The History And Downfalls Of Nigeria Essay

Beaming sunrays, beautiful trees, and wild animals sound like the vacation of a lifetime. The country of Nigeria has all of these things plus plenty more to offer. Nigeria is located on the warm, dry, tropic continent of Africa. Unique foods, bright and colorful clothing, rythme filled dances come to mind when I think of Nigeria. Some people on the other hand would like to enjoy a warm fire place with a cup of hot creamy cocoa and soft fuzzy blankets in a winter lodge of Denmark. Sometimes A soft fur, games, food and being surrounded by family is all person need to call their vacation complete. Two different places with an abundance of beauty waiting to be seen.

Two futures for Africa are possible-one with a democratic and stable Nigeria, and one with a Nigeria stricken by autocratic rule, corruption, and intermittent coups. An entire continent awaits the result of the Nigerian experiment with democracy. Nigeria has the resources and can provide leadership to foster greater regional and international cooperation, leadership that many of Nigeria's neighbors need. A successful Nigerian democracy would provide hope for many of Africa's other burgeoning democracies.

Evidence of this first presented itself after Aguiyi-Ironsi dissolved the regional governments of Nigeria after the initial military coup of 1966 (Falola 1999, 118). His Unification Decree incited outrage among Nigerians, whose lives were based upon opportunities granted to them by their provincial governments (Falola 1999). The federal government rewarded members of the provinces’ ethno-political elite with

Election violence builds fear to Africans to participate in voting, whereby several African countries’ elections are characterized by violence. During the 2003 Federal and State elections in Nigeria, at least 100 people were killed and approximately 600 people

The Republic of Niger, a poor, landlocked country, located in the heart of Sub-Saharan West Africa. Niger has seen its fair share of change throughout the decades; moving away from the control of the French Parliament in 1960, Niger formally declared its independence. Despite this bold act of independence, Niger would not see its first steps towards democracy until the early 1990’s, when they held their first open election as a free state. However, even with the empowerment of the people in a democratic government, Niger has seen itself nearly torn apart as a result constant coups, that have occurred as recently as 2010. Such instability has led to incredulous amounts of corruption and poverty, within the Niger government. This lack of stability and constant turnover in government, has been a driving factor behind the lack of resources available for education in Niger.

Nigeria has become the fastest growing country in Africa, its coastal ports are the heart and soul of its economy. Since its creation by the British Empire, there has been a civil breakdown and conflict among its tribal leaders. However, their religious understanding between Islam and Christianity has kept them at peace amidst themselves throughout time. The last few years, the government has developed itself into a functioning federation, the people are able to notice how outside influence has improved their daily lives.

In recent times, a lot of countries in Africa practice a federal system of government where a mandated person is elected and in power for four years, but will not leave power because of corruption and oppression, making it difficult to create a room for a change. Most presidents will remain in power for decade’s threatening its people, oppressing and creating division amongst its citizens, thus democracy is abused. Most times, the president of 80% of countries in Africa, divert funds for its state and country into their own personal accounts, leaving people to die of

Okeke,2014. Pressure groups and policy process in Nigeria: a case of fourth republic. Nigeria: Vincent Onyekwelu Su

Having read your write ups, it is obvious that you are blaming the atrocities laziest people in Nigeria perpetuate on those in authority. To a large extent, I disagree with you. Inasmuch as the majority of those in authority are corrupt, I don't think that is a reason for justifying laziness, greediness, and evil that people commit. If the government had done everything it could to establish a healthy environment for Nigerians, so many people would have yet indulged in atrocities. Nigeria is an environment in which the majority of the inhabitants wants to be rich overnight, and that is what gave birth to the corruption we witness today at all levels of government and institutions in Nigeria. However, in the midst of the unhealthy environment

The first was the weak sense of nationalism caused by all the ethnic groups where religion played a major part of the division. The main three ethnicities in Nigeria are Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo; the former is Muslim while the two latter are Christians. The second cause mentioned was the “divide and rule” which was a British tactic to employ ethnic groups against one another, and thus “helped ensure that ethnicity would be the main line of political cleavage after Nigeria became an independent country.” The third cause is the personal rule system based on “big men” and what this means is that Nigerian’s who worked for the British used their personal relationships to gain power and wealth, and in a certain way it is still used today in the Nigerian government. The fourth devastating cause was the “creation of an increasingly active and interventionist state during WWII and after until its independence in 1960, but that opened the doors to patronage, which would be used to gain political power and wealth. The past reveals the problems Nigeria has had for several decades, some of which have not disappeared but seem to get progressively worse. (CITATION)

Nigeria is an Agricultural and oil rich nation but characterised by Political instability, corruption, poor

Corruption can be defined as the use of entrusted power to accumulate public wealthy for personal benefit. Corruption is not peculiar to any country, continent or state; it is sure a global issue which is an endemic to all government all over the world. However, corruption is prevalent in the Niger delta region of Nigeria; public officers in this oil producing state of Nigeria are corrupt. Consequently, it has defied the Niger delta from developing politically and economically which has left the states reputation in a mess. Radicalization of youths, abject poverty and -political instability are the three leading effects of corruption in the Niger delta region of Nigeria.

This research work is divided into nine chapters. Chapter one introduces the thesis holistically, sets out the research objectives, research questions, methodologies, theoretical framework, research structure and reviews relevant literature related to the work. Chapter two considers the historical antecedents of grand corruption in Nigeria setting out why it has remained systemic and has proved so difficult to combat. Chapter three examines the Nigerian legal instruments on corruption and the nexus between grand corruption and human rights abuses. Emphasis is laid on the two major anti-corruption agencies: the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission in contextualizing the argument of the chapter. Chapter

In order to paint a comprehensive picture of elections as a catalyst of violence and discord it's important to distinguish this type of political violence as it differs in its timing and motivation. Election violence experienced in the democratization process of african states can be categorized as either incidental or strategic. The latter can take place pre or post elections and the former may occur as a result on pre existing tensions that is often triggered by an incident. Incidental violence is which can occur pre and post elections and often triggered by political impropriety and forms on the basis of timing, intent, target and actors and without much strategy and lack thereof planning a clash between protesters or rival

Patronage has been identified as an endemic characteristic of politics in Africa, that pre-vails despite the process of both modernization and democratization. Denoted as one of the causes for underdevelopment we have attached negative connotations to patronage and have failed to question why patronage is present in politics and its importance. With this prevailing narrative, we must question if patronage is ever present feature of African politics? And if it is always present for the same reasons? In this essay, I argue that pat-ronage is not an ever-present feature of African politics but rather a byproduct of mod-ernization that changes as a function of the type of state (Kopecký and Mair, 2011). The form of patronage takes varies depending economic structure and the nature of political environments (Van de Walle June 2007). This paper shall give two different examples of patronage for political survival, one focusing on Nigeria’s polarized chief patronage and the other on Zambian centralized patronage political stability. This will illustrate that pat-ronage can take many forms and be present in different political context despite similar conditions.