Pattern of Party Switching in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic (2015 – 2021): Implication for Democratic Sustainability

Abstract

One aspect of multi-party politics in Nigeria and Africa in general continues to be party switching. Political observers in Nigeria continue to be divided over the persistent practice of the phenomenon in the Fourth Republic, which is based on politicians’ lust for power. This situation vividly supports the claim that political parties and politicians in Nigeria lack party ideologies. This study examines party switching in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, between 2015 and 2021 with a view to establishing the pattern of occurrence as well as implications for democratic sustainability in Nigeria. Data were gathered from both primary and secondary sources. Authors contributed immensely to the whole write-up. In analysing the data, descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis were used. However, findings from this study revealed that party switching is more prevalent at the National level and the movement of politicians revolves around the ruling party in the quest for political gains between 2015 and 2021. Furthermore, this study ascertained that the implication of party switching for Nigeria’s democracy is detrimental; hence, it aims at distorting democracy and weakening the spirit of opposition party politics in the country. This study will be beneficial to students, researchers, political parties, politicians, CSOs/NGOs and the general body of literature. This study draws a conclusion and suggests that in order to combat the threats party switching poses to the viability of democracy in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, policies like internal party democracy, party discipline, party and political ideology, as well as value reorientation, should be taken into account.