Inter-Party Conflict and Democracy in Nigeria: A Case Study of Southwest Geo-Political Zone

Political party is one of the major tools for aggregating and mobilizing the various interests and resources for the purpose of nation building. This is the tradition in all climes that embrace democracy, expectedly when Nigeria gained independence, people were happy that at least the era of colonialism is gone thereby giving Nigerians the opportunity to freely participate in electoral process, and do things in their own ways. It is now worrisome that despite over five decades after independence, parties are still enmeshed in internal wrangling making a mess of democratic process. The work examined inter-parties conflict in the southwest geo-political zone of Nigeria, it looked at the implication of inter-party crisis on democratic sustenance, and it equally looked at the history of inter-parties conflict. The paper relied on secondary source of data. The paper concluded that, unless political tolerance is embraced in Nigeria democratic system, inter-parties conflict will continue to dominate the political system and invariably affect the growth and development of Nigeria.