scholarly journals Party Cross-carpeting in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic: Cases and Causes

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Olu Awofeso ◽  
Paul A. Irabor
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Party Discipline ◽  
Fourth Republic ◽  
Democratic Engagement ◽  
Political Office ◽  
Major Factors ◽  
Selfish Interest

The study examines party cross-carpeting in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. These were with the view to investigating the effects of cross-carpeting on the country’s democratic engagement. From historical antecedence standpoint, the study reveals that cross-carpeting was patterned towards ethnic/religion inclination, intra-party feud and selfish interest of the political class. Coupled with these anti-democratic tendencies, the study also found that indiscipline in political parties and lack of ideology were the major factors that determined cross-carpeting in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. Finally, the study affirms that party discipline and ideology must be strictly adhered to by political parties to check the menace of incessant cross-carpeting among political office holders.

Campaign Songs and Political Advertising in Ghana

2019 ◽  
pp. 108-130
Author(s):  
Margaret Ivy Amoakohene ◽  
Gilbert K. M. Tietaah ◽  
Favour Esinam Normeshie ◽  
Fidelis Yayra Sesenu
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Advertising ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Office ◽  
Election Cycles

As persuasive tools for political campaigns, songs and music are integral features of electioneering in Africa. Since Ghana's return to multiparty democracy in 1992, election cycles in the country have been heralded and accentuated by campaign songs which extol the virtues of their sponsors and/or denigrate the achievements and their suitability for political office. This chapter examines the use of repetitions, testimonials, and biblical imagery in campaign songs of two major political parties in Ghana—the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC)—during the 2012 and 2016 elections. Eight campaign songs were analyzed. The findings show that the songs sought to communicate messages/themes of submissiveness/humility, divine choice/prophecy, achievers/achievement, and opponents as failures/deceivers about the political parties and their candidates.

scholarly journals Identity and Identity Politics in Nigeria: A Reflection on the Indicators

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4(17)) ◽  
pp. 263-286
Author(s):  
Tope Shola Akinyetun
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Cultural Identities ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Selfish Interest

Nigeria is a nation with plural ethnic, religious, lingual and cultural identities that are constantly exploited by the political class to promote their selfish interest. Although not a determinant forconflict, diversity in Nigeria has unjustifiably sparked identity-based conflicts which necessitateseparatism, insurgency and ethnic restiveness – among others, which threatens to drive the country to a perpetual state of fragility. This paper thence sought to assess Nigeria’s tortuous experience with identity and identity politics with particular reference to ethnic, religious, and lingual challenges. The paper furthers the discussion on identity politics in Nigeria to proffer practicable solutions. It argues that identity consciousness has overtaken national consciousness and engendered a relationship characterized by domination, superiority and hegemony by the various groups. It reveals that the currency of politics is an ethnic-hegemony-rivalry sentiment that threatens national integration. The paper reviews available literature on the subject matter from peer-reviewed journal articles, reports of reputable international organizations, working papers and newspaper articles. It concluded that identities have become powerful manipulative instruments in the hands of the political elites used to divide the Nigerian populace. It recommended the promotion of justice, equity and fairness in governance to ameliorate the chances of identity dissension and identity-based conflicts.

scholarly journals European Integration: One Electoral Promise Not Taken

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 159
Author(s):  
Ilda Rusi
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Real Problem ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Political Class ◽  
The Eu ◽  
The Way

The process of European Union membership is a national objective, in view of the democratization and transformation of the Albanian society, in accordance with the values and principles of the United Europe. This sentence is taken from the Official Site of the Prime Minister of Albania. This message but expressed in other words seems to be there standing since 1992, when in Albania for the first time was articulated the desire for national integration of the country. After more than twenty years, the question that concerns me mostly is that why my country is not part of the big European family? What happened in these twenty-two years to prevent this process or to accelerate it? The first thing that comes to my mind after the last rejection candidate status on December, last year, is that this is a promise that none of the Albanian government has not yet managed to achieve. On my opinion, this process is strictly associated with the willing of all determinant political actors to collaborate and to manifest democratic political culture through dialogue. European integration is a slogan used in every political campaign, as a key element of the political agenda all political parties but in. It helps a lot during the electoral campaign but unfortunately we are still waiting for. Thus, I think that the integration process is not related only to the Albanian desire for participating in the EU, but mostly to the political class attitude. It is true that every time that the government does not achieve the candidate status, the political parties to blame each other for retarding the integration process. Even though, different scholars emphasize the role of EU in the process of integration, I believe that the country's democratization is a process strongly related to the political elite performance and the way they manifest politics. Albanian political class must admit that the real problem in this process is the way that it makes politics and how it makes political decision. In this article, I argue that the European integration is a process which can be successful only if all political parties in Albania understand that this is an obligation that they have with Albanian citizens and that cannot be realized if all of them are not committed to. This ambitious goal can be achieved only when the EU priority reforms are going to be established and in Albania there are going to operate functional and free institutions based on meritocracy and democratic system of operation far away from politics.

