AP Comparative Government

Challenges to Democracy Poverty About 60% of all Nigerians live below the poverty line Many are in absolute poverty, without the means to survive There are large gaps between the rich and poor Nigeria’s GINI index is 43 U.S Iran 44.5 Mexico 51.7 U.K. 40 China 47.4 Russia 41.7 World 39 Health Issues It is estimated that 1 of every 11 NIgerian has HIV/AIDS The spread of this disease has caused social and economic issues Literacy There is a very low literacy rate in Nigeria, but females (60.6%) are less literate than their male counter parts (75.7%) Both numbers are well below the world average

Cleavages Nigeria has between 250 and 400 ethnic groups The three largest are the Hausa-Fulani, Igbo, and Yoruba They have little in common and do not speak each other’s language They also have very little contact with each other Religion About half of all Nigerians are Muslim, 40% are Christian, and the remaining 10% affiliate with native religions These religious differences also make ethnic issues harder to deal with as well The hatred of Christians is rooted in the preferential treatment Christians were given under British rule

Cleavages Region/north v South In 1955, Nigeria was divided into Three Federated Regions These regions follow ethnic and religious divisions and they are the basis for election and legislative procedures They also generally show the division of party The North is primarily Muslim and the South is mainly Christian Urban/Rural differences Interest groups and political organizations mainly exist in cities This is also true of almost all media

Patron-Clientelism (Prebendalism) Nigeria practices a type of clientelism known as prebendalism This is a personalized system of rule in which all public offices are treated as personal fiefdoms This has allowed government officials to skew the government for extreme personal gain This has led to great corruption within the government

Civil society Since independence in 1999, political organizations have strengthened Unfortunately this has caused Nigeria to fracture along ethnic and religious lines Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Ken Saro-Wiwa) National Union of Petroleum and Gas Workers

Voting Behavior Voting behaviors are difficult to track because of postponements and military takeovers There are numerous political parties and they are very fluid Charisma is an extremely important characteristic for candidates It is estimated that 2/3 of eligible voters voted in the 2003 election It is widely believed though, that the 1999 and 2003 elections were fraudulent

Attitudes toward government Most Nigerians have a low level of trust in their government When General Abacha died unexpectedly the Nigerians partied in the streets and dubbed it the “coup from heaven” Democracy is a wanted commodity with 60% of Africans saying it was the best form of government Transparency International has shown that out of 146 countries, Nigeria ranks 142 nd in terms of how “clean” the government is

Corruption Perceptions Index 2010 CountryCPI ScoreRANK (178 Countries) China3980 Iran28133 Mexico34105 Nigeria27139 Russia U.K.7417

Political Participation In recent years religious, ethnic, and oil based political organizations have strongly pushed for changes in the governmental system A good number of protests have ended violently and unfortunately being violently as well Major Political Participation disruptions of oil shipping and production have taken place as well This therefore has world wide impact

After the 2011 election widespread demonstrations took place with the unhappiness that a Southerner (Goodluck Jonathan) had won the presidency twice in a row A group whose name means “western education is sinful” fought for a greater application of sharia law and attacked the north Police, churches and bars were the main targets