Browsing by Author "Salihu, Isamil Otukoko"

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    Opposition Party and the Politics of Opposition: The Collapse of the Ilorin Experiment in Democratization of Local Government, 1950-1960
    (Department of History and International Studies, Kogi State University, Anyigba, 2012-06) Salihu, Isamil Otukoko
    Political parties—whether as incumbents or opposition—are an important institution in any process of democratization and democratic politics. They could make or mar political processes as well as impact positively or negatively on the society. Since the introduction of party politics in Nigeria, struggle between incumbent and opposition parties has been a dominant and recurring phenomenon. The collapse of the First Republic, regarded as the country’s first experiment in nation building, resulted mainly from the conflict between political parties (NPC\NCNC coalition) in power and the opposition (Action Group). A major feature of the conflict was the struggle to acquire or maintain power and all benefits associated with it. This explains the ‘Pull Him\them Down’ syndrome that characterized power relations between the two groups. In the defunct Northern Nigeria, Ilorin emirate was the first to experiment with a “test case” in democratically elected local government through reforms of the Native Authority system. Within a period of less than two years, the experiment collapsed due, among others, to the conflict between the party in power and the opposition party, each of which had a taste of power and lost it during the period between 1952 and 1960. The intense struggle for power pitched the traditional ruling aristocracy against the commoners’ class of emergent wealthy businessmen and eventually not only led to the collapse of the first experiment in democratic local government but also the fall of the Commoners’ Party and the defeat of the motion to transfer Ilorin to the Western Region.