POLITICAL PARTIES AND THE ENSHRINEMENT OF DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA AND GHANA: A LEGAL COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Abstract

Political parties are the centre of electioneering, their outcome and impact on the society. Most democracies in the world were strengthened or weakened by the level of the contributions of political parties in the enthronement and enshrinement of good governance and democracy in the nations. Free and fair elections, which are key elements of democracy, cannot be possible without the cooperation and positive contributions of political parties with the electoral body. Political parties with strong progressive ideologies impact the society positively, leading to increases in the welfare of the people, stability and good governance and above all, proper enshrinement of democracy. It is the findings of this study that Nigeria and Ghana share a lot in common when politics, government, legal system and democracies are concerned particularly because they share the same colonial masters and attaining political independence within the same period or decade. It is also found that, Ghana is better in terms of her political party system and the progress so far recorded in her political development and contribution of her political parties to the enshrinement of democracy in the country compared to Nigeria. Ghana has enjoyed longer period of uninterrupted civil or democratically elected government than Nigeria that experienced various Military regimes and interruption in her quest for democratic rule since independence with Military rule taking a larger or longer period of her existence. Also, Ghana seems to be more serious in building political parties with realizable ideologies than Nigeria. It is among others recommended that more effective legal and institutional frameworks of both countries political parties be put in place and government pay better or improved attention and commitment to strengthening the party system with defined and achievable but people-oriented ideologies that will progressively put democracy and good governance permanently in place in both nations.