Political parties are an indispensable mechanism for the proper functioning of contemporary democracies. They perform crucial functions of recruitment of political actors, mobilization of the citizenry and provision of choice alternatives for the populace. It is thus believed that they should serve as rallying points for the building of the spirit of national consciousness, common identity and unity among the citizens. This article investigated the performance of political parties vis-a-vis the development of national consciousness in Nigeria from the First Republic and beyond. From the descriptive and historical analysis of data drawn mainly from the secondary sources, it was revealed that political parties in Nigeria have failed to promote national consciousness among Nigerian citizens. This, as the paper noted, has resulted mainly from ethnic inclination and other factors such as absence of ideological leaning, lack of common political aspiration and sentiment of unity among party members, inter and intra-parties crises, politics of exclusion and wrong view of political power as means of wealth for oneself and ethnic group by the founders/leaders of political parties. Accordingly, the paper recommended that the formation of political parties along ethnic/tribal instead of ideological line should be discouraged while those currently operating in the country with ethnic appeal and colouration should be deregistered by the electoral umpire.