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

Awofeso, Olu; Irabor, Paul A.

doi:10.5296/jpag.v6i3.10000

Cited by 9 publications

(17 citation statements)

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“…Quite a number of politicians have "exchanged" political parties in a number of times in Nigeria. It has also become commonplace for members to cross from the political party on whose platforms they were elected into the house to another one, usually the ruling party (Yakubu and Bamalli, 2019;Awofeso and Irabor, 2016;Opadere and Alana, 2015). This is in fact almost always the case when a party other than their own captures executive power.…”

Section: Statement Of Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is valid to state that party switching, defection or to use the language of this paper legislative cross-carpeting is not peculiar to Nigeria alone (developing democracy) rather it is a global phenomenon though with more occurrences in developing democracies. ISSN 2161-7104 2021 Instructively, the term 'cross-carpeting' has been used interchangeably with concepts like party defection, party switching, floor-crossing, party-hopping, canoe-jumping, decamping, party-jumping (Blunt, 1964;Chang, 2009;Fashagba, 2014;Awofeso and Irabor, 2016). As a conceptual and analytical category however, legislative cross-carpeting essentially entails a situation whereby a serving member of a legislative house switches allegiance from the political party on whose platform he/she was elected into the house, to another party irrespective of constitutional provision.…”

Section: Legislature and Cross-carpetingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Implicit in this assumption is the role of the opposition in keeping the political party in general control of executive power in check and ensuring that the preferences and interests of their constituencies are recognized, reflected and effectively addressed in governance. Awofeso and Irabor (2016) declared that multi-party democracies need multiple political parties, where one serves as the ruling party and others as oppositions and alternatives. The point here is that in a democratic setting, ruling party and opposition party/parties stand side by side as the opposition parties serve as the watchdogs to checkmate and put the ruling party on toe as this promotes democratization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Legislative Cross-carpeting, Multiparty System and the Challenges of Democratic Good Governance in Nigeria

Oluro¹,

Bamigbose²

2021

JPAG

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The legislature is unarguably the fulcrum upon which democracy rests. Democracy, in this context, is representative government. Thus, the institution of the legislature as an assembly of elected representatives becomes the engine room of the structural framework upon which democratic governance is built. As history has shown, the beauty of legislature is greatly enhanced by a healthy multi-party system wherein elected representatives from different party backgrounds engage one another alongside party ideological positions with a view to deliberating on issue of governance and socio-economic well-being of the people. Legislative cross-carpeting in Nigeria is becoming a norm rather than exigency, and is taking a negative toll on the capacity of legislatures to fulfill their mandates as against functioning as merely rubber-stamp annexes of the executive/ruling party. This study examines the impacts of the wanton cross-carpeting, often times bereft of any ideological underpinning, that have characterized legislative assemblies in Nigeria and its implications on good governance. Among others, it concludes that concrete legal and political frameworks must be developed to check the direction of cross-carpeting in Nigeria’s legislative houses if good governance is to be entrenched.

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Section: Statement Of Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Legislature and Cross-carpetingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Legislative Cross-carpeting, Multiparty System and the Challenges of Democratic Good Governance in Nigeria

Oluro¹,

Bamigbose²

2021

JPAG

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“…Further study reveals that the military idiosyncrasy of the former President, Olusegun Obansanjo, paves the way for the PDP to consolidate political power for sixteen years (Cooke, 2015). Since politics in Nigeria is often played out as zero-sum game where anything other than to gain political power is not considered worthwhile, political opponents usually had no choice than to join the ruling alliance or suffer exclusion and lack of access to resources (Awofeso and Irabor 2016;Okechukwu and Andrew, 2014).…”

Section: Loyal Opposition: Exploring Practical Discourse In Nigeria'smentioning

confidence: 99%

Principle of Loyal Opposition: The Case of Political Parties in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic

Awofeso¹,

Irabor²

2018

JPL

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Modern understandings of democracy not only suggest a regime in which those who govern are selected through contested elections, but more fundamentally, a system of government in which parties lose elections. Yet, the mechanism of vertical accountability whereby the people can hold the ruling government responsible depends on parties in opposition providing choices for voters while remaining loyal to the idea of governmental power. Adopting the principle of loyal opposition as the basis of this study in the Nigerian context, we try to interrogate whether the duty to serve as “government in-waiting’’ equally affects how the duty to critique the actions of the government is performed. The study further probed; can a ruling party cope with the criticism of the opposition party? To answer these questions, the study argued that it is tempting not to assume that, the institution of political party is still at its lowest ebb despite the successful democratic transition in Nigeria since 1999, and the alternation of political power resulting in the change of party in government from the People’s Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress in 2015. These issues have consequences for the principle of loyal opposition and democratic stability in Nigeria.

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“…In a context where internal party democracy is lacking, many problems emerged including the violation of the principles of party politics, undermining party ideology, anti-party activities and intra-party conflicts which jeopardise the chance of party in the electoral battle. Intra-party conflicts have been taking place in Nigerian politics since pre-independence period in various dimensions and all ramifications (Jude & Ika, 2013;Toyin, 2014;Awofeso & Irabor, 2016). However, the pattern and nature of intra-party conflicts in the Fourth Republic became more pronounced particularly among the members of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) which led the country for sixteen (16) years culminating into many serious crises such as decamping (Sule & Yahaya, 2018) that led to the demise of the party as the ruling power in the 2015 General Election.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The changing nature and pattern of intra-party conflict in Nigeria’s fourth republic: Critical assessment of All Progressives Congress

Yahaya

2019

GEOGRAFIA

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This study is an analysis of the nature and pattern of intra-party conflict in Nigeria's Fourth Republic with specific reference to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Intra-party conflict has been the norm in Nigerian politics leading to crises, setback and failure of many parties to forge ahead for proper democratisation in Nigeria including the ruling parties in many instances. The problem is the way in which intra-party conflict is becoming the bane of democratisation and good governance in Nigeria for many decades and despite the previous experiences, the phenomenon continued unabated. The study investigated the new dimension of intra-party conflict in Nigeria taking the APC as the case study. The study used a qualitative method of data collection and analysis. Primary and secondary sources of data were used. The primary data involved in-depth interviews with some selected informants from the relevant institutions and agencies related to the APC and the crises such as the national party executives, senior officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and academicians that are experts in the area of study. The secondary sources included were books, journals, newspapers, internets and other documented materials. The data obtained were discussed using content analysis where thematic analytical interpretations were used in the discussions. The research discovered that, the intra-party conflict under the APC has taken a new dimension where the members of the ruling party constituted an opposition and a stumbling block for the party's progress and governance. The work recommends that intra-party conflict of APC and other Nigerian political parties can be resolved through constitutional reforms, institutionalisation of party ideology and principles as well as strict sanctions from the national party leaders.

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

Cited by 9 publications

References 10 publications

Legislative Cross-carpeting, Multiparty System and the Challenges of Democratic Good Governance in Nigeria

Legislative Cross-carpeting, Multiparty System and the Challenges of Democratic Good Governance in Nigeria

Principle of Loyal Opposition: The Case of Political Parties in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic

The changing nature and pattern of intra-party conflict in Nigeria’s fourth republic: Critical assessment of All Progressives Congress

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