PHILOSOPHY AND THE QUESTION OF PARTY POLITICS AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

There are three things involved in the pursuit of the task of social organization and democratic reconstruction, namely, party, politics and political participation; it is alleged that successful democracies are characterized by a continuous expansion of the available forms of political participation and this participation refers to the activities of the public politics that represent its ideology and the core value of the party. As it were, there can be no credible democratic political process without a people-centered political participation. However, a cursory look at political participation in Nigeria leaves much to be desired and hence, calls for an interrogation. Adopting an expository and analytic approach, the paper examines the nexus between party politics and political participation in Nigeria. The paper found out that political participation in Nigeria for the most part is not only skeletal but even when it exists, it does not go beyond the periodic elections. The paper argues that philosophy possesses the capacity to alter the trajectory of democratic practices in Nigeria. In the final third, the paper concludes that, for sustainable growth, development and for the common good to be realized, a more vibrant political participation should be elevated above party politics and to do this, the paper advances a complementary attitudinal change by all the players in the Nigerian democratic space.