POLITICAL PARTIES, POLITICAL APATHY AND DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA: CONTENDING ISSUES AND THE WAY FORWARD

Abstract

It has been highlighted in this study that Political apathy is a seemingly innocuous issue in the democratic process in Nigeria. But the political parties behave as if the problem of political apathy is non-existent in the political process. And the democratic process in this regard, trudges on as if all is well with the political and democratic systems in the country. The general objective of the study therefore is to examine the surrounding issues on political parties, political apathy and democracy in Nigeria. The specific objectives are to (i) study the extent to which the performance of Nigeria’s current political parties have induced or encouraged political apathy in the Nigerian democratic process (ii) identify the contending issues on political parties, political apathy and democracy in Nigeria and (iii) make recommendations on the way forward. The study used as theoretical framework, the systems theory and adopted as methodology, logical argumentation. Indeed, findings of the study confirm that the performance of the current political parties in Nigeria have highly induced and encouraged political apathy in the democratic system. Central to the contending issues on political parties, political apathy and democracy in Nigeria is what has been identified in the study as the “we” versus “them” divide.