Political Parties Lack Ideology, Fuel Nigeria’s Woes, Says Falana and Bugaje

A sharp indictment of Nigeria’s political class has emerged from two prominent public figures, human rights lawyer Femi Falana, SAN, and former House of Representatives member Usman Bugaje. They have collectively identified the nation’s political parties as a primary catalyst stalling the country’s growth 65 years after independence.

Dependable NG reports that both statesmen shared their candid assessments during a special broadcast on Channels Television, marking Nigeria’s Independence Anniversary on Wednesday. Their core argument is that Nigerian parties are fundamentally “empty” and lack the ideological direction necessary for effective governance, thereby fueling corruption and impunity.

Femi Falana specifically criticized the “winner-takes-all” mentality currently prevalent among political parties, contrasting it sharply with the spirit of collaboration seen during the Second Republic. He argued that concentrating power exclusively in the hands of the ruling party is detrimental to the nation. “The ruling party must share power with other constituencies,” Falana insisted, advocating for a system of proportional representation to break the cycle of winner-takes-all politics.

According to Falana, the absence of an ideological base or orientation in these parties is a direct precursor to systemic failures. He warned that without genuine principle, “corruption will continue, impunity will continue, and recklessness will continue.”

Echoing this sentiment, Usman Bugaje directly linked Nigeria’s enduring leadership recruitment crisis to the ideological void within the political structure. Bugaje did not mince words, describing the current parties as “empty entities” that offer no substantive difference to the electorate or the nation. This ideological emptiness, he argued, is precisely why politicians defect so frequently between the major political groups.

“I have said it several times: the political parties we have today have neither content nor conscience, they lack courage, and they are not good for anything,” Bugaje asserted. He challenged the status quo by asking, “Look at what is happening today—what makes people move from APC to PDP, or from PDP to APC? It is because they are all empty. What really differentiates them?”