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Journal VOL. 1 NO. 2, September. 2020, ISSN: 2714 - 4054

 

Political Institutions and Governance in Nigeria: Assessing Local Governments in the Fourth Republic

Adeniyi Oluwasegun Thaddaeus

 

ABSTRACT

Institutions are the formal and informal rules that organise social, political and economic relations.. They are the systems of ‘established and prevalent social rules that structure social interactions. Political institutions are symbols of a nation’s political system and they teach us about how politics work in a nation. The political system of Nigeria is based on freedom, equality and the citizen’s participation viz political associations and parties. The politics takes place in a framework of a federal presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President is both Head of State and Head of Government, in a multiparty system of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of the National Assembly. The highest judicial arm of government in Nigeria is the Supreme Court of Nigeria. The Nigerian government institutional structure is made up of three tiers, which are the federal, state, and the local government. The three of them are involved in delivering dividends of democracy to the people. There are 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the country. Their functions are clearly spelt out in the Constitution. This paper has argued that the design of political institutions influences politics as it relates to Nigeria. The methodology adopted to prosecute this paper is qualitative based on historical, institutional and comparative inquiry.

 

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