Chapter 12: The Federal Republic of Nigeria

Sovereignty, Authority, and Power

• Nigeria is a federal state with thirty-six states governed from Abuja since the Fourth Republic (1999–present).
• Fourth Republic the regime of Nigeria since the adoption of the Constitution of 1999, which created a federal republic with a presidential system of government
• After Sani Abacha's death, Nigeria drafted and ratified a new constitution.
• Eighth constitution since 1914. Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960, but since then, only the military has united the country.
• Nigeria is divided linguistically, ethnically (over 250 ethnicities), and religiously (there is an intense Muslim–Christian divide, with many other Nigerians practicing traditional indigenous religions).
• Coup d’état (coup) the seizure of control of the state apparatus by the military

Geographic Influences on Political Culture

• Nigeria is located in West Africa along the Atlantic coast.
  • This made Nigeria easily accessible to European powers during the early phases of the “Scramble for Africa,” in which European powers colonized nearly the entire continent between 1860 and 1910.
  • “Scramble for Africa” the rapid colonization of Africa by European powers (1860–1910), during which time Nigeria was colonized by Great Britain
• Before the scramble, Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, was a major slave trading point of access.
• British forces formally occupied Nigeria in 1885 and imposed colonial rule.
• National question refers to the issue of whether Nigeria should remain a unified country or be broken into smaller countries because of its extensive diversity and lack of national unity
• Nigeria is essentially divided into the following regions:
  • Northwest: This region is populated by the Hausa-Fulani people, who are predominantly Islamic.
  • The Hausa and Fulani tribes combined after the Fulani Jihad of 1804–1808, and are now known as the Hausa-Fulani tribe, making up just over 30 percent of Nigeria’s population.
  • Hausa-Fulani Nigeria’s largest ethnic group, predominantly Islamic; its members live in the northern region of the country and comprise approximately 30 percent of the population
  • Northeast: While also predominantly Islamic, the northeast is populated by many smaller ethnic groups, the largest of which is the Kanuri, who only make up about 6 percent of the population of Nigeria.
  • Middle Belt: This region is highly mixed ethnically and religiously, particularly among Muslims and Christians.
  • Southwest: This region is dominated by the Yoruba people, who make up about 21 percent of Nigeria’s population.
  • Yoruba Nigeria’s second largest single ethnic group; its members live in the southwest of the country and comprise approximately 21 percent of the population
  • Southern Delta: The Niger Delta of the Niger River is located here, and a large number of small groups populate this area.
  • Niger Delta an oil-rich region in the south of Nigeria where the Niger River flows into the ocean; a central point of ethnic conflict over resource control
  • Southeast: This region is dominated by the Igbo (or Ebo, Ibo, historically), who make up about 18 percent of Nigeria’s population.
  • Igbo (Ebo or Ibo) Nigeria’s third largest single ethnic group, predominantly Christian; its members live in the southeast region of the country and comprise approximately 18 percent of the population.

Components of Nigerian Political Culture

• Patron-Clientelism: While many of the countries of study in Comparative Government have themes of patron-clientelism running through their political culture, none has them to the extent of Nigeria.
  • Nigeria even has a specific terminology for the Nigerian version of this theme: prebendalism.
  • Prebendalism the tendency in Nigerian bureaucratic agencies for corrupt individual bureaucrats to use their official position to enrich themselves; for example, by securing bribes when performing their official functions
  • Identity politics the tendency in Nigerian politics of tribal or ethnic loyalties to supersede concerns of the national public interest
• Ethnic and Religious Conflict: While ethnic conflict had always had a long tradition in Nigeria, when the British created an economic system that gave out benefits based on “competitions” among the ethnic groups for production, the rivalry and conflict among them was further intensified.
• State attempts and Fails to control Civil Society: Nigeria has been unable to develop a full pluralism for many societal reasons, including poverty and illiteracy, but also because of state attempts to dominate the formation of independent civil society groups.

