The Politics of Opposition Parties Merger and the Struggle for Power in Nigeria’s 2015 General Elections

Since 1999 up till the conduct of the 2015 general elections, Nigeria’s party politics has exhibited the near dominance of the political space by the then ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP. Aside the then four leading opposition parties, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN; All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA; All Nigerian People’s Party, ANPP and Congress for Progressive Change, CPC; the rest of the opposition pack comprised of smaller parties that lack organizational structure, possess little electoral worth and lack the capacity to make meaningful contribution to the deepening of the nation’s democratic process. Realizing the importance of pulling resources together in an alliance, four main opposition parties, ACN, ANPP, APGA and CPC entered into talk directed at facilitating the merger of their parties to form a formidable opposition party. The result was the collapse of their structures and subsequent formation of, the All Progressive Congress, APC. While numbers of issues and factors accounted for the electoral defeat of the then ruling PDP in the 2015 general elections, this paper advance the argument that the united front presented by the opposition elements under the banner of the emergent All Progressive Congress was instrumental to the alternation of ruling party at the national level that Nigeria witnessed in 2015. Informed by this position and drawing insights from newspapers articles, commentaries, opinion piece and academic literature, this paper interrogates the politics of opposition merger and struggle for power in the course of the 2015 general elections.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Opposition Parties, Party Merger, Party Alternation, People’s Democratic Party

