Nigeria (put all table information here)

Federal or Unitary: Federal Constitutional Republic
Subunits: Thirty-six states and one Federal Capital Territory. The thirty-six states and one federal territory, are further sub-divided into 774 local government areas. Only three of these many states are at independence. This reflects Nigeria's violent history and troubles creating a united identity in the government when the national entity is so varied.

Presidential, Parliamentary, or Mixed: Presidential
The president is both the Chief of State and the Head of Government.
The president is currently Umaru Musa Yar'Adua .

Head of State/ Head of Government: The president is elected by popular vote to a maximum of two four year terms. The last election was on April 21 2007 and the next is in April 2011. The president is responsible for managing the day to day operations of the state and is also commander and chief of the armed forces. The president is not a member of the legislature but can go before the legislature to make statements on basic public policy issues on the initiative of either body. The president's power is checked by the National Assembly.

Name of Legislative Branch: The National Assembly.

 A bicameral legislator consisting of the Senate(upper house) and the House of Representatives(lower house). The Senate (109 seats, 3 from each state plus 1 from Abuja; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms) and House of Representatives (360 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms). The current President of the Senate is David Mark and the current Speaker of the House is Dimeji Bankole. The Assembly has a broad range of functions and has the power to set up committees of members to analyze bills and the conduct of government officials. The Senate can impeach judges and other high officials of the executive branch, but this power has to have been priorly requested by the president. The senate also confirms the President's nomination of senior diplomats, members of the federal cabinet, federal judicial appointments and independent federal commissions. The House and Senate must agree before any bill is passed as law, which in turn must receive the President's approval. Should the President delay or veto the bill, the Assembly may pass the law by two-thirds of both chambers and overrule the veto and the President's consent will not be required.

Name of Judicial Branch: Supreme Court (judges recommended by the National Judicial Council and appointed by the President); Federal Court of Appeal (judges are appointed by the federal government from a pool of judges recommended by the National Judicial Council). The Supreme Court is the highest court of the land. One important new feature to the judiciary is an appellate court for Sharia law in Abuja and any other state that wishes to establish one. If a case involves issues that touch on Islam, either the plaintiff or defendant can refer it to these religious courts rather than the secular courts.

Bureaucracy/ Cabinet: Nigeria has a lot - a lot of bureaucracy. Has the typical federal, state and local levels. Many committees exist in Nigeria.
cabinet: Federal Executive Council
the President and his ministers form the Federal Executive Council, with the President as the Chairman. This body initiates the policies and programs of the Federal Government and ensures that they are properly implemented after they have been passed into law.

Political Recruitment: The difference between the elites and average citizens is very pronounced and politically important in Nigeria. There is a category of political and bureaucratic officials who have used their positions for personal gain and who, have been able to protect their wealth and power under civilian and military rule. Nigerian elite are willing to violate rules of the democracy, this was especially seen in the first two republics, and overstep their authority wen the military was in power. This corruption among the elite went beyond any particular religious, ethnic or regional group.

Other important institutions:
There are four distinct systems of law in Nigeria:
▪ English law which is derived from its colonial past with Britain;
▪ Common law, a development of its post colonial independence;
▪ Customary law which is derived from indigenous traditional norms and practice, including the dispute resolution meetings of pre-colonial Yorubaland secret societies;
▪ Sharia law, used only in the predominantly Muslim north of the country. It is an Islamic legal system which had been used long before the colonial administration in Nigeria but recently politicised and spearheaded in Zamfara in late 1999 and eleven other states followed suit.

Media: Nigeria has one of the most vibrant media scenes in Africa, with a reasonably free press throughout most of the country's history. The media is often referred to as the fourth estate or the "societal watchdog," and has the responsibility to "uphold the accountability of the Government to the people," as outlined in the 1999 constitution. There are hundreds of newspapers and magazines that reflect a wide range of opinions on nearly every issue, though the key to feedback in Nigeria is the country's radio and television outlets. Few Nigerians are literate enough to read a newspaper or wealthy enough to afford to buy one. 

Legitimacy: Legitimacy in Nigeria has varied greatly between charismatic and rational-legal throughout the country's rather tumultuous history. Its history can be divided between four established republics with constitutional justification for leadership and periods of military rule established without much regard for the legal system. Weakness of the Nigerian state has contributed greatly to this phenomenon, as the institutions (with the exception of the civil service) have rarely lasted more than a few years. 