Political and Economic Change

• Nigeria’s history can be divided into three major periods: precolonial (1500–1860), colonial (1860–1960), and independence (1960–present).
• Modern independent Nigeria has experienced a great deal of political turmoil, with four separate attempts at republican government, regularly interrupted by military coups, and counter-coups in some cases.

Precolonial Nigeria (1500–1860)

• This era was characterized by the rule of a number of West African empires, including the Edo-Benin Empire in the northwest, the Songhai Empire in the north, the Igbo Kingdom in the south, and various Hausa-Fulani kingdoms, often ruling simultaneously in different parts of the country, none of which ever exercised uniform rule over the whole territory of today’s Nigeria.

Colonial Period (1860–1960)

• Britain, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Portugal colonized the entire continent in the "Scramble for Africa" to control Africa's natural resources.
• As the Edo Empire collapsed without European slave demand, Nigeria became firmly within the British "sphere of influence."
• Though nominally illegal for Europeans, much slave trading continued in Nigeria, and it is still debated whether the British occupation of Nigeria was benevolent or motivated by wealth and power.

Independence and the First Republic

• Nigerians fought for Britain in its North African campaigns against German forces during World War II, and industrial military goods helped Nigerian labor unions grow.
• After the war, the unions became political organizations that demanded more local sovereignty from the British, especially as autonomous states separate from other ethnic groups.
• British sympathy for self-government and recognition of Nigerian war contributions led to a long process toward independence.
• From the 1940s to 1960, conferences and congresses organized Nigeria's increasing self-government, culminating in 1957's full self-government and 1960's independence by British Act of Parliament.
• BP and Royal Dutch Shell commercial explorers found large crude oil deposits in the Niger Delta around this time.

Biafran Civil War (1966–1970)

• Northern military forces defected and staged a counter-coup against the new military government, installing a new northern Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
• In 1967, Biafra seceded to control BP and Shell oil royalties.
• The Nigerian military government imposed a trade blockade on Biafra and invaded to reclaim oil operations.
• Biafra starved for years due to its inability to fund an armed conflict.
• The British government helped the Nigerian military launch a final offensive to retake the territory and end the war in 1969–1970.
• Biafran Civil War a conflict (1966–1970) in which the southern state of Biafra attempted to secede from Nigeria in an effort to take full control of oil rents from international energy companies
• After reunification, national conflicts over guilt in the killing and starvation of over two million people (which many Igbo called genocide) and competition for political control over oil arose.

The Second Republic and Military Coup (1979–1993)

• Nigeria was ruled by northern generals from 1966 to 1979.
• General Olusegun Obasanjo succeeded northerner General Murtala Muhammad after his assassination in 1976.
  • Obasanjo ordered a transition to end military rule and establish a republican constitution.
• The Second Republic followed the American constitution's federalism and presidential system to reduce ethnic tensions and make it more likely that a president could win a nationwide election.
• The First Republic followed the British parliamentary system.
• Regional parties were impossible.
  • Each state had a cabinet representative if they registered in at least two-thirds of Nigeria's nineteen states.
• General Muhammadu Buhari overthrew the government in 1983, citing corruption and administrative incompetence.
• As military leader of the new government, he imprisoned many government officials.
• Structural adjustment program a program of neoliberal economic reforms imposed by the International Monetary Fund to help countries balance the budget and get out of debt by such means as reducing government spending, privatizing state-owned national monopolies, and liberalizing trade

The Third Republic and Military Coup (1993–1998)

• The Third Republic was the shortest lived of all, lasting not even three months.
• The government was unable to manage the political turmoil in the absence of Babangida, and the military once again stepped in, this time in the person of Defense Minister General Sani Abacha.
  • Abacha carried out a program of radical economic development, ending Babangida’s privatization initiatives, increasing Nigeria’s foreign cash reserves, and reducing Nigeria’s debt and rate of inflation, all while oil prices remained low in the 1990s.

