THE POLITICS OF BLAME-GAME AMONG POLITICAL PARTIES IN NIGERIA: A CASE OF PUBLIC FLATULENCE IN SELF DEFENSE

Abstract

Modern politics in Nigeria has been characterized by blame-games with ingenious offensive and defensive dramatic performances by various individuals or political party faithful and actors. It's quite unthinkable how successive governments try to count and recount the failures of administrations past instead of addressing the challenges headlong. However, nothing can excuse the shameful scenes where political office holders pass blame always with the presupposition of self-exemption which amounts to "public flatulence in self-defense." Lately, it has become a political style, allowing core duties that affects the well-being of the people to evaporate into thin air after the blame-game without anybody being held accountable. The growing character of individuals, institutions, or ministries to self-extrication by the strategy of "shifting blame from the concrete particular to the intangible general could best be described as disgraceful". Political leaders now prefer to dump the "refuse" of their failure at the doorsteps of the opposition parties. Indeed, this game of passing blame or washing one’s hands like Pontius Pilate before the public is quite frustrating to Nigerians who daily suffer the effects of bad and unresponsive governance. It's on the above premise, this work examined the politics of blame-game and how much that has impacted on democratic consolidation, the role of the opposition parties and in delivering the dividends of democracy. Data collected for this work was basically secondary and analyzed using content analysis. The findings showed that there is an established culture of blame game strategically employed to divert the attention of the public from core issues of citizens' welfare. This paper recommends legislations against such practices.