Features of Constitution: The current Nigerian constitution was written in 1999, shortly after that year's elections. Unique features of the constitution include the prohibition of official State religion (1.2.10), the mode of altering provisions of the constitution (2.9.1 - the National Assembly may do so with relative ease), and the inclusion of a section regarding national ethics (2.23 - discipline, integrity, dignity of labor, social justice, religious toleration, self-reliance, and patriotism). 

Ethnic Cleavages: There are about 374 ethnic groups in Nigeria, though the three major ones make up roughly 65% of the population. These major groups include the mostly orthodox Muslim Hausa-Fulani of the north, the Yoruba of the west, and the Igbo of the southeast. The dominance of the population by these three ethnic groups was accentuated by the governmental structure of the 1950s, which gave each major group its own region. As a result, Nigeria has witnessed the development of three major political and ethnic cleavages: (i) between the Muslim north and the Christian south (this includes the gender cleavage - in the north, women are subject to the prejudices of Shari'a Law), (ii) between the three major ethnic groups, and (iii) between the three major ethnic groups and the minor ethnic groups. Ethnicity structures life within Nigeria - where people live, what they believe in, how they conduct their lives, how jobs are allocated, and whom they support politically. The issue has also made it hard for democracy to survive, and has led to the coups of 1966, 1983, and 1993, countless riots, and the civil war of 1967-70. 

Role of Political Elites: The group of political elites in Nigeria has been what amounts to a bourgeois class whose wealth stems from the control of the state. These political and bureaucratic officials have often used their positions for personal gain, and have managed to protect their wealth and power under civilian and military rule alike. Above all, they are willing to violate rules of the democratic game in the name of greed. 

Historical Evolution of Political Traditions:

1. British Colonial Rule: Great Britain did not plan on establishing a colony in Nigeria until after the Berlin conference of 1885, during which European powers tried to mediate their differences by establishing official spheres of influence in the African continent. In 1914 the British created a single Nigerian colony, but ruled the north and the south separately and by different means (indirect in the north, direct in the south), which deepened already existing divisions within the area. Historically, the British are said to have "created" Nigeria as well as "undeveloped" it. Up to the point of colonial rule, Nigeria had been able to produce enough food to feed all its people, and had a functional system of manufacturing and trade. The British destroyed that, creating difficulties that the country is still trying to overcome. Colonial rule also created "tribes" where none had previously existed, thus providing the basis for vehicles that would eventually serve as the base of support for the parties that would steer Nigeria toward independence.
2. Independence: The road to independence was a gradual and surprisingly peaceful one. Great Britain acknowledged earlier movements toward self-government (championed by the Nigerian National Democratic Party of 1923, the 1938 Nigerian Youth Movement Charter, and the 1944 National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons) once the end of World War II made independence for all colonies inevitable. As a result, they staggered the development towards an independent Nigerian state in a way that laid solid foundations without incurring a revolution. In 1946, the British began the transition to Nigerian self-government by promulgating a constitution that created assemblies for each region, solidifying borders that would later create problems for the state. 1948 hailed the "Nigerianization" of the civil service, and the 1950s brought two more constitutions that established a federal structure. In 1959, the first federal election under universal suffrage was held, and Nigeria became an independent country within the British Commonwealth of Nations on October 1, 1960.
3. Creation of the Fourth Republic: Military leader Sani Abacha took power in 1993, beginning Nigeria's most repressive and corrupt rule. The government was famous for its extensive purges, imprisonments, and executions, as well as its poor economic policies and other human rights violations. Five years into its reign, the military began to lose its grip on power. The final nail was driven into the coffin when Abacha died mysteriously in the summer of 1998 and his successor, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, made it clear that he was not planning to perpetuate military rule. He created a timetable for the recreation of political parties and set a date for a free election, which took place in 1999. Obasanjo was put into office as president, officially establishing Nigeria's Fourth Republic. The centerpiece of the new federal system is its American-stye presidency, which does not have to answer to the National Assembly.

