Should political ideology exist in Nigeria?

The views expressed in this article are those of the guest author and do not reflect the views of Stears.

You don’t have to look far today to find Nigerians bemoaning the lack of ideology in our politics. 

In other words, Nigerians complain about Nigerian parties hardly ever organising around a coherent set of ideas. It has not been for a lack of trying. But why is it so hard to do this in Nigeria? Let’s illustrate with a couple of stories from 1950s Nigeria.

In 1951, the restless and self-taught mathematical genius that was Chike Obi decided to enter into the boiling hot political arena of a Nigeria that was slowly but surely heading towards independence. Almost all of Nigeria’s politics at the time was organised around an anti-colonial theme, even if in many cases only by name. As a student and teacher, Chike Obi had already gained a