Nigeria, June 21 -- In the common sense of democratic culture, political parties serve as vehicles for policy articulation, citizen representation and electoral competition in order to have access to and control government machineries. But in Nigeria's post-1999 democratic experiment, the concept of "party supremacy" has mutated into a dangerous orthodoxy that threatens national cohesion, institutional integrity and democratic growth. At the heart of this distortion lies an unrelenting loyalty-not to the constitution or the people-but to the party as an entity above scrutiny, above reproach, and disturbingly, above the state itself.

The phrase "party supremacy" gained popular currency during the administration of President Olusegun Obasa...