A POLITICAL PARTY, according to the online version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, is “a collection of people organized to obtain and exercise political power.” Modern political parties arose in Europe and the United States in the 19th century, along with the electoral and parliamentary systems, whose growth mirrors that of political parties. Since then, the term party has grown to encompass any organized parties vying for political power, whether through democratic elections or revolution.
Wikipedia, another online resource, describes a political party as “an organization that coordinates candidates to run in elections in a given nation.” It is usual for party members to share similar political beliefs, and parties may advocate certain ideological or policy objectives. Political parties have become an integral feature of practically every nation’s politics.”
In our nation, it is the same. As colonialism occurred in Africa, the colonialists’ home country’s methods were enforced, which disturbed and supplanted the Africans’ previous methods, beginning with government. In this manner, political parties also expanded. The first political party in Nigeria was the Nigerian National Democratic Party, created in 1923 by Herbert Macaulay, shortly after the Clifford Constitution was enacted in 1922. Other parties, such as the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), the Action Group (AG), the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC), and the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC), quickly followed.
Upon independence in 1960, the NPC created a government under the leadership of Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group was the major opposition group. The nation’s first coup d’état occurred in 1966, when the civilian government was ousted. The nation returned to democratic civil governance in 1979. The parties of the Second Republic were the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), the Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP), the Great Nigerian Peoples Party (GNPP), and the People’s Redemption Party (PRP). Notable is the fact that men and women with comparable ideals, worldviews, philosophies, and compassion for the people they intended to lead have always occupied the aforementioned political parties.
The Second Republic was short-lived; after four years and three months, there was another military coup and the troops seized power. In 1983, on December 31. General Muhammadu Buhari ascended to the position of military head of state on January 1, 1984. In a civilian situation, he is the current president. This started a military interregnum that lasted until 1999. The 12 June 1993 saga occurred in the meantime. The Babangida regime spawned two political parties: the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC). These two parties, the SDP and the NRC, vied for power. The SDP’s nominee, the late Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola, was declared the winner of the country’s freest and fairest election to date, which he used to win the presidency. Professor Humphrey Nwosu, chairman of the National Electoral Commission, offered Option A-4, a novel method of voting, which contributed to the success of the election. Regrettably, the election was nullified for reasons that many Nigerians still do not comprehend, and a transitional government led by the late Chief Ernest Sonekan, a captain in the private sector, was installed. General Sani Abacha, a former defense minister, took over as military head of state 82 days after he was deposed in November 1993. Then, Abiola was seized and arrested.
Abacha and Abiola both passed away in 1998. General Abdulsalami Abubakar, Abacha’s former Chief of Defence Staff, assumed the position of Head of State.
Political parties were founded in order to implement his return to civil rule initiative. These parties were the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Alliance for Democracy (AD), and the All Peoples Party (APP). The PDP was elected in 1999 and remained in power until 2015.
Initially, the profile and personality of the men and women who frequented the gatherings appeared to be the same as before. The AD constituency viewed themselves as progressives, whilst the PDP constituency was perceived to be conservative. Between 2015 and the present, so many Nigerian politicians have changed political parties that their fans cannot recall where they originated. Throughout the past eight years, many have left the PDP for the APC and returned to the PDP, as well as the other way around. Some parties have even become vehicles with a specific function. Disgruntled political candidates have developed a pattern of use these parties to realize their ambitions when they feel robbed, only to return to where they believed they should have been once in power.
These elections have revealed to me that political parties may no longer be as beneficial as they were initially supposed to be. When members of one party publicly working against candidates of their own party and aggressively campaigning for the success of another party’s candidate, it is possible that parties are no longer necessary. Alliances and endorsements across party lines are occurring in the vast majority of states throughout the nation. This implies that party manifestos, assuming they exist, are mostly irrelevant. Only candidates for office are included. I thus encourage the upcoming National Assembly to change the Constitution to permit independent candidacy as a first step in eliminating parties.