Political Regime Nigeria

What are the institutions that make up Nigeria’s regime? intro What are the institutions that make up Nigeria’s regime?

Political System Nigeria

Nigeria Political System System Nigeria has vacillated between democratic civilian republics and authoritarian military regimes It has a variety of federal, state, & local political arrangements Most prominent feature is patrimonialism Personal rule by authoritarian leaders has been shored up by the economic privileges those leaders bestow upon a group of loyal followers

Nigeria Political System Regimes Military coups have more frequently determined regime shifts and changes in governments than elections Each new regime promises improved governance & then fails to do so The current Fourth Republic has successfully had five elections It has survived longer than any of its democratic predecessors The 2015 election marked the first electoral defeat of an incumbent and first transition to an opposition candidate

Nigeria Political System Democracy Nigerians have developed some components of successful democracy They have diverse and oppositional media There’s a growing middle class There are outspoken human rights organizations There is a respected legal profession and a judiciary

Nigeria Constitution Constitution Nigeria has had six constitutions since it gained independence Military governments openly ignored the rule of law Even democratic regimes have rewritten the rules every four years on average There are even plans to rewrite the most recent 1999 constitution because it was written quickly by the last military govt.

Nigeria Constitution Constitution Britain established the first constitution in 1922. It set up a Westminster style parliamentary democracy The British monarch was head of state, legislative authority in a bicameral parliament with a prime minister executive The constitution institutionalized the federal nature by dividing Nigeria into three regions. Hausa & Fulani dominated North, Igbo dominated East, and Yoruba dominated West

Nigeria Constitution Constitution The Second Republic replaced the Westminster system with an American model The American style system used a directly elected independent executive The president is head of state and head of government The legislature is bicameral and modelled after the US Congress An independent constitutional court system was also created The subsequent constitutions have retained this basic design

Executive Nigeria

Nigeria President Buhari The current president Muhammadu Buhari is the 6th democratically elected He’s the first to defeat an incumbent He’s a Hausa Muslim & former military leader who came to power in a military coup in 1983. He was thrown out in another military coup in 1985. He ran for president unsuccessfully three other times

Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan The last president, Goodluck Jonathan, is an Ijaw Christian from the south He assumed the presidency in 2010 when President Yar’Adua died In 2007 he was chosen to be the running mate of Yar’Adua of the People’s Democratic Party He was chosen because he was mostly unknown and so “untainted” He won his own bid for election in 2011 and ran, but lost in 2015

Northern Muslims, even some within his party object to his rule Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan As president he promised to tackle corruption & improve economic infrastructure He was able to exploit the oil revenue to co-opt his opponents & create his own patronage networks Northern Muslims, even some within his party object to his rule There was popular dissatisfaction with his failure to address growing poverty, corruption and terrorism

Nigeria President President The president is directly elected. He chooses his own running mate who becomes vice president if he’s elected He appoints ministers to the Federal Executive Council (the cabinet)

Nigeria President Federal Character He has to make appointments as part of the federal character principle This is a quota system where the president has to make appointments from each of the states of the Republic Each ethnic group is allotted a certain portion of the federal positions based on its share of the population The system is designed to ease ethnic tensions – which it has But it does encourage corruption, waste, and bribery

Legislature Nigeria

Nigeria Legislature National Assembly The National Assembly is the highest lawmaking body It’s a bicameral legislature made of House of Representatives & Senate The members of both houses serve for four year terms & can be reelected The legislative elections are held on the same day as the presidential elections, a practice that started in 2015. It has mostly served as a “rubber stamp” for the executive branch

Nigeria Legislature House of Representatives The House has 360 seats and each member has a geographic district All seats are contested in single member districts The winner take all, SMDs have mostly favored the dominant PDP Some smaller parties can win seats in the house because of the geographic concentration of ethnic groups

Nigeria Legislature Senate The Senate has 109 seats and each state gets 3 senators The city of Abuja has it’s own senator The senators are chosen in single member district elections like the House

The same party almost always controls the presidency & the legislature Nigeria Legislature National Assembly The same party almost always controls the presidency & the legislature In recent years it has been less compliant in passing budget bills for the president It’s becoming more vocal in expressing the demands of regional & local interests Under president Obasanjo, it attempted to impeach him, and prevented his attempts to grab more powers

Judiciary Nigeria

Nigeria Judiciary Historicaly The initial legal system combined British common law with traditional and customary laws The colonial govt had allowed local people to handle local matters, including the development of Sharia in the north During military rule, the courts remained independent & legitimate at times. General Abucha’s military govt in the 1990s was used to persecute enemies, including the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa

Nigeria Judiciary Fourth Republic The new republic has tried to reestablish the legitimacy & independence of the courts The 1999 constitution established a Supreme Court and Federal Court of Appeals There is also a unified court system at the national and state levels Rule of law has been strengthened under the Fourth Republic Anticorruption efforts have prosecuted some state officials, but tend to falter when they get closer to those at the top

Nigeria Judiciary Local Courts The constitution allows states to authorize subsidiary courts This gives customary legal systems significant judicial clout In 12 of the northern states, Islamic Sharia courts have been set up.

Elections Nigeria

The president and legislatures are both directly elected Nigeria Elections Elections The president and legislatures are both directly elected Presidents, Representatives, and Senators all serve four year terms that line up. The winning presidential candidate has to get a majority of votes and at least 25% of votes in at least 2/3 of states If no candidate gets this, a week later, there is a run off between the top two candidates

Nigeria Elections PDP Rotation The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has other informal arrangements PDP leaders use a rotation system known as zoning. The party alternates every two terms nominating candidates from the north and south Christians in the south feared democracy would always favor the Muslim population in the north This helps ethnic tensions, but limits the pool of qualified candidates

The northerners felt they should get two full terms of leadership Nigeria Elections PDP Rotation President Yar’Adua was a northern Muslim who succeeded the southern Christian, president Obasanjo He died in office in 2010, after only 3 years, and succeeded by Jonathan Goodluck Jonathan is a Christian from the south – angering northerners who see this as a violation of the zoning system The northerners felt they should get two full terms of leadership This caused the 3 largest opposition parties to combine to form the All Progressives Congress (APC)

Local Government Nigeria

There are national, state, and local levels of government Nigeria Local Government States There are national, state, and local levels of government Even military governments have been unable to truly centralize authority The FMG divided Nigeria into 12 states in 1970 following the civil war. In 1976, the number of states grew to 19. In 1996, there were 36, plus the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja) They have little autonomy from the central government because they have no way of generating revenue

Nigeria Local Government Local Govts The number of local governments has varied even more than the states The 1979 democratic govt increased the number of local govts to 700 The FMG reduced it down to 300 in 1983 It has increased again to 800 In many cases, state governors have replaced these councils with “temporary” caretaker committees These are appointed, making patronage networks that guarantee the loyalty of the local governments

Nigeria Local Government Funding The national government controls all of the oil revenue This keeps the local regions dependent on the central government The national govt uses the “derivation formula” to distribute oil funds and to ensure some share that stays in the oil producing states

Other Institutions Nigeria

Nigeria Military Military Most of Nigeria’s leaders come from a military background The military is one of the few stable avenues of social mobility It does attract Nigeria’s brightest and most ambitious young men It’s particularly important to Muslims in northern Nigeria who have less economic opportunity It’s increasingly evolving into a regular professional military and has yet to intervene in the Fourth Republic.

Goodluck with this stuff Nigeria

Main Ideas Nigeria Goodluck’s Guidance <Power of Executive Structure of Legislatures Structure of Local Courts Elections Systems Goodluck’s Guidance