First constitution written in 1914
Eight constitutions between 1914 and 1995
Current constitution written in 1995 has been
heavily amended since its inception
Acceptance of “constitutionalism” as a guiding
set of principles has eluded Nigeria
Nigeria is a relatively young country, achieving
independence in 1960, this makes establishing
legitimate government more difficult
Fragmentation – tendency to fall apart along
ethnic, regional, and/or religious lines.
Contradictory Influence of the Past – British
colonial “rule of law” vs. Military
rule/Personalized authority
Corruption – both military and civilian rule
tainted with corruption. Citizens question
the payment of taxes that get deposited in
personal bank accounts
Nigeria elects on federal level a head of
state which is the President of Nigeria. The
president is elected by the people.
A person is eligible for the office of President if
he or she is a citizen of Nigeria, at least 40 years
of age, is a member of a political party and is
sponsored by that political party.
The constitution limits the President to only two
terms of four years each in office.
The President of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria
is the head of state and
head of the national
executive of Nigeria.
The President of Nigeria is
also the commander-in-chief
of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
The current President of Nigeria is Goodluck
Jonathan, who was sworn into office in May
2010.
The President is responsible for:
assenting to and signing bills, referring a bill back
to the National Assembly for reconsideration of
the bill's constitutionality, referring a bill to the
Constitutional Court for a decision on the bill's
constitutionality, summoning the National
Assembly, or Parliament to an extraordinary
sitting to conduct special business, making any
appointments that the Constitution or legislation
requires the President to make, other than as
head of the national executive,
appointing commissions of inquiry, calling a
national referendum in terms of an Act of
Parliament, receiving and recognizing foreign
diplomatic and consular representatives,
appointing ambassadors, plenipotentiaries, and
diplomatic and consular representatives,
pardoning or reprieving offenders and
remitting any fines, penalties or forfeitures,
conferring honors
Legislative- National Assembly: bicameral
lawmaking body of Nigerian legislators
popularly elected to four-year terms; legislation
can originate in either house, but a law does
not become official until both houses pass it
and the president consents
Senate: 109 members of three representatives
from each of the 36 states and one from
Federal Capital Territory, Abuja
House of Representatives: 360 members.
Members from both legislative bodies serve
four-year terms and are popularly elected. The
main function of the National Assembly is to
pass laws for assent by the president.
Judiciary interprets laws in accordance with the
constitution, which provides for federal and
state courts and election tribunals.
The Supreme Court, is the highest federal court
of the land.
Also a Court of Appeal and a Federal High Court.
For the Federal capital territory in Abuja, in
other words, Northern Nigeria where there is a
dense population of Muslims, there is a High
Court, Shari'ah Court of Appeal, and Customary
Court of Appeal.
State courts are comprised of a High Court,
Shari’ah Court of Appeal, and a Customary
Court of Appeal. This common belief in the
legitimacy for a religious doctrine to dictate
their lives helps builds legitimacy in this
country which is filled with corruption.
Thirty-six states have a popularly elected
governor which serves a four year term, a
unicameral State House of Assembly comprised
of popularly elected representatives from local
government areas.
The number of House of Assembly members in
each state is comprised of three times the
number of seats that it has in the House of
Representatives.
There are a total of 774 local government areas
across Nigeria, comprised of a chairman and
elected councilors.
Local government councils tend to local
administrative matters. Local governments in
the North implement Shari'a law in the
Muslim states, which undermines the
sovereignty and the authority of the national
government since Shari'a law there
supersedes national law.
Sharia law is the law of Islam. Sharia is cast
from the Quran, the actions and words of
Muhammad, and the collective reasoning and
deductions of Muslim imams.
Sharia law covers a wide range of subjects. The
stipulations of the Sharia law, however, are
unlike any other legal system in the world.
According to the Sharia law:
• Theft is punishable by amputation of the right hand (above).
• Criticizing or denying any part of the Quran is punishable by
death.
• Criticizing or denying Muhammad is a prophet is punishable by
death.
• Criticizing or denying Allah, the moon god of Islam is punishable
by death.
• A Muslim who becomes a non-Muslim is punishable by death.
• A non-Muslim who leads a Muslim away from Islam is punishable
by death.
• A non-Muslim man who marries a Muslim woman is punishable
by death.
• A woman can have 1 husband, but a man can have up to 4
wives; Muhammad can have more.
A man can unilaterally divorce his wife but a woman needs her
husband's consent to divorce.
• A man can beat his wife for insubordination.
• Testimonies of four male witnesses are required to prove rape
against a woman.
