Political Marketing: An Effective Strategy for Quality Leadership and Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria

Democracy stands for the rule of law, mutual consultation in matters of governance and the safeguarding of human rights brought about through quality leadership. This philosophical view forms the political hallmark of any nation including Nigeria. Unfortunately, democratization in Nigeria has remained nascent and quality leadership a mirage. This was largely due to the mis-conception given to the exchange theory concept in the Politician-Electorate relationships. The study identified Apolitical Marketing as the bane of sustainable democracy in Nigeria, thus the non-application of the concept of “customer first” (Electorate) is responsible for poor leadership. The author revealed that Political Marketing Research, Internal Democracy, Relational Politics and Green Politics are holistic in the drive toward good leadership and democratic sustainability. It was thus, recommended that Nigeria political class, umpires and leaders should invest very high proportion of their resources on research and intelligence gathering on the voters and embraces the holistic marketing concept geared toward a lasting, enduring and beneficial democracy.