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Nigeria is a Federal Republic with a presidential system divided into 36 states (1 Federal Capital Territory) run by governors. However, the polity is only Federal in name, the reality is that Nigeria runs a unitary system with States having very little autonomy over their policies. In the current structure States depend on Federal budgetary allocation which is sadly heavily dependent on Crude Oil revenue. This structure leaves resources; iron-ore especially in total waste. It also the main reason why bureaucracy is killing policy implementation.

Nigeria runs a multi-party democracy. Unlike the first world, parties are not divided along ideological lines, they are rather divided along ethnic lines, this trend is however slowing down as the poverty stricken majority are beginning to see through the facade of ethnocentrism. The reason why parties are divided along ethnic lines is because the country itself was created as a Marriage of Convenience by the British. This union is not necessarily a bad thing but not many people affected by the Union had a say in it. This is the root cause of the multiple secessionist movements in the country. With power left coming from the Federal Capital Territory and a boat of bureaucracy in between states and Federal institutions, people’s lives are rarely affected by policy, in fact most Nigerians cannot quote a single line from the constitution, many more do not know the names of their representatives (Senate and Congress) neither do they care.

So why don’t they care ?

Because of that divide, as mentioned earlier, many indigenous people did not have a say in the formation of the country in the 1960s, the decision was made by money powers of the time. As such, Nigerian society has never actually been able to reconcile precolonial political structures (Kings, nobles, Emirs etc) with modern democracy (government for the people by the people), traditional institutions still heavily influence Nigerian politics even though both institutions differ in ideology. For example, traditional institutions for example do not believe in the phrase “all men are born equal”, that phrase renders their existence useless. This is the most evident nature of Naija politics. So in the end what you have is a country trying to implement democracy on a centralized mindset.

Finally, Nigerian politics is not inclusive, people are not aware of the power they possess. There is no centralized database of citizens, population figures are not accurate either and there is no resource to see which bills are being passed or which projects are meant for which allocation, although firms like BudgIT try to bridge the gap, the country remains in a state of “anyhowness”. In fact the language of instruction (English) is not the language the people fully understand. You have most people being represented by people who do not necessarily relate with their daily struggle so it all boils down to that divide mentioned above.

I hope this made some sense. Thanks.