COUNTRY PERSPECTIVE
The shortest useful version of how power works here.
The president leads the executive separately from the National Assembly.
The president leads the executive separately from the National Assembly. Federal law-making, taxation, spending and scrutiny are shared by two elected chambers.
Each state has an elected governor and legislature.
Each state has an elected governor and legislature. The Constitution divides responsibilities, but oil revenue and national allocation make relations between federal, state and local government especially important.
Courts can review government action and election disputes.
Courts can review government action and election disputes. Independent commissions administer elections and perform other constitutional functions, although formal independence and practical capacity must be assessed separately.
Some political words change meaning across countries. These are the distinctions worth knowing first.
Nigeria’s largest parties are broad national coalitions rather than clean ideological blocs.
Nigeria’s largest parties are broad national coalitions rather than clean ideological blocs. Region, religion, ethnicity, patronage and candidate networks often cut across economic left and right.
Public anger about corruption, tax avoidance or capture by a small group can be factually justified.
Public anger about corruption, tax avoidance or capture by a small group can be factually justified. It becomes populist framing only when all legitimate disagreement is reduced to a pure people versus a wholly corrupt elite.
Enough structure to make the rest of the page intelligible.
Only the events that help explain how today’s system got here.
Nigeria became independent with a federal parliamentary constitution.
Military coups were followed by the Biafran secession and a devastating civil war.
Military rule ended and the present presidential constitutional order began.
An incumbent president lost an election and transferred power to an opposition candidate for the first time.
Current-data work still open: Current office holders · Current National Assembly and party profiles · Latest national election, turnout and dispute outcomes · Comparable democracy, security, rights and civic-space measures · Long-term indicator trends