La Palombara and Weiner put forward a functionalist characterization and asserted that in whatever type of political society a political party is found, it appears to perform some common functions: it is expected to organize public opinion and also to communicate demands to the centre of government power and decision making; it must articulate to its members the concept and meaning of the broader community; and the party is constantly intimately involved in political recruitment.
The party system
in Nigeria is far short off the mark from the above outlined common functions that
party perform in a thoroughgoing political society. Unlike the first and second
republics, even the ruling All Progressive Congress is not to convincingly a functional
political party in terms of mobilizing and aggregating the interest of the citizens.
Instead
of harnessing its much-vaunted strength, the APC shows a lot of weakness, even
in its South-West strongholds. The APC is an amalgamation of strange bedfellows
with conflicting political agendas - all desperate for power at the centre.
This explains why it even welcomes former PDP opponents without qualms. This
marriage of convenience can collapse anytime on the very altar of its internal
contradictions, especially the nearer we get to the elections.
The main opposition
party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party is beset with many inadequacies and could be described as being in comatose.
The truth is that the party system in Nigeria is
not working, because of elite failures. It is most unfortunate that Men/women
who have been Governors, Ministers, Senators, Representatives, State
legislators and other top political appointees are involved in politics of
stomach infrastructure. This has created a class of supposedly affluent persons
without character. The playbook of political
parties in Nigeria is therefore filled with men and women who have no principles, no morals, no vision, and no
convictions; they stand for nothing other than their stomachs and egos. That
is why these despicable and shameless men and women jump back and forth
from one ship deck to the other, even without a ship wreck.
In the absence
of a responsive political party system through which to articulate their fears
and their interest, the citizens and various primordial groups are now speaking
for themselves and their groups. The increased agitation for secession in the
Nigerian polity could therefore be seen as the result of the collapse of
political parties.
It is not certain
however, how we can run a democracy without effective and functional political
parties. The earlier the elite rediscover the moral values of honesty, integrity and discipline, rather than greed and crass materialism, the better for their long-term interest.
If not, they would have to contend with a revolution or civil war in the foreseeable
future.
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