The Impact of Parties’ Internal Democracy on Nigeria’s Development

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Date
2016
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Akungba Law Journal
Abstract
The paper examines the authority of members of political parties to elect or recall party leadership and to vote candidates for elective offices. It argues that the Nigerian democratic dispensation is one, which encourages holding public office as a platform to amass wealth rather than service to humanity. This explains the desperation of politicians to secure one elective position or the other. In this process, there is always manipulation and abuse of party’s internal democracy. In the ensuing manipulation, names of validly elected candidates that had already been submitted to INEC are often withdrawn and replaced with another. The paper also examines the financial requirements for entry into electoral competitions and that elected officials become more accountable to those who finance their campaigns than to their constituents. The paper submits that much damage had been done to the democratic governance in the country as it has been running without the desired human and national development. The paper examines the relevant laws on the issue and posits that to achieve true democracy the availability of independent judiciary is essential.
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