• A woman who has been raped cannot testify in court against
her rapist(s).
• A woman's testimony in court, allowed only in property cases,
carries half the weight of a man's.
• A female heir inherits half of what a male heir inherits.
• A woman cannot drive a car, as it leads to fitnah (upheaval).
• A woman cannot speak alone to a man who is not her husband
or relative.
• Meat to be eaten must come from animals that have been
sacrificed to Allah
2007 elections: fraudulent with ballot box
stuffing in some places, and empty ballot
boxes elsewhere.
Following the election of 2007 the
transition of power from Obasanjo to
Yar'Abdua was the first peaceful citizen-tocitizen transfer.
The People's Democratic Party (PDP) - one of the
more established parties since it has run candidates
for office since 1998.
It is the party of Olusegun Obasanjo, who received
about 62% of the vote in 2003.
In 2007, Umaru Yar’Adua received almost 70% of the
vote. The party almost gained the overwhelming
majority in the National Assembly but because the
elections were fraudulent, it is very difficult to know
how much real support the PDP actually has.
All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) - Former
General Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim from the
north, was the ANPP candidate in 2003 and 2007. In
2003, his running mate was Chuba Okadigbo, an Igbo
from the southeast.
Buhari received about 32% of the vote in 2003, and
not quite 19% in 2007.
Action Congress (AC) - formed with the merger of the
Alliance for Democracy, the Justice Party, the Advance
Congress of Democrats, and several other minor
political parties in September 2006.
The party ran VP Atiku Abubakar, who defected from
the People’s Democratic Party, as its presidential
candidate in the 2007 presidential election.
Abubakar was disqualified from the election by the
Independent National Electoral Commission, but the
disqualification was later overturned by the Supreme
Court. He received more than 7% of the vote.
The ruling People's Democratic Party won 2010
election 22,495,187 of the 39,469,484. That number
far outstripped the votes for Muhammadu Buhari, of
the Congress for Progressive Change, the main
opposition party, which won 12,214,853.
To avoid a runoff, Jonathan needed at least a quarter
of the vote in two-thirds of the 36 states and the
capital. He won that amount in 31 states.
Only the PDP signed the results; representatives of
the other parties refused to do so.
Bureaucracy
A large employer dominated by Southern
Nigerians, creating stronger north/south
tensions, and whose size has grown
dramatically with oil revenues
There is a large amount of corruption because
of the lack of accountability and political
instability related to oil revenues;
patron-client system.
Elections
4 year term limits by all elected officials; there
are 36 states, and the 3 senators from each state
are directly elected.
politics seen as a zero-sum game
Media
Nigerians get their information from radio,
many privately owned newspapers and
television common in towns and cities.
All 36 states run their own radio stations, and
there are over 100 private and state-owned
local and national newspapers.
Very few in Nigeria are literate.
CITIZENS AND SOCIETY
Social Cleavages
Nigeria is the most populous African country
Many social cleavages originate in the colonial era
with the British dividing people into artificial
“tribes” who couldn’t unite cohesively in the postcolonial era
“Ethnicity trumps citizenship, religion trumps
ethnicity, power trumps religion.”
The conflict between Muslims and Christians shows
that Nigeria's political system is not intact because "as
the population grew and resources shrank, people
began to fight over who had the right to the land and
its resources..."
Rampant illiteracy
Aids crisis has created a large youth population with a
dwindling elder population.
Nationalism, or pride in all of Nigeria, only almost only
occurs when an important soccer tournament, like the
World Cup, is taking place.
North
mostly Muslim (50%), ethnically Hausa-Fulani (29%)
poor and lives in poverty.
the strong Muslim population has illegally
instituted Shari'a (Islamic) law
People in the North generally distrust westernization
and globalization.
military leaders tend to come from the North
the North is politically united
South
mostly Christians
fertile and oil rich, the South dominates the civil
service bureaucracy. The Niger River Delta is area
with the most oil reserves.
2/3 Nigerians live in rural areas with a feudal-like
system of patron-client relationships
Since the restoration of civilian rule in May 1999,
more than 10,000 Nigerians have died in civil
strife
Former president General Sani Abacha, who
seized power in 93 after canceling presidential
elections and jailing the presumed winner,
reportedly made off with 4.3 billion from Nigeria’s
treasury.
• “419 men” is the name for people who
accumulate fast wealth. It refers to the number
of laws relating to fraud in the Nigerian penal
code
• So called “419 men” are believed to have
earned their wealth through scams and the
international drug trade