Just as citizens have certain rights, duties and obligations, a government also enjoys a number of rights and performs certain obligations. It is, however, more appropriate to talk about the obligations rather than the duties of government, as it may be difficult to compel a government to discharge its responsibility to the Citizens.

This article deals primarily with the political parties of the First, Second, Third and Fourth Republics of Nigeria. Unlike the nationalist parties of the colonial era whose primary objective was decolonisation, the overriding objective of the post-independence parties was to win political power.