ABSTRACT:

This paper argues that Nigeria's Fourth Republic political parties have failed to contribute fundamentally to the country's democracy. Though it lends credence to the widely held believe that political parties are essential elements in democratic states, it contends that Nigeria's Fourth Republic political parties lack the necessary traits that would enable them make crucial inputs to democratic sustenance. As a conceptual paper, the methodology is descriptive. Through the use of secondary data like textbooks and relevant journal articles, the paper undertook a scholarly exploration of Nigerian political parties from First to Fourth Republic and unveiled the bottlenecks that hamstring them from carrying out their democratic roles. The paper concludes with suggestions on ways of repositioning Nigerian political parties.