AN APPRAISAL OF THE DILEMMA OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN SUSTAINING DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA
For any Democracy to thrive, the onus lies significantly on the activities and strength of political parties. It is framework as per- analyzing the efficacy and efficiency of democracy in both the developed and developing countries. However, it is a different kettle of fish in Nigeria as our political parties are characterized by primordial and gender chauvinistic tendencies, inadequate ideology, inadequate mechanism and ethnic sentiments. Information is mainly sourced from existing literature and among other sources. This paper adopts the structural functionalist theory as a method of analyzing the political system in the country. Modern challenges of democracy in the country were highlighted, such as: ethnicism, inadequate political institution, poor internal democratic culture, electoral misconduct (vote buying, etc.), gender inequality, religious diversity, among others. Measures on how best to sustain the country’s democracy are strengthening democratic institutions, shunning: ethno-religious sentiment; electoral misconduct of any magnitude; among others.