Politics in Nigeria
The years since independence in 1960 have included 20 years of military rule in Nigeria. After several abortive attempts to move towards democracy, political liberation was finally ushered in by a return to civilian rule in April 1999. Olusegun Obasanjo was elected president of Nigeria for a second term in April 2003. He has been credited as the first African military leader to relinquish power to a civilian government. Despite difficulties, the political structure is maturing, with the current government attempting to respect the rule of law, whilst developing more transparent governance and engaging in reform.
The Nigeria system of government is based on the British model of two chambers of parliament, modified to accommodate a Presidential system with three arms of government, the Executive (President and cabinet), Legislature (upper and lower house), and Judiciary. There are now a total of 30 political parties, led by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alliance for Democracy (AD) and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
Political freedom has allowed ethnic and religious groups to express their frustrations but on many occasions this has been done violently, causing thousands of deaths, destruction of property, and environmental pollution. And long traditions of political corruption are proving resistant to reform.
The Nigeria system of government is based on the British model of two chambers of parliament, modified to accommodate a Presidential system with three arms of government, the Executive (President and cabinet), Legislature (upper and lower house), and Judiciary. There are now a total of 30 political parties, led by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alliance for Democracy (AD) and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
Political freedom has allowed ethnic and religious groups to express their frustrations but on many occasions this has been done violently, causing thousands of deaths, destruction of property, and environmental pollution. And long traditions of political corruption are proving resistant to reform.
Nigeria’s federal and state elections in 2003 and local government elections in 2004 were marred by serious incidents of violence, says Human Rights Watch. The scale of the violence and intimidation, much of which went unreported, called into question the credibility of these elections. The Report urges measures to prevent violence in the next general elections in Nigeria scheduled for 2007.
more...From: Human Rights Watch |
The decision has been made by the Swiss Ministry of Justice to hand over most of the funds from the ex-dictator's frozen account, now determined to have originated from criminal sources, to the Nigerian government. For its part, Nigeria has agreed to use the assets to finance development projects under Swiss supervision.
more...Related topics/regions: [Nigeria] [Switzerland] [Corruption & transparency] |
Printable version
Back to top
