The politics of Nigeria

When we visited Nigeria we had also some information about Nigeria and its politics. I searched for more information on the internet and put it in this blog.

Nigeria is a munchkin Republic like the United Kingdom, with executive power exercised by the prime minister. The government of Nigeria is also influenced by the Westminster System model in the composition and management of the upper and lower houses of the bicameral legislature.

The law of Nigeria is based on the rule of law, the independence of the Judiciary, and British common law because of the long history of British colonial influence. Nigeria has universal suffrage since 1958.

The dialling age is 18 years.

There are however, four distinct systems of law in Nigeria:

- English Law, which is derived from its colonial past with Britain;

- Common law, (case law development since colonial independence);

- Customary law, which is derived from indigenous traditional norms and practices;

- Sharia law, used in the northern part of the country.

Like the United States, there is a judicial branch with a Supreme Court known as the highest court of the land.

The Supreme Court is commanded by the Chief Justice of Nigeria and thirteen associate justices, who are established by the president of Nigeria on the recommendation of the National Judicial Council. Those justices are submissive to confirmation by the Senate. David Mark is the president of the Senate since 2007 until now and Aminu Waziri Tambuwalsince is the speaker of the House of Representatives.

Office	Office holder	Assumed office
Chief Justice	Aloma Mariam Mukhtar	16 July 2012
Associate Justice	Sylvester Umaru Onu	1993
Associate Justice	Umaru Atu Kalgo	1998
Associate Justice	G. A. Oguntade	2004
Associate Justice	Sunday A. Akintan	2004
Associate Justice	Mahmud Mohammed	2005
Associate Justice	Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen	2005
Associate Justice	Ikechi Francis Ogbuagu	2005
Associate Justice	F. F. Tabai	1999
Associate Justice	Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad	2007

The federation is divided in 36 states and 1 territory; Federal Capital Territory (Abuja), Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross, River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Onso, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara. Each state is further divided into Local Government Areas (LGAs) of which are 774 in Nigeria.

I’ll hope this information was usefull for you to learn something more about the politics of Nigeria.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Nigeria#Judicial_branch