Political Party Coalitions and Political Development in Polyglot Societies: The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Perspective

This paper situates the All Progressives Congress (APC), a coalition of opposition political parties in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic within the purview of the ideals and goals of political unity and selfless service to the fatherland. These ideals are believed to be necessary but scarce ingredients for building enduring political bridges amongst existing ethno-cultural oriented political parties to galvanize socio-economic and political development amongst people of different ethnic nationalities and religious persuasions in polyglot societies such as Nigeria. Often, it becomes necessary to build such political bridges in polyglot societies so as to checkmate the onslaught of ethnic politics which, apart from its inability to build or sustain enduring peace, strangles overall development and has led to different levels of political unrest, including civil wars in several countries. However, the paper equally indicates it is not easy to build such workable, enduring political coalitions in polyglot societies as such efforts face several challenges. Digging into the political histories of Nigeria, the United States of America and Kenya through the use of secondary data, the paper identifies some of these challenges and how political coalitions impacted on the political development and material fortunes of these countries and their different peoples. On the strength of such evidences, the paper outlines the challenges in the way of APC in her effort to overcome ethnic politics, promote unity and advance socio-economic and political development in Nigeria.