AP Comparative Government Nigeria

Republic of Biafra

Igbo-dominated Eastern Region seceded from Nigeria in May 1967.

General Ibrahim Babangida and General Sani Abacha

Generals who dominated the period of military rule after 1983 for a decade and a half.

Zoning

Informal system of presidential rotation, established by PDP leaders, in which the party alternates every two terms nominating candidates from the north and the south.

Sharia

Islamic Law.

All Progressives Congress (APC)

Largest opposition party that elected Buhari. Now majority party

Hausa and Fulani

Muslim ethnic groups concentrated in the north.

Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe

Political leader who emerged following WWII who established the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC). First President of Nigeria

Third Republic

Presidential elections were held in 1993 but Babangida annulled the results.

Federal Character Principle

Quota system in which the Nigerian constitution requires president to appoint ministers from each of the states of the Nigerian republic.

National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS)

Reform program launched in 2003 to improe Nigeria's prospects for economic development.

Boko Haram

Terrorist organization in the north, associated with the rise of Islamic insurgency.

Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND)

Umbrella organization whose more or less loosely connected militant subgroups have engaged in "bunkering" oil.

Ken Saro-Wiwa

Writer and environmentalist who was a critic of the regime and of the Shell Oil Company's role in Nigeria.

Muhammadu Buhari

Young general who is the current Nigerian president (since 2015).

Second Republic

After the new constitution was enacted in 1979. Presidential System

Sokoto Caliphate

1804 when Usman had declared jihad against the Hausa states and established this caliphate.

Niger Delta

Best known region where the Niger River enters the sea.

Igbo (also spelled Ibo)

Christian ethnic group concentrated in the southeast.

Olusegun Obasanjo

Former Military General who won the presidency during the 4th Republic. Tried for a third term

President Umaru Yar'Adua

Died in office before Goodluck Jonathan first assumed presidency.

People's Democratic Party (PDP)

Dominant party designed to enhance the legitimacy of presidential elections when the country returned to democracy in 1999.

Resource Curse

Economic difficulties exist not so much in spite of its oil resources but largely because of them.

Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP)

Established by Ken Saro-Wiwa in the 1990s to defend the interests of the Ogoni that employed a variety of legal and extralegal political tactics.

First Republic

Established on October 1, 1960 when Nigeria formally gained its independence.

Goodluck Jonathan

Ethnic Ijaw Christian from southern Nigeria. Former President

Yoruba

Ethnic group that inhabits the southwest whose members are divided among Christian, Muslim, and local animist faiths.

Scramble for Africa

European powers asserting their authority in inland Africa after the Berlin Conference.

Derivation Formula

Expansion of oil revenues leading to increased disputes over the national distribution of these funds.

Fourth Republic

Obasanjo rose to power as the first head of state.