Democratization, Party Politics and Leadership Crisis in Nigeria

Abstract

In trying to interrogate the notion that the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership vis a vis the nature and character of party politics, this paper focuses on the interplay between internal party politics which determines to a large extent the quality of elected leaders and the perennial leadership crisis in Nigeria. The paper is basically structured on data collected from secondary sources, which provides analytical insight that the unhealthy political party culture in Nigeria bears to a large degree the seed of leadership crisis in Nigeria. This study argued that the interplay of unhealthy internal party politics and the crisis of leadership in Nigeria have contributed largely to the underdevelopment of the Nigerian state and further widened the scope of divisive politics in Nigeria. In this regard, it is recommended that with a strong and independent electoral management body empowered by law will be a panacea to entrenching healthy political culture amongst political parties and political actors, which will invariably lead to improved leadership selection process thereby addressing the scourging effect of bad leadership.