Vol. 15, No. 1, June - December 2023

Of course, partism is agreeably one of the salient features of democracy, but it seems to constitute an impediment to democratization in the Nigerian political context. Nigeria had inconsistently practiced party politics alongside federalism to the detriment of the nationalistic ethnics upon which the state itself was founded. The issue now is that partism which ought to foster a virile democracy is in reality a constraint. Premised on this background, this paper examines the role of political parties in democratic process. The aim is to identify the constitutional roles political parties are expected to play in Nigerian democracy with particular reference to the ongoing fourth republic. A qualitative method that uses consultation with literature as a means of data gathering was adopted for the study. The paper x-rays the conventional roles of political parties in democracy. It argues that political parties are forerunners to democracy and for a society to practice democracy based on western philosophy, it must be fully involved in party politics. The paper observes that Nigerian politicians have reduced political parties to paper tigers thereby becoming threat to national unity. Be it as it may, the findings of this paper have similarly noted that party politics is fundamentally a part of democratic values and indeed, democracy based on western model cannot function without the existence of political parties. It therefore recommended that Nigerians must as a matter of urgency develop a new political culture towards partisan politics and Government should not place high premium on remuneration for the people going there to serve, otherwise, coming to serve will always be seen as a do or die affair.

Keywords: political party, democracy, democratic process, Nigeria, fourth republic