The Effects of Intra-Party Conflicts on Elections in Nigeria: 2015 – 2021

Abstract

Intra-party conflicts within the political parties in Nigeria has been an issue for a long time and thus, has been a major issue to deal with during the Fourth Republic due in part to the lack of internal democracy in the party. Internal democracy describes a wide range of methods for including party members in intra-party deliberation and decision-making. Some advocate of internal democracy argued that parties using internally democratic procedures are likely to select more capable and appealing leaders, to have more policies, and as result, to enjoy rancour free, peace and greater electoral success. However, the nature and patterns of party politics especially in the fourth republic have caused a lot of crises and conflicts that have gone beyond the shore of the political party and thus, escalated to the elections. Thus, this study probed questions of what is the nature of intra-party conflicts in Nigeria? What are the factors contributing to intra-party conflicts in Nigeria? And importantly, what are the effects of intra-party conflicts on elections in Nigeria? These issues were interrogated against the backdrop of prebendalism, weakness, corruption, lack of internal democracy, lack of ideology, festering crises and overwhelming nuances that detract political parties from fulfilling their sublime function of deepening good governance. The study adopted mixed research design, consisting primary and secondary data. It is a research design that combined the strength of the methods to investigate and dig beyond the surface. It provided an in-depth discussion with nine (9) stakeholders drawn from major political parties as APC (1) and PDP (1), representative of INEC (2), some members of election tribunals (3) and some community-based organisations (2). It also relied on relevant similar studies from academic journals, books, archival documents, newspapers, news magazines, and other secondary sources. While descriptive was used to analyse the interview, content analysis was used for most secondary data. Findings showed that intra-party conflicts have heightened and affected election administration in Nigeria. The major parties, PDP and APC are unable to manage the difference and contour among the members and various groups of the party which has snowballed to the elections. It also identified major contributing factors causing intra-party conflicts in Nigeria as issues of leadership recruitments, the selection of candidates for general elections, the rising magnitude of political vagrancy on the basis of selfish and parochial interests, the high level of party indiscipline and intolerance, lack of transparency in the party financial administration, lack of clear ideologies, money bag politics, use of unguarded and foul languages, etc. The study recommended among others strengthening of the political parties informed with clear ideology, transparency, principles of internal democracy and strong and reliable mechanism to manage its crises effectively. While the study concludes that intra-party conflicts accords a bad image to a political party which weakens party’s capacity to win an election, it also underscores that conflicts cannot be absolutely avoided in a political party with multitudes, for such party is prone to experiencing divergent opinions and interests towards a political cause.