Julius Nyerere: Tanzanian President, Statesman, and Intellectual

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leander Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
The Political ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
East African ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Political Independence ◽  
Political Office ◽  
African Socialism ◽  
Just Society

Julius Kambarage Nyerere (1922–1999) was the East African nation of Tanganyika’s (from 1964: Tanzania) central political figure from the struggle against colonialism in the 1950s, through the attainment of political independence in 1961, and into the late 20th century. After briefly serving as Tanganyika’s first prime minister, he was the country’s first president from 1962 until 1985. From these positions and his thirty-five years as the chairman of the ruling party, Nyerere profoundly shaped Tanzania’s political and societal trajectory. Under the guiding ideology of ujamaa (“familyhood”) African socialism, he set out a vision of society built on egalitarian principles and the mutual obligation of its members toward one another. His commitment to this vision saw Nyerere fight for equal rights under inclusive citizenship irrespective of race, ethnicity, and religion in Tanzania and liberation from colonialism and racist rule in Southern Africa. In 1967, the famous Arusha Declaration reinforced the socialist aspects of ujamaa and resulted in nationalizations, the dramatic curbing of the ability of elites to accumulate wealth, and the reshaping of Tanzania’s rural areas in a massive resettlement campaign—notionally a first step in the building of socialist villages. Nyerere was able to override resistance to these policies through a combination of his personal authority with the public and the political class, the ruling party’s institutional monopoly he instituted in the political arena, and resort to usually mild forms of coercion. Thus imposing his vision of a just society over challenges and against resistance that he perceived as illegitimate or misguided, Nyerere practiced a politics that was often in tension with his professed democratic ideals. Although Nyerere was an authoritarian ruler, his voluntary retirement from political office and his support for the 1992 reintroduction of multi-party politics are indications that personal and institutional power had not become an end unto itself for him and that he was willing to relinquish both when holding on to them no longer seemed imperative or, indeed, effective in securing the larger political purposes he pursued.

Defying expectations: what leader insurgencies reveal about media and party incapacity in the time of ‘audience democracy’

2018 ◽  
Vol 167 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Walter ◽  
Zareh Ghazarian
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
New Media ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Political Class ◽  
The People ◽  
Democratic Engagement ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Rules Of The Game

Political communication and citizen engagement have been impacted by crises in both political parties and conventional media models. This article contends that the confluence of these crises has been insufficiently understood, and that this lack of understanding depends upon a third element: the dissolution of a ‘holding culture’, a sense of the ‘rules of the game’ that has constituted the ground on which parties and the media operated and generated the imaginative space for constituting community. This dissolution might be represented as resistance to a now discredited political class, once constituted by ‘old’ political and media elites, and promising a new culture – with the potential for parties to be more responsive to ‘the people’, and for a more diversified and representative media. By looking at case studies of leadership insurgency in parties and the impact of new media in creating the discursive conditions for their emergence, this article explores the realities in relation to political communication and democratic engagement.

Trials by Fire

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 238-279
Author(s):  
Sarah Osten
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Gubernatorial Elections ◽  
Political Upheaval ◽  
Political Consolidation ◽  
Revolutionary Party ◽  
Revolutionary Period

Across Mexico in the early 1920s, gubernatorial elections chronically failed, and the steps that the federal government took to resolve these crises often provoked further political upheaval. This pattern of electoral failure and the controversies it inspired are testimony to the prevailing uncertainty within the political class as to where the boundaries of power truly lay in post-revolutionary Mexico. This comparison of two failed gubernatorial elections reveals the significance of state politics to national political consolidation, and the formative role of political parties in the immediate post-revolutionary period, preceding the founding of the National Revolutionary Party (PNR) in 1929. A principios de la década de 1920 las elecciones gubernativas fracasaron en todo México de manera crónica, y los pasos que tomó el gobierno federal para resolver estas crisis provocaron a menudo una mayor agitación política. Este patrón de fracaso electoral y las controversias que suscitó son testimonio de la incertidumbre prevaleciente entre la clase política en cuanto a dónde estaban verdaderamente los límites del poder en el México posrevolucionario. La comparación de dos elecciones gubernativas fallidas revela la importancia de la policía estatal en la consolidación política nacional, y el papel formativo de los partidos políticos en el periodo inmediato posrevolucionario, previo a la fundación del Partido Nacional Revolucionario (PNR) en 1929.

scholarly journals Analysis Of The Effects Of Ethnicity On Political Marketing In Ghana

