Citizens, Society, and the State
- The people of Nigeria have some huge challenges in establishing democratic ties with their government.
- Many societal characteristics of Nigeria make democratization a challenge:
- Poverty- About 60% of all Nigerians live below the poverty line, with many people in absolute poverty without the means to survive
- Large gap between the rich and the poor- Like Mexico, the distribution of income in Nigeria is very unequal (GINI Index of .44), with a few people being very wealthy and most being very poor. However, Nigeria’s economy shows fewer signs of growth, so the outlook for closing the outlook gap is much bleaker.
- Health issues- Like many other African nations, Nigeria has high rates of HIV/AIDS with some estimating that 1 out of every 11 HIV/AIDS sufferers in the world lives in Nigeria. The toll that the disease has taken on Africa is incalculable, and the cost to the Nigerian economy, as well as to society in general, is immeasurable. The government has generally made AIDS a secondary priority, leaving much of the challenge to a small group of underfunded nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
- Literacy- Nigeria’s overall literacy rate is 68% but there is a gap between the male literacy rate at 75.7% and the female rate 60.6%. This is higher than for many other nations in Africa, but is below the world average of 87% for men, and 77% for women.
Cleavages
- Nigeria has one of the most fragmented societies in the world, with important cleavages based on ethnicity, religion, urban/rural differences, and social class.
- Nigeria is similar to Russia in that both have had to contend with ethnic-based civil wars- Russia in the ongoing conflict with Chechnya, and Nigeria with the Biafran Civil War 1967 and 1970.
- In both countries, the ethnic conflicts have undermined the basic legitimacy of the government. The consequences of these cleavages for the Nigerian political system have been grave because they have made any basic agreements about governance almost impossible.
- Ethnicity- Nigeria has between 250 and 400 separate ethnic groups with their own array of customs, languages, and religions. The three largest groups- the Hausa-Fulani, Igbo, and Yoruba- have very little in common, and generally cannot speak one another’s languages. They live separately in their own enclaves, and virtually no contacts take place among the groups.
- Religion- Nigeria has no unifying ideology unlike China and the Soviet Union, but instead its political culture is made more complex by competing religions. About half of all Nigerians are Muslim, 40% are Christian, and the remaining 10% affiliate with native religions. International tensions between Muslims and Christians are reflected in Nigeria, but their arguments are rooted in the preferential treatment that the British gave to Christians. Disputes regarding sharia law and its role in the nation’s policymaking practices reflect the significance of religious cleavages.
- Region/North vs. South- Although Nigeria’s ethnic divisions are multiple, the country was divided into Three Federated Regions in 1955, five years before independence was official. These regions follow ethnic and religious divisions, and they are the basis for setting election and legislative procedures, as well as political party affiliations. Another way to divide Nigeria is by north vs. south, with the north being primarily Muslim, and the south mainly Christian.
- Urban/Rural differences- As in many other countries, significant urban/rural differences divide Nigeria. Political organizations and interests groups exists primarily in cities, as well as newspapers and electronic media sources. Although their activities were suppressed by the annulment of the election of 1993 and the execution of rights activist and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995, most organized protests have taken place in cities.
- Social classes- The division between elites and ordinary people runs deep in Nigeria. The wealth of the elites stems from the control of the state and the resources of the country. They have maintained power through appealing to ethnic and religious identities of the people. The elites generally have found it difficult to abandon their access to the government’s treasury for personal gain, and yet the educated elite also harbors those who would like Nigeria transformed into a modern nation based on democratic principles.
- Nigeria is not yet a democracy, and despite a long history of a rich civil society, its citizens have been encouraged to relate to government as subjects, not as active participants.
- Some activities are now taking place in civil society, or the realm outside the government influence, with some professional associations, trade unions, religious groups, and various other interests groups emerging.
- Even with the presence of military rule, presidents have generally allowed a free press to exist and interest group membership to be maintained.
- Much participation, particularly in rural areas, still takes place through the patron-client system. The special brand of clientelism in Nigerian politics is known as “prebendalism”, a term borrowed from Max Weber’s concept of an extremely personalized system of rule in which all public offices are treated as personal fiefdoms.
- By creating large patronage networks based on personal loyalty, civilian officials have skewed economic and political management to such an extent that they have often discredited themselves.
