NIGERIAN PARTIES AND POLITICAL EDUCATION IN THE FOURTH REPUBLIC

Abstract

Political parties are different from other forms of associations because of its singular aim which is ‘political’.  Other associations may profess interests such as economic, educational, political, cultural, religious, social and environmental to mention but just a few.  The political aim of parties is often demonstrated by their intrinsic desire to capture the reins of political power. However, before this can come to fruition, they are supposed to adopt a number of strategies principal among which is, ‘political education’.  This is the strategy by which political parties communicate with citizens regarding their manifestoes and the duties of the citizenry in the electoral process.  The foregoing shows that the success of a political party during any electoral process is conditioned by its effective performance of political education. The main objective of this study is to assess the extent to which Nigerian parties have been performing the role of political education on one hand; and advance strategies on how Nigeria’s Fourth Republican Parties can better perform their role of political education. The findings of the study reveal among others that (i) Nigerian parties that operated in the First, Second and Third Republics did not fare well in the area of political education (ii) in the current Fourth Republic although most of them availed themselves of the advantage of modern electronic media to reach out to the people, the performance is still below expectation; (iii) that the level of participation of people in political activities depends largely on how political parties and their candidates utilise the advantage of political education. The study recommends that: (i) for a party to actualise its political aim, it must be more ‘aggressive’ in the area of political education; (ii) parties should take the advantage of modern telecommunication gadgets /networks to reach out to electorate during electioneering campaigns; (iii)civic education which is now being taught in post-primary schools in the country as a compulsory course, should be extended to tertiary institutions; and (iv) there should be constitutional, provisions and electoral laws that will make it mandatory for political parties and their candidates to offer political education to electorate and their supporters.