The party system and the politics of party merger and power contestation in Africa: insights from Nigeria
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Date
2019
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Open Access Repository www.ssoar.info
Abstract
African democracy is still evolving since it began to take root over twenty years ago.
There have been various forms of party fission and fusion in the quest for the
acquisition of state power. Evidence suggests that party merger in Africa is driven by an
entirely different set of logic from mainstream rationalizations that underpin mergers in
developed democracies. A major drawback of merger politics in Africa is the lacuna of
ideological barrenness, which drives the continued penchant of the political elite to
*
**
Agaptus Nwozor is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science and
International Relations of Landmark University, Omu Aran, Kwara State, Nigeria
(nwozor.agaptus@lmu.edu.ng).
Jacob Audu is a Senior Lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
(ojigod@gmail.com).
of
*** Modupe B. Ake is a Lecturer at the Department of Political Science and International
Relations
Landmark University, Omu Aran, Kwara State, Nigeria
(ake.modupe@lmu.edu.ng).
**** John S. Olanrewaju teaches Political Science and International Relations at Landmark
University, Omu Aran, Kwara State, Nigeria (olanrewaju.john@lmu.edu.ng).
*****
Oluwaseun Ogundele is a Postgraduate Candidate and Member of Faculty at the
Department of Political Science and International Relations of Landmark University,
Omu Aran, Kwara State, Nigeria (oluwaseun.ogundele@lmu.edu.ng). switch parties based on self-aggrandizing permutations. This paper offers insights into
the party system and the underpinning motivation for mergers in African politics,
namely, that they are essentially motivated by self-interest and driven by rational
political calculations aimed at the capture of state power to further prebendal intentions.
Using Nigeria as a case study, this paper evaluates the party system and provides
raisons d’être for existing mergers. It further contends that unless ideology is brought to
the front seat of party formation and organization, merger politics will remain a shifting
ground of ad hocism designed for the capture of state power, and for the advancement
of narrow politico-economic interests of select political elites.
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Opposition politics, ideology, party merger, democracy, party switching, Nigeria, Africa