PDF

___

Adejumobi, S. and Kehinde, M. (2007) Building democracy without democrats? Political parties and threats of democratic reversal in Nigeria, Journal of Africa Election, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 95-113. Adele, B. J. (2001) Political parties and democracy in Nigeria, Lagos. Ijede Commercial E n - terprises. Aduku A.A. and Adejo, Y.U. (2014) Political parties and democratic consolidation in N i - geria’s Fourth Republic, Global Journal of Political Science and Administration, 2 (3): 7 9 - 108. Agbaje, A. (1999) Political parties and pressure groups, in R. Anifowoshe and F. Enemuo (Eds.) Elements of politics, Lagos: Malthouse Press Limited. Ameh, J and Fabiyi, Olusola (2013) 37 PDP Reps defect to APC, Punch Newspaper (Nigeria), Thursday, 19th December, pp. 2 and 3. Anifowose, R. (2004) Political parties and party system in the Fourth Republic of Nigeria: Issues, problems and prospects, in L. Olurode and R. Anifowose (Eds.) Issues inNigeria’s 1999 General Elections (pp.55-78), Lagos: John West Publications Limited and Rebonik Publications Ltd. Ashafa, A.M. (2002) the dynamics of inter-party relations in Nigeria’s 4th republic, in A.M., Jega; H. Wakili and M. Ahmed (Eds.) Democracy and democratization in Nigeria, 1999- 2001 (pp.14-27), Kano: Center for Democratic Research and Training. Brown, G.M. and Iseolorunkanmi, J. (2014) Political parties and party system in Nigeria, in R. Ajayi and J.O. Fashagba (Eds.) Understanding government and politics in Nigeria (233- 253), Omu-Aran: Department of Political Science and International Relations. Carbone, G.M. (2007) Political parties and party systems in Africa: Themes and research perspectives, World Political Science Review, Vol. 3, Issue 3, pp. 1-29. Chege, M. (2007) Political parties in East Africa: Diversity in political party systems, Report prepared for the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) as part of its global Programme on Research and Dialogue with Political Parties, Stockholm: International IDEA. Dahl, R.A. (1989) Democracy and its critics, New Haven: Yale University Press. Dudley, B.J. (1982) an introduction to Nigeria government and politics, London: Macmillan Publishers. Federal Republic of Nigeria (2010) Electoral Act, 2010 as Amended, Abuja: the Federal Government Printer. Godbout, J. and Beranger, E. (2005) a theory of party merger, paper presented at the Canadian Political Science Association Meeting London, Ontario, June 2-4. Hassan, M.B. and Lamidi, K.O. (2015) the ruling party and reaction to opposition parties in Nigerian politics: Matters arising, in H. Mohammed (Ed.) the patterns and dynamics of party politics in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic (pp. 144-171), Kano: Bayero University Press. Hume, D. (1777) ‘Essays Moral, Political, Literary, edited and with a Foreword, Notes, and Glossary’, Eugene F. Miller, with an appendix of variant readings from the 1889 edition by T.H. Green and T.H. Grose, revised edition (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1987). Jiddere, A.J. (2015) the politics of party defection, cross carpeting and the democratic process in Nigeria, in in H. Mohammed (Ed.) the patterns and dynamics of party politics in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic (pp. 172-184), Kano: Bayero University Press. Jinadu, L.A. (2011) Inter-party dialogue in Nigeria: Examining the past, Parties Dialogue Series, held at Bolingo Hotel, Abuja, October 4. Joseph, A. and Wilson, S.O (2015) Political parties and inter-party conflict in Nigeria’s fourth republic, in H. Mohammed (Ed.) the patterns and dynamics of party politics in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic (pp. 123-143), Kano: Bayero University Press. Joseph, R. (1987) Democracy and prebendal politics in Nigeria: the rise and fall of the Second Republic, London: Cambridge University Press. Kelly, N. and Ashiagbor, S (2011) Political parties and democracy in theoretical and practical perspectives, Washington, DC: National Democratic Institute. Kim, H. (1997) rational choice politics and Third World politics: the 1990 party merger in Korea, Comparative Politics, 30: 83-100. Kura, S.B. (2007) Contemporary African political parties: Institutionalisation for the sustainability of democracy, Journal of Africa Election, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 41-90. Lapalombara, J and Anderson, J (2001) Political parties, in M. Hawkesworth and M. KOgan (Eds.) Encyclopedia of government and politics, Volume 1, London and New York: Routledge Publishers. Mohammed, H. (2015) Introduction: the dilemmas of political parties in Nigeria, in H. Mohammed (Ed.) the patterns and dynamics of party politics in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic (pp. 1-25), Kano: Bayero University Press. Neumann, Sigmund (1956) Towards a Comparative Study of Political Parties, in Sigmund Neumann (Ed.), Modern Political Parties (pp. 395-421), Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press. Newswatch Times, Party Merger: How APC broke 50-year jinx in Nigerian Politics, April 12, 2015. http://www.mynewswatchtimesng.com/party-merger-how-apc-broke-50- year-jinx-innigerian-politics/. Nwosu, N.I.; Oyedele, S.O. and Olaniyi, J.O. (1998) an introduction to constitutional development in Nigeria, Ibadan: Sunad Publishers. Nyong’o, P.A. (1997) Institutionalisation of democratic governance in Sub-Saharan Africa, ECDPM Working Paper No 36. Maastricht: ECDPM. Okoosi-Simbine, A.T. (2004) the impact of more parties on the democratic project, in H.A. Saliu (Ed.) Nigeria under democratic rule, 1999-2003, Volume I (85-102), Ibadan: University Press Limited. Olowojolu, O. (2015) the rise of the opposition political party in Nigeria: case study of the All Progressive Congress, International Journal of Politics and Governance, VI (6.4): 1-10. Omotola, J.S. (2006) the limits of election monitoring: the 2003 general elections, Representation: A Journal of Representative Democracy, 42 (2): 57-67. Omotola, J.S. (2009) Nigerian parties and political ideology, Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences, Vol 1, No 3, 612-634. Omotola, J.S. (2010) Elections and democratic transitions in Nigeria under the Fourth Republic, African Affairs, 109 (437): 535-553. Osaghae, E.E. (1998) Crippled giant: Nigeria since independence, London: Hurst and Company. Saliu, H.A. and Muhammad, A.A. (2008) Growing Nigeria’s democracy through viable political parties, in H.A. Saliu; I.H., Jimoh; N. Yusuf and E.O. Ojo (Eds.) Perspective on nation-building and development in Nigeria (152-167), Lagos and Ilorin: Concept Publishers for the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences, University of Ilorin. Sani, I (2012/2013) Political parties and governance in Nigeria: Explaining the misfortune of the Fourth Republic, Mambayya House Journal of Democratic Studies, 4 (December): 23- 46. Sklar, R L. 1967. ‘Political Science and National Integration – A Radical Approach’. The Journal of Modern African Studies Vol. 5, No. 1, pp.1-11. Sklar, R.L. (1963) Nigerian political parties: Power in an emergent African nation, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Strom, K. (1990) A Behavioral Theory of Competitive Political Parties, American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 565-598. The Nation, APC’s bumpy journey to power, May 29, 2015. Vanguard Newspaper (2013) Defection of 5 govs shocking-Tukur, Vanguard Newspaper (Nigeria), Thursday, 28th November, pp. 1 and 5. Van de Walle, N. and Butler, K.S. (1999) Political parties and party systems in Africa’s illiberal democracies, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 14-28. Weissenbach, K (2010) Political parties and party types-Conceptual approaches to the institutionalization of political parties in Transitional States: the case of the Philippines: Makati City, Manila Office: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Yaqub, N. (2013) ‘Political Parties and the Transition Process’, in B. Onuoha and M. M. Fadakinte (Eds.), Transition Politics in Nigeria, 1970-1999, (Lagos: Malthouse Publishers, 2002), pp. 118-134.