The Problematic of Party Defection and Nigeria's Democratic Consolidation (1999-2018)
Author:
Aiguosatile OTOGHILE
Co-Authors:
Idemudia OSUNBOR
Abstract:
Party defection, a political phenomenon though occurs in almost all "democratic"settings does not appear to enjoy universal acceptability. Its occurrence and prevalencedepends on the level of political maturity of a system, the presence, significance andcriticality of ideology as a political factor in the body politics of the state. The generalsocioeconomic and political value system of the political elites, and the generality of thepopulace also determine its prevalence. While it is rarely practiced in developedpolitical systems, it is an act that is very common place in developing climes wherepolitical gladiators engage in it without recourse to its deleterious consequences on thesystem and the sanctity of personal integrity. It is instead employed as a politicalsurvival strategy by political jobbers to maintain their relevance in our uncertainpolitical environment. This work represents a modest attempt at interrogating the majorissues the act of frequent party defection has on the body politics of Nigeria mostespecially in her onerous task of democratic consolidation. The paper opines that whilethe goal of genuine democratic consolidation could be tasking and sacrificial, thepreponderance of party switching demonstrated by the political elites with concrete andmanifest personal interest obviously runs counter to the general avowed goal. The studywhich is essentially qualitative in methodology is based on secondary data. It suggeststhat a rather curious consequence of the act of defection is the problematic of gettingour politics and in fact other sub-sectors right.
Publication Year:
2022
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