Comparative Government: Nigeria

Challenges to building state autonomy and capacity in developing countries:

  • Absence of professional bureaucracy (following departure of imperial bureaucrats)
  • Clientelism, rent seeking, and corruption in the handling of state jobs and revenue
  • Sovereignty often compromised by external factors

Nigeria and Imperialism:

  • The United Kingdom joined the “scramble for Africa” when they colonized the country
  • British developed modern infrastructure and relied on indirect rule, which absorbed some of the local leaders into the new state bureaucracy.
  • creation of a colonial legislative council, with local elections for some seats, introduced the idea of democratic representative institutions
  • Exposure to western ideas founded sentiments of resistance
  • to squash resistance, British government established a federal system in Nigeria; this reinforced regional tendencies

Military Rule

  • Nigeria has a history of military rule. The left overs from this military rule are a cause of some modern corruption
  • patrimonialism: personal rule by both authoritarian and democratic leaders has been shored up by the economic privileges those leaders bestow upon a coterie of loyal followers

Essential Political Features:

  • Legislative-executive system: Presidential
  • Legislature: National Assembly
    • Lower house: House of Representatives
    • Upper House: Senate
  • Federal division of power
  • Geographic subunits: States
  • Electoral system for lower house: Single-member district plurality
  • Chief judicial body: Supreme Court
  • Federal Character Principle: The constitution requires the president to pick cabinet members from each state
  • The legislative branch is more of a stamp for executive because they have been the same party. Has started to become more vocal. Is disadvantages because members are inexperienced
  • For president to win, needs majority and 25% of the vote in at least 2/3 of the states - example of how Nigeria is trying to move away from ethnic division
  • Zoning: the People’s Democratic Party rule that where every two terms the presidential candidate will be from north or south
  • Derivation Formula: distribution of oil wealth amongst states
  • it makes more sense to discuss Nigeria’s political parties in terms of region/ ethnic identity rather than ideology
    • Parties along ethnic lines has made it difficult to create democratic institutions