The Fourth Republic (1999–Present)

• After Abacha’s death, his successor, General Abubakar, called for the creation of a new democratic republic, reviving the structure of the constitution of the Second Republic, with federalism (now with thirty-six states and a Federal District in Abuja), and a presidential government.
• An election was held in 1999, with the former military leader Olusegun Obasanjo winning the presidency as a civilian, now officially retired from military service.
• People’s Democratic Party (PDP) the party in power in Nigeria from the beginning of the Fourth Republic (1999–2015); now the main opposition party to the government
• All Progressives Congress (APC) a party formed as an alliance of opposition parties leading into the 2015 presidential election; now the party in power in Nigeria
• Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) an independent election-regulation agency in Nigeria, in place since the advent of the Fourth Republic, that has been accused by critics of weighing its decisions in favor of the government in many elections

Significant Social Cleavages

Ethnicity

• Nigeria has over 250 ethnic groups, none of which is a majority.
• The Hausa-Fulani, Igbo, and Yoruba tribes dominate Nigerian politics, but they have little in common.
• Each tribe has its own history, language, and religion.
• Ethnic Nigerians rarely interact.
  • They probably speak English, the national language.
• Even though 75% of Nigerians live in rural areas, English is only spoken in cities.
• Wealthy and educated Nigerians speak English, while others speak one of over 500 local languages.

Religion

• Nigeria is increasingly divided between Christians in the south and Muslims in the north (concentrated in the south).
• Coinciding cleavages social divisions that tend to run in the same direction, dividing societies along the same fault line repeatedly and creating more intense political conflict between groups
• Islam in the precolonial northern empires and Christianity introduced by the British, who did most of their business in the south along the coast and in cities, caused this divide.
• Shari'ah law is valued in the north.
  • Shari’ah a system of law based on the principles of Islam
• All twelve northern states adopted Shari'ah in their local courts in the mid-2000s, sparking controversy.
• Amina Lawal exemplified the divide.
• A court in Kaduna, a northern state, sentenced Amina Lawal to death by stoning for getting pregnant out of wedlock as Lagos prepared to host the Miss World contest.
• The alleged father was never charged because he did not have a child to "prove" his infidelity.
• Miss World contestants boycotted Nigeria over the sentence, and Christians resented the northern states' international attention.
• An appellate court overturned the sentence, but the divide remains.

Region

• Again coinciding with ethnic and religious cleavages, the north–south divide separates Muslims from Christians, and the Hausa-Fulani from the Igbo and the Yoruba, along with the other various ethnic groups.
• The north is located in dry highlands, with a mostly rural agrarian economy and culture.
• The south is where most of the oil is located, and it benefited the most from British education and economic development.
  • The south is much more urbanized, with more of its residents living in cities and earning higher incomes than Nigerians in the north.

Forms of Political Participation

Civil Society

• Despite Nigeria's patron-clientelism, civil society has grown independently.
• Except for brutal political assassinations under the Babangida and Abacha regimes, the state has never been able to control civil society groups.
• The Alliance for Credible Elections and Gender and Development Action have tried to foster a more inclusive Nigerian national identity and address common issues.
• Boko Haram, an Islamic jihadist group that translates to "against Western education," has used terrorism and kidnapping to stop women and girls from getting education and economic opportunities.
  • Boko Haram an extreme Islamic terrorist organization, whose name translates to “against Western education,” that uses kidnapping and violence to prevent secularization and the education of women and girls in northeastern Nigeria
• The Nigerian military still faces Boko Haram's 10,000 fighters, who once ruled the northeast of Nigeria.

Protests

• Protests were generally not tolerated during military rule, but the state's ability to control and suppress protests was low compared to other countries.
• Nigerian protests for all political causes have increased dramatically since 1999.
• Protesters' preferences vary, but oil is a major focus.
• Multinational and domestic oil workers strike for various reasons.
• Nigeria's two largest oil workers unions went on strike in 2014 to demand road improvements to make fuel delivery cheaper and easier.
• In 2015, a different union went on strike over unpaid wages.

