Tansian University Journal of Arts, Management & Social Sciences

Political parties are institutions that play crucial roles in bringing together diverse interests, recruit and present candidates for elective positions. They also develop competing policy proposals that provide people with choices during elections. In Nigeria, the return to democracy since 1999 has ushered in a renewed process of democratization and thus, heralded another opportunity for the country to launch a new strategy towards democracy, after many years of authoritarian rule and military intervention. This paper examines the nature and character of party politics in Nigeria and its impact on democratic consolidation. The paper relied heavily on secondary sources for data generation. The Elite theory by Vifredo, Mosca, and Roberto was used as a framework of analysis. The paper identified the challenges of political parties and democratic consolidation in Nigeria to include god-fatherism, absence of internal democracy within the political parties, etc. The paper concluded that party system in Nigeria is still weak and vulnerable with no visible signs of adding value to the democratic consolidation in Nigeria. It is recommended that for political parties to achieve its role in consolidating democracy, it will imbibe and inculcate organizational capacity, effective leadership, internal democracy discipline, institutionalization and personalization, ideological platforms of mobilization and linkage to civil society.

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