Key Political Leaders:

• Nnamdi Azikiwe: Azikiwe got his start in Nigerian politics as an ardent supporter of Nigerian nationalism in the period before the country's independence, and was crucial to the movement as a result of his creation of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons in 1944. He was the first president of Nigeria, holding the office from 1963 until 1966. His political philosophy is known as Zikism, and includes the following elements: spiritual balance, social regeneration, economic determinism, mental emancipation, and political resurgence.
• Olusegun Obasanjo: His first term in office was as a military leader from 1976 to 1979, during which he was known for his political repression and rapid industrialization. Years later, as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, he won the presidential elections of 1999 and 2003 in Nigeria's Fourth Republic. He has spent the bulk of his presidency trying to reduce the power concentrated in the hands of any one individual as well as reduce the chances of the military ever returning to power, thus gaining tepid support from the West for Nigeria's new democracy. Obasanjo has also made a major attempt to reduce corruption in the government, earning the international community's first stamp of approval in 2005. Under him, the Nigerian economy has noticed an increase in its growth rate, improving along with the rising prices of oil under better government management.
• Umaru Yar'Adua: Yar'Adua is the current president of Nigeria and a member of the Peoples Democratic Party. His 2007 election caused international controversy with allegations of vote-rigging (he was the handpicked successor of Obasanjo). He pledged to continue the economic and social reforms made under Obasanjo's rule, though there is little concern that he is a puppet of the former president. 

Political Parties:

• People's Democratic Party: This centrist political party has won the elections of 1999, 2003, and 2007 in Nigeria, earning it the title of the dominant party of the Fourth Republic. The PDP favors free-market policies which support economic liberalism and limited government regulation, and maintains a conservative stance on social issues on "moral and religious" grounds. Under the rule of the PDP, Nigeria has witnessed a decrease in government spending due to conservative fiscal policies as well as the deregulation and privatization of numerous industries in the service sector. However, the PDP does have a more leftist stance towards poverty and welfare, as is demonstrated by its creation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which ensures that every Nigerian has access to basic healthcare services.
• All Nigeria People's Party: This conservative political party is the household party of the extreme north, primarily due to its mass appeal. As the strongest opposition party in Nigeria, it controls seven of the thirty-six Nigerian states, and works to maintain the status quo of radical politics in the country.
• Action Congress: In 2006, several minor parties merged to form this classical liberal political party in order to put up a stronger front of opposition to the PDP. The basis of this party's platform is freedom, free markets, and limited government, with an emphasis on basic human rights. Its self-proclaimed core values are "honor and dignity of man and his God-given rights to life, property, freedom and happiness, equity and social justice, and private enterprise."  

Citizens: There is little that Nigerians like about their political system. In 2002 an Afroscope survey found that sixty-eight percent of Nigerians believed that "democracy is preferable to any other kind of government." However this new support for democracy has not transcended into support for any of the country's regimes. Nigerians have grown more skeptical and cynical. Nigeria is one of the worlds most fragmented along with overlapping religious and ethnic lines. Nigerians do think of themselves as Nigerian;however, their ethnic identification matters more as a source of pride. Most Nigerians live in abject poverty and the gap between rich and poor has grown dramatically. In rural NIgeria almost everyone accepts the hierarchical relationships when it comes to politics. However in cities observers are highly politicized and people are willing to take a stand on almost any issue at any time. They are also full of highly dissatisfied people, alienated form the government that cannot provide jobs, healthcare or housing.

Interest Groups:

Professional Associations

These associations were the most established interest groups in the country and included the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), the Nigerian Society of Engineers, the Nigerian Economic Society, and the Nigerian Political Science Association. Many of these associations were mainly concerned with matters relating to the professional interests of their members. In pursuing professional concerns, however, they articulated and demanded important political actions. Between 1983 and 1985, for example, the NMA called a strike of medical doctors to demand an improvement in health care delivery. Its leaders were detained and the union banned until 1986. The NBA has been at the forefront of the movement for the observance of the rule of law and human rights in Nigeria. Most other associations held annual conferences at which positions were taken on national issues. The most distinguishing characteristics of professional associations were their elitist and urban base, and the nonviolent pursuit of their interests.

