DEMOCRACY AND PARTY POLITICS IN LANGTANG NORTH

LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF PLATEAU STATE 1978-2008

Samaila Simon Shehu

Department of History,

University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri

Email: shehusamaila34@yahoo.com

Abstract

The conduct of free, fair and credible election is one of the features of democracy in the world. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Langtang North. It is against this backdrop that this study examines the causes and impacts of the manipulation of the electoral process in Langtang North local government area of Plateau State. It focuses on the local government chairmanship elections which has recorded the highest number of cases of electoral manipulation over the years. The research was carried out through a field work that involved interviews and telephone conversation with the electorate, politicians and other relevant stakeholders from Langtang North. Other scholarly works were used in a corroborative manner to throw more light on the focus of the study. The Marxist theory of democracy was utilized to unearth the principal role played by the political elite in perpetuating electoral manipulation before, during and after the local government chairmanship elections in Langtang North. From the data collected and analysed, we identified poverty, clannish sentiment, lack of voters’ education among others as the factors responsible for the manipulation of the electoral process in Lantang North. And thus, we highlighted the impacts of electoral manipulation on democracy and party politics in Langtang North to include mistrust of the electoral commission, imposition of undesired leadership, disunity among others. Conclusively, recommendations were made towards ensuring the conduct of free, fair and credible elections so as to consolidate democracy in Langtang North and by extension Nigeria.