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Alabi ◽  
Goski Alabi
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Support Services ◽  
Political Marketing ◽  
The Political ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
Past Performance ◽  
Performance Factors ◽  
Fourth Republic ◽  
Marketing Variables

Analysis of vote data suggests that, among other performance factors, ethnicity plays a major role in the acceptability of political marketing approaches of partisan politics in Ghana. This features quite prominently in the ethnic based voting pattern that has prevailed over the years and the communal voting pattern that is emerging in Ghana as a result of increasing urbanization. The analysis makes it evident that political parties with very strong ethnic support bases are those that have stood the test of time no matter what marketing tools or approaches are employed, though political marketing gains to a large extent depend on the features of the political product, the political product benefit and the political marketing support services. The paper compares the results of the four different elections of the Fourth Republic of Ghana and attempts to make inferences on the effects of ethnicity on the voting patterns of the four (4) Presidential elections in the Fourth Republic. The analysis uses the voting patterns as a pointer to the acceptability and effectiveness of a political partys marketing approach and by deduction, analyzes which political marketing variables contribute to the acceptability of political parties. It also attempts to generate understanding of the political marketing variables such as dimensions of the Political Market, the Political Product and the Political Product Support Services and compares effects of these variables with effects of ethnicity on political marketing outcomes in Ghana. The paper specifically compares features of the political product which include Party Philosophy, Perceived Party Identity, Manifesto, Political Party Leadership, Previous Performance, Particularistic Benefits, Party Paraphernalia on elections outcomes among identified or classified ethnic groups at regional or communal level. In addition, the analysis reveals that personality, perceived party image or identity of the political party and communication are salient in determining political marketing outcomes or fortunes of a political party and to a less extent political product benefits based on past performance and experiences, whereas effects of particularistic benefits and party paraphernalia or the political marketing support services are less prominent.

The Political Instrumentalization of Violence in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic: The Case of Ibadan

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayokunle Olumuyiwa Omobowale
Keyword(s):  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Fourth Republic ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
General Elections

From May 29 1999, Nigeria joined the comity of ‘democratic’ nations once again, with the commencement of the Fourth Republic. Whereas, democracy is expected to be a platform for order, fairplay, justice, equality, the protection of human rights, etc., Nigeria’s democracy has, however, not been devoid of violence, which invariably seemingly negates its very essence. Focusing on happenings during the 2007 general elections, the paper investigates the political instrumentalization of violence in Ibadan, Nigeria. Both secondary and primary data were collected for the study through the review of relevant literature and oral interview with selected political actors identified through purposive sampling method. The signal that political events in Ibadan show is that of a pseudo-democratic system ‘sustained’ by violence rather that one primarily aimed at improving the welfare of the people. It is a system the political class craves for in order to gain access to state resources to finance patronage, patrimonialism and for personal gains. This is why violence has to be used to silence the opposition and actualize primitive and exploitative acquisition. Thus, what the 2007 General Elections have brought forth for Ibadan in particular, and Oyo state in general, is a system sustained by hoodlums for the sake of the political class and not the electorate.

A Devotion Almost Idolatry

2020 ◽  
pp. 46-68
Author(s):  
Zachery A. Fry
Keyword(s):  
Negative Reaction ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Emancipation Proclamation ◽  
Political Office ◽  
Army Of The Potomac ◽  
Voting Laws

This chapter details the aftermath of the 1862 Maryland Campaign and the spirited debate within the Army of the Potomac over the preliminary emancipation proclamation. These opinions carried weight in the 1862 midterm congressional and state elections. Some army figures ran for political office, including General James S. Wadsworth. However, voting laws pushed by Democrats generally prohibited soldier absentee ballots, a fact that offended many in the ranks. The chapter then discusses the overwhelmingly negative reaction of officers and men to McClellan's removal from command, which prompted them to spurn the political class even further.

Addressing the Problem of Political Vigilantism in Ghana through the Conceptual Lens of Wicked Problems

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-471
Author(s):  
Kwame Asamoah
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Instability ◽  
Wicked Problems ◽  
The Political ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Fourth Republic

Ghana entered into the Fourth Republic in 1993 after experiencing political instability over two decades. A defining feature that has characterized the Fourth Republic of Ghana and marred Ghana’s democratic credentials is the emergence of political vigilantism. Political vigilantism has basically been perpetuated by the two leading political parties in Ghana: the New Patriotic Party and National Democratic Congress. The major political actors in the political system of Ghana continue to express the debilitating effects of political vigilantism on Ghana’s democratic advancement, nevertheless, it continues to persist in monumental proportion in our political dispensation. Using a qualitative research approach, the paper examines the factors responsible for the pervasiveness of political vigilantism under the Fourth Republic of Ghana and proffer some plausible solutions to address this political canker.

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