Political Institutions

• Nigeria is still democratizing.
  • However, its constitutions and political institutions are becoming more formalized and institutionalized.
• Freedom House calls Nigeria "partly free."
• The Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index ranks Nigeria as a hybrid regime at 109 out of 167.
• Transitional democracy may best describe Nigeria's current regime.
• The 2015 election may lead to more reform and democratic consolidation.

Linkage Institutions

Political Parties

• The political party structure of Nigeria has changed repeatedly with each regime change from republic to military rule, and from military leader to military leader.
• The party structure is still forming since the 1999 constitution, but the main competition seems loosely shaped around a north–south regional party alignment based on the results of the 2011, 2015, and 2019 elections.

The People’s Democratic Party

• The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was formed in 1998 just after the transition away from military rule into democracy was announced.
• The party formed around the presidential candidacy of the former military ruler, Olusegun Obasanjo.
• It quickly moved to build a national, rather than regional base of support by including both northern and southern candidates on its national ticket, and recruiting members from all parts of the country into the patron-client network of support.

The All Progressives Congress

• Before 2013, PDP opponents were numerous, regionally and ethnically based, and disorganized.
• Nigeria's second-place presidential candidate had never polled more than one-third.
• The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), and All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) joined forces in 2013 to challenge the PDP in the 2015 elections.
• When their interests aligned, the parties revived a long-standing Hausa-Fulani-Yoruba alliance in Nigeria.
• Their candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, defeated Jonathan's 45 percent with 54 percent of the vote, marking Nigeria's first opposition election victory.

Elections

• Nigeria elects a president and vice president nationwide.
• It elects the House of Representatives and Senate in state and federal elections.
• The extent to which Nigerians vote and their political efficacy are uncertain due to the volatility of official data, which may have been manipulated in some years.
• The voting-age population turnout was over 65 percent in 2003's presidential election, below 50 percent in 2007 and 2011, and 32 percent in 2015 and 35 percent in 2019.
• Nigerians vote for governors, state legislatures, and local officials like their city or village mayors.
• National Assembly Nigeria’s bicameral national legislature, consisting of a House of Representatives and Senate

Presidential Election

• Nigeria’s president is elected directly by Nigerian voters to a four-year term, and the Constitution allows up to two terms.
• The election lasts only one round with victory going to whichever candidate receives the most votes (regardless of whether it is a majority or not), though Nigeria has a unique requirement.
• In order to declare a winner after the first round, the candidate must receive at least 25 percent of the vote in at least two-thirds of the states.
• This requirement was put into Nigeria’s constitution in 1999 to prevent regional parties with exclusive appeal in the north or south from winning, and then exercising power in a way that would divide the country.

House of Representatives Elections

• Nigeria has 360 SMDs.
• Nigeria's states have constituencies based on population, so larger states have more representation.
• Political parties may field one candidate per constituency, but they cannot run a presidential candidate unless they received at least 5% of the vote in at least two-thirds of the states in legislative races from the previous election.
• If a party wants to qualify for the next presidential election, it must cooperate nationally to field candidates across the country, which discourages small parties around regional or ethnic legislative candidates.
• The candidate with the most votes, not necessarily a majority, wins in Nigeria.
• The PDP won House elections from 1999 to 2011, but the APC won in 2015 and 2019.