Trade Unions

The central trade union in the country was the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), which was formed in 1975 as the umbrella trade union and recognized by Decree Number 44 of 1976 as the sole representative of all trade unions in the country. The NLC had a national executive and secretariat, as well as state councils in all states. It had more than 100 affiliated unions. Although most labor matters were channeled through the NLC, the affiliate unions had engaged individually in union activities, such as strikes and lockouts. In the 1980s, the NLC was torn apart by leadership struggles, ideological differences, and other regional conflicts. The NLC nearly broke up in 1988 after disagreements over elections of its leadership, resulting in the federal government's appointing an administrator for several months. The NLC organized a nationwide workers' strike in 1986 to demand the retention of government subsidies on petroleum products and continued to articulate workers' demands on matters such as minimum wages and improved welfare conditions. Several other trade unions were also active. A few, such as the Academic Staff Union of Universities, were proscribed for alleged antigovernment activities.

Women's Organizations

Nigeria had several women's organizations, most of them professional and social clubs. The umbrella organization, recognized as the voice of women on national issues, was the National Council of Women's Societies (NCWS). Many of the women's groups were affiliated with the NCWS, which tended to be elitist in organization, membership, and orientation. Another major women's association was Women in Nigeria, composed primarily of university women and inclined toward Western feminist views. Conservative Nigerian Muslim women in the late 1970s began to indicate discontent with the liberal trends of these two organizations and in the mid-1980s created the Federation of Muslim Women's Associations of Nigeria, which had about 400 member bodies throughout the country. In the 1980s, women from lower social strata in the towns, represented mainly by the market women's associations, became militant and organized mass protests and demonstrations in several states. Their major grievances ranged from narrow concerns such as allocation of market stalls to broader issues such as increased school fees.

Other Interest Groups

Other notable interest groups included social clubs and fraternities, old boys' and alumni associations, and various voluntary associations. On the whole, the activities of interest groups and the roles they played in national politics depended on how narrow or broad the group's interests were, the resources available to it, its ties with those in authority, its affiliation with other groups, and the ideological character of its membership. The major interest groups were elitist, but other groups were also active at times.

Economic System: The Nigerian Economy is not good. While there have been moments of growth the country has not been able to improve the conditions of most of its citizens lives. Nigeria has a typical economy for a third world country. Most Nigerians live in utter poverty and it's economy is largely based on the export of "primary" products and the import of some food, most manufactured goods and almost all investment capital. This leaves third world countries vulnerable because it is so reliant on items whose prices fluctuate on the market. Nigeria's largest export is oil. Many observers expect oil revenues to turn Nigeria into one of Africa's, and perhaps the worlds, leading economic powers. The economy went into a tailspin in the mid 1980s and has not been able to recover, even though it adopted the structural adjustment policies of the International Monetary Fund,World Bank. Most urban Nigerians choose to trade on the black market than use the currency of Nigeria. In the 1980's Nigeria received considerable aid from both governmental and private sectors, which it used to help build universities, factories and modernize cities. Nigeria opened The Aladja mill, but it ultimately failed. The Nigerian government played a major role in this and other projects. Skilled labor is in short supply. Replacement parts and repairs are too expensive and Nigeria's corruption extends into the economy as well as politics. Even agriculturally even though more roads, support services, irrigation and machinery are resent agricultural production has not increased that much. There is very little quality control in what is produced and marketed, and like everything else corrupt trading has ruined the market. In the oil fields, Foreign investors can now own a fifty percent share of existing enterprises and a controlling ownership, or in some cases, total ownership. Debt remains high, and interest on the loans continues to destroy the governments annual budget. Nigeria's small increasingly wealthy elite are doing well. Economic inequalities have increased, and structural adjustment plans provide few, if any, incentives for the beneficiaries of economic growth to deal with poverty and the many other social problems.

First World/ Third World: Third World
Nigeria has never come close to creating an effective government or a modern economy despite all the human and natural resources within its boarders. Five socioeconomic indicators that place NIgeria in this category are: illiteracy, ethnic strife, corruption, underdevelopment, and environmental decay.

