THE GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA.

Nigeria is a Federal Republic with a Presidential system of government in which there is an Executive, a Legislature and a Judiciary, where each acts as a check and balance on the powers of the other two arms.

The country is governed in accordance with the provisions of a constitution, which affirms that Nigeria is one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign state, whose constituent units are bound together by a federal arrangement. The constitution further provides for the operation of three tiers of government occurring at the Federal, State and Local levels.

The Executive is made up of the Presidency and the executive council of the federation.

 The Legislature combines a bicameral system which comprises the upper and lower chambers of the Senate and House of Representatives respectively. The Senate is headed by the Senate President, while the House of Representatives is headed by the Speaker of the House. These two chambers make up a unit called THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. The House of Representatives has 360 members who are elected for four years in a single seat constituency. The Senate on the other hand, has 109 members, of which 108 members are elected for a four year term in three seat constituencies, and 1 from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Judiciary is made up of the Supreme Court, which is the highest court of the land; the Court of Appeal; High courts; Magistrate courts; Customary and Sharia courts. Basically, there are four systems of law in Nigeria, namely;

·       English law, derived from the colonial rulership

·       Common law

·       Customary law, derived from indigenous traditional norms and practices.

·       Sharia law mostly practiced in the northern part of the country.

The Supreme court is presided over by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, and thirteen other Justices appointed by the President of Nigeria, based on the recommendations of the National Judicial Council, subject to approval of the Senate.

Before the advent of the Presidential system of government in Nigeria, the military government came into play at different times, where one was toppled over by the other through military coups. The military government of Nigeria is divided into two:

On 15^th January, 1966, a group of majors, led by Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu, over threw the current Prime Minister, Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in a coup d’etat. In this Junta, Major General Aguiyi Ironsi was made the Head of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria. He was in power for only six months, and was murdered in a coup which brought in General Yakubu Gowon as his successor. The latter held power between 1966 and 1975, and was also overthrown in a bloodless coup by a group of soldiers who wanted the civilian system of government; and as such, General Murtala Mohammed succeeded him. Murtala was assassinated in a coup in 1976, after being in power for a year and General Olusegun Obasanjo succeeded him, and remained in power for three years until 1979 when he handed power to Alhaji Shehu Shagari, who began the second republic.

However, Shehu Shagari was overthrown in a bloodless coup in 1983, and General Mohammadu Buhari, who was appointed chairman of the Supreme Military Council of Nigeria, succeeded him. General Buhari remained in power for two years until 1985, when General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida overthrew him. Babangida appointed himself the President of the Armed Forces Ruling Council of Nigeria, and ruled Nigeria until 1993. In the same year, a democratic election was conducted of which M.K.O. Abiola was the president-elect, but General Babangida over to the interim Head of State, Mr. Ernest Shonekan, who remained in power for two months, after which he was overthrown by General Sanni Abacha, who appointed himself as the chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council of Nigeria. After General Abacha’s death in 1998, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar took over and ruled until 1999 when a democratic election was conducted, bringing Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo(rtd) again into power, as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Obasanjo ruled from 1999 through 2007 for two terms of four years each, and later passed it to Umaru Musa Yar’adua, who was democratically elected as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and ruled Nigeria until his death in 2010.

Presently, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is the President and Commander-in –chief of the Armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, after a free and fair election conducted in 2011.