Political Parties and Representation in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic

This chapter is about one of the most fundamental roles of parties in democracyDemocracy: representation. The chapter examines how parties represent or fail to represent the grassrootsGrassroots and the electorate in areas such as political parties and legislation in the National AssemblyNational Assembly; political parties and the connection to the grassrootsGrassroots and how this affects state Houses of Assembly; parties, mobilisationMobilisation and responsive representation; and parties, politics and group interests. The chapter concludes with extensive references to the fact that parties do not represent Nigerians at the grassrootsGrassroots, in the National AssemblyNational Assembly or in policymakingPolicymaking, and this applies to both ruling and oppositionOpposition parties. The fragility of the parties led to a personalisation of power that served selfish representationRepresentation rather than the collective interest.