Nigeria: Government
Institutions
AP Comparative Government
Institutions
 While the constitution states that the government is a federal
political system with national, local, and state levels, the
government is really run in a unitary manner
 The government has 3 branches (executive, legislative, and
judicial) but the executive has the most power in terms of
creating legislation
 Each of the 36 states have an executive and legislative
branch, and local courts
 Currently neither checks and balances operate and state and
local governments are totally dependent on the central
government
Executive
 In 1979, Nigeria’s parliamentary system was replaced by a
presidential system
 This happened due to the intense fracturing within Parliament
 The U.S. presidential model was followed until a coup in
1983
 Major-General Muhammadu Buhari staged a coup and won
 He was ousted in 1985 by General Babangida and he was ousted in
1993 by General Abacha
 In 1999 Nigeria returned to presidential rule where Obasanjo
was elected in 99 and 03
Under military rule
 All 7 military leaders promised a transition to democracy
 Only two, General Obasanjo and Abubakar, actually gave up
power to civilians
 Buhari and Babangida were extremely repressive
 The president has always appointed officials without any approval
 The generals have ruled under a system of patrimonialism
 The president is the head of an intricate patron-client system and
dispenses government jobs and resources as rewards to
supporters
 These means that all senior positions are filled through patronage
Bureaucracy
 The Nigerian’s adopted the British system of Bureaucracy
from the time they were colonized
 The system is corrupt and bribery is common and jobs are
awarded through the patron-client system, or prebendalism
 The Nigerian government agencies are actually para-statals,
 These are corporations owned by the state and designated to
provide commercial and social welfare services
 Para-statals provide water, electricity, public transportation, and
agricultural subsidies
 Para-statals are a form of state corporatism
 These organizations are generally poorly run and extremely inefficient
Legislature
 Nigeria has a bicameral legislature known as the National
Assembly
 Both representatives and senators serve four-year renewable terms
and elections are held the week before the presidential election
 The Senate has 109 members, 3 from each state and one from
the capital
 They are elected directly by popular vote
 The House of Representatives has 360 members from singlemember districts
 They are elected by plurality and represented many different
ethnicities
 In 2011 only 13 representatives were women as were only 4 of the 109
senators
Legislature
 When under military control, the legislature had almost no
power
 Under civilian control, the legislature has only recently become
effective in checking the presidents power
 This can be seen in stopping Obasanjo from amending the constitution
to allow himself to run for president a third time
 Those elected to office have been widely tied to political
corruption
Judiciary
 Early in Nigerian independence, the judiciary had great independence
 They were known as rendering objective decisions and for operating
independently from the executive
 Military rule greatly changed the judiciary
 Judicial review was suspended and the president’ friends were appointed as
judges
 Very few are well versed in law and render decisions to manipulate the
government
 Today the judiciary is supposed to interpret law based upon the
constitution
 They are also required to follow sharia standards
 In 2007, a tribunal was created to hear accusations about voting fraud
 They have the power to remove officials from their positions but the bar for
proving guilt is incredibly high
Military
 The military has lost its creditability as a temporary, objective
organization that keeps order and stability
 This is because of their massive involvement in the political
corruption of Nigeria
 There is a distinction between “military in government” and
“military in barracks”
 The military is one of the few organizations that is national in
character
 The military has always been there to restore order in times of crisis
 The military is the best way to attain social promotion