PARTY POLITICS AND DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA’S FOURTH REPUBLIC FROM 2011 TO 201 5

Abstract

Nigeria is strategically located in the West African continent with a population of over one hundred and forty million (140,000,000) (Ploch, 2 012). The country is endowed with almost all the vegetational zones found in the tropic starting from the Sahel region in the extreme north through Savannah land in the forest region to the swamp mangrove down to the Atlantic oceans. (Cha, 2010:48). The country is bordered in the north with Niger, Camero un in the east, Benin in the West and South to the Atlantic. The Benue and Niger rivers which joint at Lokoja divided the country into three segment that approximated Nigerians political division up to 1963 i.e. northern, western and eastern regions. Thou gh home to hundreds of other ethnic groups (each having its’ own political system, region, language and cultures). These regions were respectively dominated by Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo groups. To be sure Nigeria is the most populous black country in t he African continent (Chukwemeka, 2009:405). The country has abundant human and natural resources such as petroleum, cotton, cocoa, iron ore etc (USAID, 2007:1)