The Future of Nigeria’s Democracy

Presidential elections in Nigeria are the most interesting of all elections in the Fourth Republic of Nigeria because the office is vested with excessive powers and presidents are informally centralised and powerful. Often, many voters participate in presidential elections and abstain in other elections because they are under the mistaken impression that influential policies and decisions are the exclusive preserve of the office of the president. All efforts to explain to voters how the Nigerian political structure works have failed. As a federal state, powers are theoretically divided among three units of government, but in practice, the two tiers; federal and states administer the powers, while the local government is disempowered and completely taken over by the states. Also, the doctrine of separation of powers and checks and balances between the executive, legislature and judiciary as enshrined in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution assigns only limited powers to the President, as his activities and decisions are usually subject to scrutiny by the legislature and, if necessary, interpretation by the judiciary.