Corruption, Political Party System and Nigerian Democracy An Historical Analysis from 1960 – 2019

Liberal democracy all over the world is a welcome phenomenon. In every modern society the game of politics is influenced tremendously by the elite class that projects the political culture which could make or mar democracy, as a result of the activities of the political parties. The adoption of western democracy is a mixed bag of blessing and catastrophes in the body politics of the country. Today, it is difficult to reconcile Nigerian democracy with that of the advanced democratic Countries. In Nigeria, politics is regarded as a “dirty game”  which scares away the down trodden people. It has been noted that the level of socio economic development in the country is significantly related to the nature of politics in vogues. Political parties are primarily aimed at primitive accumulation of wealth. Where, “the end justifies the means” . The prevailing election rigging, thuggery, corruption, fear and intimidation by security agencies as well as hate speech in the campaigns of the politicians reflect value degeneration with the attendant instability in the country's democracy. To this send, the paper examined political parties in Nigeria An historical Perspective from 1960 – 2019 looking at the roles of political parties as they affect the consolidation of democracy in Nigeria. Three 3 theoretical frameworks were used in the study namely Social learning theory SLT , Social Disorganization theory SDT and Corruption Permissiveness theory CPT .The study noted that Nigeria's political parties from 1960 2019 has witnessed some challenging situation like ethnicity, corruption, violence, military intervention, civil and electoral deficiencies. Based on the findings, the study recommended among others that registered political parties should not be vehicles for the articulation and implementation of ethnic, religious or regional projects and programmes and that they should remain national in scope, courage and orientation. Aristotle Isaac Jacobs | Tarabina Veronica Pamo | Abidde Kilegha Victoria "Corruption, Political Party System and Nigerian Democracy: An Historical Analysis from 1960 – 2019" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-5 | Issue-1 , December 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd38079.pdf Paper URL : https://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/social-science/38079/corruption-political-party-system-and-nigerian-democracy-an-historical-analysis-from-1960-– -2019/aristotle-isaac-jacobs