Senate Elections

• The Senate represents each state equally, unlike the House of Representatives.
• Each of the 36 states elects three senators, and Abuja elects one, for a total of 109.
• In a first-past-the-post system, three electoral districts elect the state's most popular candidate.
• Like the House, the PDP won every Senate majority between 1999 and 2011, but the APC took over in 2015 and 2019.
• Party of power a political party without a defining ideology that makes policies with the primary goal of remaining in power

Interest Groups

• Modern Nigeria is probably closer to pluralism than to state corporatism because of the general freedom of association, though there is still limited participation across the Nigerian population, because of the extent of poverty and illiteracy among the large majority of people in rural areas.
• These current interests fall into four major categories:
  • Labor unions: Workers in Nigeria have been members of organized unions since the early 1900s, and labor interest groups are often a driving force in pushing for the concerns of ordinary Nigerians.
  • Business Interests: Business interests were complicit in the military rule of Babangida and Abacha, helping give legitimacy to their rule while getting many of their policy preferences enacted—particularly those regarding privatization, the opening of trade, and structural adjustment.
  • Human rights and Democracy: Many groups emerged during military rule in the 1980s and 1990s demanding democratic reforms and the restoration of civil liberties, and they continue to push for reforms today.

The Media

• Nigerian media is also being transformed by mobile and Internet technology.
• Over 80% of Nigerians have mobile phones, and 60% read blogs and share news online.
• Nigerian media criticizes all government policies and actions. Investigations are common.
• The Nigerian domestic media covered most of the 2007 election irregularities and fraud allegations, often giving dissident professors and political activists a prominent voice.
• Political cartoons and caricatures of powerful politicians are also common, but the targets often accuse their critics of using ethnic slurs and stereotypes.

State Institutions

• The institutions of Nigeria are outlined in the Constitution of 1999 with a model of separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism, but only in theory.
• In practice, like many developing countries, a tremendous amount of power flows through the chief executive, Nigeria’s president, and other institutions do not typically function as any real check on his power.

The President

• The president of Nigeria serves a four-year term and may be reelected to a second term.
• He acts as the unified head of state and head of government, performing both ceremonial duties and overseeing the national bureaucratic administration.
• The Constitution grants the president the power to:
  • Sign or veto bills from the National Assembly
  • Refer a bill to the Constitutional Court to consider the bill’s constitutionality
  • Call the National Assembly for a special session in an emergency
  • Appoint officials to nearly all administrative posts
  • Appoint a commission to investigate issues
  • Call a national referendum on a bill from the National Assembly
  • Appoint ambassadors, and receive and recognize foreign ambassadors
  • Issue pardons or reprieves for any criminal offense

The National Assembly

• The House of Representatives and Senate are elected to four-year terms in the same election as the president.
• The legislature is functionally and structurally bicameral because both houses must approve legislation.
• A two-thirds majority in both houses allows the Assembly to override a presidential veto or delay.
• The Senate confirms the president's cabinet and high-court nominees and impeaches judges and executive commissions (after the president recommends it).
• They cannot confirm most presidential appointments.

Regional Governments and Federalism

• Nigeria has thirty-six states and Abuja, its federal capital.
• Voters directly elect state governors and legislatures, who have constitutional authority over many local issues.
• A federal system makes sense given Nigeria's regional ethnic divisions.
• Each regional ethnic group can maintain some local sovereignty and make policies based on local preferences.
• “Soldiers and oil”—as Nigerians call them—have historically undermined state governments' local control.

The Judiciary

• Nigeria's courts follow state and federal laws.
• Common law precedent interprets laws in the British-style system of lower courts that can appeal to higher courts.
• The Supreme Court is the last resort for state and federal appeals.
• A judicial commission advises the president to appoint up to twenty-one Supreme Court justices.
• The court can declare president or National Assembly actions unconstitutional, but it rarely does.
• Military rule weakened the judiciary, which was well-trained and independent during British colonial rule and after independence.
• Military cronies were appointed judges without legal training.
• Like many Nigerian government institutions, the courts are corrupt and inefficient and under pressure from the executive and legislature.
• Court officials frequently request bribes to speed up trials or give favorable rulings.