Supranational Organizations: Nigeria was a founding member of the Organization for African Unity (now the African Union), and has tremendous influence in West Africa and Africa on the whole. Nigeria has additionally founded regional cooperative efforts in West Africa, functioning as standard-bearer for ECOWAS and ECOMOG, economic and military organizations respectively.With this African-centred stance, Nigeria readily sent troops to the Congo at the behest of the United Nations shortly after independence (and has maintained membership since that time); Nigeria also supported several Pan African and pro-self government causes in the 1970s, including garnering support for Angola's MPLA, SWAPO in Namibia, and aiding anti-colonial struggles in Mozambique, and Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) military and economically.
Nigeria retains membership in the Non-Aligned Movement, and in late November 2006 organized an Africa-South America Summit in Abuja to promote what some attendees termed "South-South" linkages on a variety of fronts. Nigeria is also a member of the International Criminal Court, and the Commonwealth of Nations, from which it was temporarily expelled in 1995 under the Abacha regime.Nigeria has remained a key player in the international oil industry since the 1970s, and maintains membership in Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries OPEC which it joined in July, 1971. Its status as a major petroleum producer figures prominently in its sometimes vicissitudinous international relations with both developed countries, notably the United States and more recently China and developing countries, notably Ghana, Jamaica and Kenya.

Public Policy:

• Move toward better governing and a fight against corruption: Since the audit of the oil and gas industry by the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative for the period 1999-2004 was completed corrective steps have been taken, including the appointment of auditors to audit the oil and gas sector for 2005 and 2006. Following the successful and sustained fight against corruption, advanced fee fraud, and cyber crimes by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nigeria has been removed from the list of non-compliant countries. The authorities want the legislation passed to help reforms that are supposed to create a better environment for the people, economic growth, poverty reduction and development. The need to speed up action in passing the bills into laws being held up because they want the bills to be discussed and agreed not only by the National Assembly and civil servants in the federal and state governments, but also to have local governments and rural population make inputs as the laws will be enforced nation-wide.
  

• Improving spending: The authorities are intensifying structural reforms in many areas, including introduction of medium-term sector planning, procurement and accounting processes to improve the quality of spending. The Medium-term Sector Strategies (MTS), through which the 2007 budget requests of 18 major federal government agencies, accounting for 75 percent of all outlays, were harmonized, form the basis for integrating the goals of the National Economic Program and the MDGs. The strategy is aimed at enhancing cost-benefit analysis of spending and greater coordination with state governments. A procurement manual has been prepared to reinforce due-process procedures. Implementation of projects is actively monitored before payments are released. Reforms in accounting are also continuing, and the Automated Transaction and Reporting System is being rolled out to additional agencies to strengthen their operations, while funding will be withheld from agencies that do not produce monthly reports. On the monetary side, the Central Bank is exploring ways of developing improved strategy for managing international reserves as new regulations allow domestic banks to partner with international banks to manage a portion of official reserves.
  

• Privatization:For government to establish and invest in state-owned companies is no longer considered sound economic policy worldwide. According to President Obasanjo, there are over 1000 state-owned enterprises in Nigeria. There are some reasons for the Nigerian government to consider selling or leasing these public enterprises. Some of these reasons are:

-Virtually all-public enterprises are inefficient. In spite of billion naira spent
on them, they yield no good results in terms of satisfying customers. It is
estimated that annual returns on them have been well below 10 per cent.
- They are ravaged by corruption as a result of which governments are losing
billions of naira.
-To achieve improved government efficiency by lessening the burden on the
shoulders of the government through privatization.
- To achieve improved efficiency of the affected firms.
-To reduce the resources controlled by the government because it has been
observed that government in Nigeria consume too many resources while
their level of responsiveness to the people is low.
- To achieve increased government revenue because in the first place,
purchase of government firms and shares would make much money
available to the government. A drastic reduction of subsidy due to
deregulation would also enable the government to conserve its funds.

In spite of many reasons for privatization, some people still believe it will
not serve the interest of a greater number of Nigerians. Greater opposition
comes from workers’ unions. Some scholars are also against privatization purely
on ideological grounds.
According to those who oppose privatization,
- it will lead to workers losing their jobs.
- Nigerians will suffer as a result of increased service charges.
- Most of the public utilities are national heritage, collective
property whose transfer to private hands will not be in the nation’s
interest.
- Privatization of large monopolies like NEPA, Liquefied gas project
seaports etc may not lead to competition.