to identify five types of party – i) elite-based parties; ii) mass-based parties; iii) ethnicity-based parties; iv) electoralist parties and; v) movement parties.
Ideology
“In the realm of political theory the term „ideology‟ is applied in two contexts: (a) a set of ideas which are accepted to be true by a particular group, party or nation without further examination; and (b) the science of ideas which examines as to how different ideas are formed, how truth is distorted, and how we can overcome distortions to discover true knowledge” (Gauba, 2003:13), But for the purpose of this paper, ideology is used in the context of a „set of ideas‟.
Before and after the time of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, political ideas had existed. However, the science of ideas did not begin until the Enlightenment Age in the 18th century. Regarding the etymology of the concept „ideology‟ („ideo‟ – of Greek origin meaning “idea” + “logy” – of Greek origin meaning “the study of”), the French word „idéologie‟ was coined in the year 1796 by the French political philosopher Antoine Louis Claude Destutt, Comte de Tracy (1754 – 1836) during the French Revolution (1789-1799) (Ogunnoiki, 2017a). What then is an ideology?.
“Nobody has yet come up with a single adequate definition of ideology…. This is not because workers in the field are remarkable for their low intelligence, but because the term „ideology‟ has a whole range of useful meanings, not all of which are compatible with each other. To try to compress this wealth of meaning into a single comprehensive definition would thus be unhelpful even if it were possible” (Eagleton, 1991:1).
CHAPTER THREE
Historical Background to Political Party Development in Nigeria
The development of political parties in Nigeria dates back to 1923 when the Nigerian National Democratic Party was launched. This followed the establishment of the Nigerian Legislative Council to provide some political space for the participation of indigenes. Franchise was however limited to two cities – Lagos and Calabar. A more vigorous process of party formation was initiated with the formation of the Nigerian Youth Movement in 1938 and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) in 1944 under the leadership of Herbert Macaulay. The Action Group (AG) emerged in 1948 while the Northern Peoples’ Congress (NPC) was established in 1951. These parties constituted themselves as political expressions of ethno-regional associations with the Action Group in the West evolving from a Yoruba cultural association – EgbeOmoOduduwa, the Northern Peoples’ Congress (NPC) evolving from the northern cultural association, JamiyarMutanenArewa and the National Congress of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) which started as a national party but later narrowed its social base to a cultural association, the Igbo State Union of the south east. These ethnoregional elite blocs struggled against each other in configuring the politics of the First Republic as a contest for hegemony by the elites of the major ethnic formations – Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo and the marginalisation of the minority groups. Massive electoral fraud in the 1964 and 1965 elections precipitated a political crisis that led to the collapse of the First Republic, civil war and the entry of the military into Nigerian politics.
The military devoted a lot of attention into devising a new type of party system they thought will be more national and less divisive. Both the Gowon and Murtala regimes tried to steer the country towards a zero party or one party system with the clear intention of establishing more effective state control over the political process. When these attempts were rejected by the political class and civil society, the military used the national unity argument to popularise the idea of the necessity of imposing “Pan-Nigerian” conditions for the registration of parties. The immediate result of this was that the definition of a political party was changed from what it was in the First Republic. Rather than an organisation formed by a number of people to propagate certain ideas and contest for power, it was redefined as an organisation that is “Pan-Nigerian” and so recognised by the state to contest elections. Section 201 of the 1979 Constitution specifically limits the definition of a political party to an organisation recognised by the state to canvass for votes. The law forbids any organisation, not so recognised to canvass for votes. More importantly, both on the juridical and political levels, parties were no longer considered as popular organisations that aggregate and articulate interests and opinions but as corporate entities that are registered with the state. This meant that the political significance of parties were no longer determined by popular support but by administrative fiat.
CHAPTER FOUR
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
Political Parties and Ideology in Post-colonial Nigeria
Nigeria is deliberately called a „post-colonial state‟ by some intellectuals who want to emphasise the era after colonial rule ended in the country. Ideally, a post-colonial state is to enjoy full autonomy i.e. both political and economic independence for their departed colonial master as the case is for the United States of America from Britain. Unfortunately, this has not been the case for post-colonial States in the Third World that only got political independence while their economy is still being exploited and controlled by their former colonial master through the agents – MNCs, the IMF and the World Bank.
The First Republic (1963-1966)
In the fourth quarter of 1963, the country officially became the Federal Republic of Nigeria after the 1963 Republican Constitution took effect on October 1st, 1963. Based on the 1963 Republican Constitution, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe became the first constitutional President while Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa remained the Prime Minister. On August 09, 1963, the MidWestern region was carved out of the Western region with Chief Dennis Osadebey of the NCNC as the Premier.
In the first republic, there was not so much of the proliferation of political parties. Rather, there was the merger of exiting parties. Prior to the 1964 federal election, two strong alliances emerged – the Nigerian National Alliance (NNA) and the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA). The NNA was a coalition of Sir Alhaji Ahmadu Bello‟s Northern People‟s Congress (NPC), Chief Samuel L. Akintola‟s Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), Niger Delta Congress (NDC) and, the Midwest Democratic Front (MDF). It is important to state at this juncture that the alliance between Sir Alhaji Ahmadu Bello‟s NPC and Chief Samuel L. Akintola‟s NNDP was only possible because of the AG intra-party crisis caused among other things by the desire of Chief Samuel L. Akintola to join forces with the parties of the coalition federal government. For the UPGA, Chief Obafemi Awolowo‟s Action Group (AG), Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe‟s National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), Northern Progressive Front (NPF) and, the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) merged. Again, worth mentioning here is that the alliance between Chief Obafemi Awolowo‟s AG and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe‟s NCNC was as a result of the growing distrust between the NPC and NCNC after the 1962/23 population census which the NCNC strongly believe that the population figure for the Northern region was doctored.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
It is no longer news that most Nigerian political parties today are ideologically barren if one looks at it from the angle of their ideologically-unguided party manifesto and the frequent defection of members across party lines. Not helping matters is the continuation of the ideology „neoliberalism‟ for the Nigerian State which was introduced to the country through the 1986 Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) by the neo-liberal financial institutions – the IMF and World Bank. To address this ideological situation most Nigerian political parties and the State are in now, certain steps must be taken which are recommended below.
Recommendations
In the light of the findings in this research paper, the following are strongly recommended:
- Political parties already formed in Nigeria but obviously lack an ideology should take out time to adopt one, be it home-grown or a foreign ideology, while those with a nebulous ideology should clearly state their ideology;
- Political parties should desist from cooking-up programmes only to get the masses to vote for the candidates they field to be elected to the different public offices at the federal, state and, local level. Rather than luring the electorates with what they want to hear, political parties should come up with a comprehensive, feasible and lucid manifesto that is not only drenched in the party’s ideology but will address the national question of restructuring the Nigerian federation, ethno-religious issues, nation/state-building and most importantly, the economic growth and development of the Nigerian State;
- The number of registered political parties in the country should be downsized from 91 to a reasonable number – 25 or 30. This can be achieved by encouraging the merger of minor political parties with the same or similar ideological leaning/programmes;
- The continuous defection of party members should be discouraged by political parties. This is possible if they henceforth have in place stringent rules and regulations on the admission of members without fear or favour;
- The ideology, neoliberalism, should be replaced with the ruling party’s ideology, which must have been well considered as suitable for piloting a developing country like Nigeria to greater height;
- Section 68(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), states that a member of either the Senate or House of Representative can lose his/her seat. But subsection (g) that hammers on when a member of the National Assembly defects from the party he/she won his/her seat to another party, is vague. This section/subsection of the Constitution should be revisited by law-makers and explicitly amended.
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