1. Political Regime
Nigeria

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

3. Political System
Nigeria

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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

10. Executive
Nigeria

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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)

15. 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

16. Legislature
Nigeria

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. Judiciary
Nigeria

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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.

25. Elections
Nigeria

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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)

29. Local Government
Nigeria

30. 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 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

31. 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

32. 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

33. Other Institutions
Nigeria

34. 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.

35. Goodluck with this stuff
Nigeria

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