By Abidemi Adebamiwa, Editorial Desk
Outsiders sometimes look at Nigeria’s current political direction and conclude that the country is drifting toward communism. As a political scientist, I usually pause that assumption. What Nigeria is experiencing is not ideological transformation, and certainly not communism.
Communism is defined by state ownership of the economy and a governing philosophy built around class struggle. Nigeria shows none of these traits. Private enterprise dominates, wealth accumulation is unrestricted, and there is no governing doctrine pushing collective ownership or ideological uniformity. What observers are reacting to is political concentration, not economic ideology.
A more accurate description is that Nigeria is showing features of a dominant-party drift. This occurs when one party becomes so strategically advantageous that political actors increasingly align with it. The motivation is rarely belief; it is calculation.
Nigeria’s highly centralized system gives the federal centre enormous influence over security coordination, fiscal access, and political leverage. For governors, aligning with the ruling party often reduces friction and creates room to govern. In such an environment, political movement becomes pragmatic rather than philosophical.
Weak party structures reinforce this trend. Nigerian parties lack deep ideological roots, so crossing over carries little stigma. Politics becomes transactional, not doctrinal.
So when many governors move in one direction, it is not communism at work. It is the familiar logic of dominant-party politics, where power accumulates through incentives rather than coercion.
— Newspot Nigeria