- Local government officials gain support from villagers through dispensing favors, and they in turn receive favors for supporting their patron boss. Of course, most favors are exchanged among the political elite, but the pattern persists on all levels.
- With patron-clientelism comes corruption and informal influence, but it does represent an established form of political participation in Nigeria.
Civil Society
- In Nigeria’s postcolonial history, many formal interests and informal voluntary associations have actively sought to influence political decisions.
- Since 1999 many have strengthened, some serving centripetal forces, encouraging Nigerian unity, and others creating centrifugal influences, causing Nigeria to fragment along ethnic and religious lines.
- One group that has managed to do both is the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), founded by dissident Ken Saro-Wiwa in the 1990s.
- It has worked to apply national laws to secure financial benefits for the Ogoni in the Niger Delta and to hold foreign-operated oil companies to environmental standards.
- Trade unions and professional organizations have been particularly active in trying to protect the rights of their members. The National Union of Petroleum and Gas Workers (NUPENG) has been an influential voice for workers in the all-important petroleum industry.
- Formal associations for legal, medical, and journalism professionals articulate the political interests of Nigeria’s growing professional class.
- Nigerian citizens have voted in national elections since 1959, but since many elections have been cancelled or postponed by the military and others have been fraudulent, voter behavior patterns are difficult to track.
- Political parties are numerous and fluid, with most formed around the charisma of their candidates for office, so party loyalty is an imperfect reflection of voter attitudes.
- Elections on local, state, and national levels were held in 1999 and 2003, although their results appear to be fraudulent.
- One estimate is that close to 2/3 of the eligible voters actually voted in 2003, but the widespread corruption around the election make those figures highly unreliable.
- The participation rates in the 2007 election are almost impossible to calculate because of voter fraud and inability of legitimate voters to cast their ballots.
- Not surprisingly, most Nigerians have a low level of trust in their government. General Abacha was so widely disliked that there was rejoicing and celebration in the streets when he died unexpectedly in 1998, with some citizens dubbing the event a “coup from heaven”.
- Nigerians in general are skeptical about the prospects for democracy, and they do not believe that elections are conducted in a fair and honest way. Whether or not Nigerians remain cynical, however is yet to be seen.
- In the early days of independence, attitudes toward government were generally much more favorable, and many citizens expressed an identity as Nigerians, not just members of ethnic groups.
- According to the Afrobarometer survey published in 2006, 6 in 10 Africans sampled in 18 countries said that democracy was preferable to any other form of government. However, satisfaction dipped to 45% from 58% in 2001.
- Transparency International, a private organization that compiles statistics about corruption in countries around the world, usually ranks Nigeria very low in their “Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index” that they publish every year. In 2006, Nigeria ranked 142nd out of 146 countries in terms of how “clean” its government is.
- Prebendalism permeates the political system to such a degree that political participation cannot yet take place outside its influence.
- The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), a government organization set up to fight corruption removed Nuhu Ribadu from office in 2008.
- Many believe that EFCC has made real progress in addressing Nigeria’s corruption, but question whether or not the agency will be allowed to continue its investigations and arrest.
- Since the return of democracy in 1999, a number of ethnic-based and religious movements have mobilized to pressure the federal government to address their grievances.
- The international oil companies have been major targets, especially in the Niger Delta where the companies and oil fields are centered. A widely publicized protest occurred in July 2002 when a group of Ijaw women occupied ChevronTexaco’s Nigerian operations for 10 days.
- They ended when ChevronTexaco’s officials agreed to provide jobs for the women’s sons, and set up a credit plan to help village women start businesses.
- Although this protest ended peacefully, others were violently suppressed by the Obasanjo government. A major upswing of protests and unrest has occurred since early 2006, with groups organizing to attack the foreign-based oil companies.
- Armed rebel gangs have blown up pipelines, disabled pumping states, and kidnapped foreign oil workers.
- These events in Nigeria, the world’s eighth largest oil exporter, have affected international energy markets, contributing to higher prices and tighter supplies. As a result, production sites have been shut down, and some companies have left Nigeria, often blaming the government for its inability to stop the problems.
- Nigeria’s legislature has a low representation of women, with only 6.4% women in the House of Representatives, and 3.7% women in the senate. This is reflective of tradition society, although Obasanjo made it a part of his reelection campaign in 2003 to include more women in his cabinet and top bureaucratic positions. Recent figures indicate that as many as 22% of governmental bureaucrats are women.