The Bureaucracy

• The British colonial model allowed Nigerians to work at the lowest levels under British administration.
• After independence, the civil service became a bloated patron-client network that employed political loyalists and returned favors.
• Scholars call Nigeria's patron-client system prebendalism.
• The Nigerian bureaucracy is bloated, inefficient, and corrupt, like other government agencies.
• One of the largest segments of the Nigerian bureaucracy today is not the civil service, but parastatal agencies and companies.
• These are technically privately owned, but they are overseen and staffed at the top levels by appointees of the president, making them effectively part of the state and the patron-client network of patrimonialism.
• Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) a parastatal corporation responsible for providing electricity to Nigeria that was known for its corruption and inefficiency until it was privatized in 2013

The Military

• Today’s Nigerian military remains the best place for a young Nigerian man to advance his economic prospects legitimately and prove his talents, with the possible exception of a university education in petroleum engineering, or leaving the country altogether.
• It is also the sole truly national institution that brings diverse Nigerians together for a single purpose.
• It is about 500,000 active troops strong, with modest funding at about $7 billion per year.
• “Military in barracks” a term used during periods of military rule to describe military officials who remain in the traditional role of defending the nation or enforcing laws rather than making policy
• “Military in government” a term used during periods of military rule to describe military officials who hold positions of policymaking power rather than traditional military roles

Public Policy

• Nigeria’s public policy concerns are evidence of its status as a developing country.
• The country requires resources to answer its problems: high economic inequality, low per capita incomes, low rates of literacy, and problems with HIV/AIDS, to name a few.
• Oil may seem like an easy solution to find the funding for these problems, yet oil sometimes seems to cause more problems than it solves.

Economic Policy and Oil

• Oil generates 46% of Nigeria's GDP.
  • However, this dependence on oil as the sole resource has turned Nigeria into a rentier state, dependent on Shell and BP for funding.
• The "resource curse" occurs when a single resource brings massive wealth but also state economic control, corruption, and underdevelopment in other sectors.
• In 2017, Nigeria exported 76 percent crude oil, 14 percent petroleum gas, 1.7 percent refined petroleum, and 8.3 percent everything else.
• Oil and the economy around it has also motivated a number of non-state militant movements, most notably the Movement to Emancipate the Niger Delta (MEND).
  • MEND claims that its cause is to deliver the benefits of oil revenues to the localized community that actually lives on top of the oil in the Niger Delta, and to secure reparations from the government for the environmental damage related to the industry’s operations.
• Resource curse the idea that countries with a large supply of a valuable natural resource become excessively dependent on sale and exportation of that resource and fail to develop other areas of the national economy

Federalism

• The 1946 British Nigerian Constitution introduced "three regions" and federalism to Nigeria.
• It has been part of the system in various forms since.
• Nigeria's ethnic and religious diversity supports a decentralized power structure, and in 1999, the Constitution created thirty-six states based on ethnic boundaries.
• Federalism hasn't really worked as a true division of power in Nigeria for most of its history, either because of repressive military rulers who made states meaningless or because of the president's patron-client network's massive federal wealth, which gave him enormous influence over state policymakers.

Democratization

• Nigeria has been in the process of building a democratic regime since the death of the last military ruler, Sani Abacha.
  • This has been a difficult path, and Nigeria’s political elites have shown limited commitment to the values of democracy, though 2015 may be a watershed moment.
• The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was created in 1998 to oversee the elections that would bring Nigeria into the Fourth Republic, and has been in charge of elections ever since.

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

• The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a union of fifteen West African countries who have agreed to create a free-trade zone and explore further opportunities for economic integration.

  • Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) a supranational organization of fifteen West African countries, including Nigeria, that have agreed to free trade and economic integration

• The goals of the union include economic goals such as expanding transportation infrastructure across national boundaries to make trade more efficient, creating a common market, and harmonizing their fiscal policies to make government budgets more transparent and responsible.

• They also include mutual cooperation on security matters, such as peacekeeping.

• One of the major undertakings of ECOWAS is a subset called the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), which aims to unify monetary policy among its six members, and create a common currency, usually referred to as the eco.

  • West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) a monetary union of six West African states seeking to create a unified central bank and transnational currency called the eco
  • Eco a proposed transnational currency for the West African Monetary Zone

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