The three arms of the federal government keep each other in check according to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria:
Executive Government:
The president, who is also the Chief-In-Commander of the Armed Forces, presides over the executive branch of the federal government. The president is voted into office every 4 years by the adult citizens of Nigeria. The president exercises his/her executive powers in line with the laws made by the National assembly. The president can exercise these powers either directly or indirectly through the vice-president, the ministers or any other public service officer.
Ministers are appointed by the president. There has to be at least one minister from each of the 36 states of Nigeria. There are currently 37 ministers working in 25 different ministries. The ministries are accountable for the government-owned corporations like universities, hospitals, and so on. (p.s. Cabinet = President + Vice President + Ministers)
Permanent secretaries work under ministers and head the staff of civil servants that work under a ministry.
Legislative Government:
From the diagram above, you can see that the powers of the legislative government lie in National Assembly which is made up of House of Representatives and the Senate. The National Assembly makes the laws that guide the governance of the country.
The House of Representatives is led by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and his/her deputy. The House of Representatives has 360 members that run for a 4-year term. Members are elected in single-seat constituencies whereby the constituencies are selected in proportion to the number of local government areas in the state.
The Senate is led by the President of the Senate and his/her deputy. The Senate has 109 members, 3 from each of the 36 states and 1 from the federal capital territory. Members are elected in three-seat constituencies whereby each state is divided into three senate electoral districts.
Judicial Government:
Comments: The reason the House of Representatives and the Senate have different selection methods is because the national assembly, is a bicameral legislature. The bicameral legislature is modelled after the United States’ body of legislature and it is meant to ensure equal representation of all the states. However, even though the states produce an equal number of senators, it is quite difficult to determine the fairness of the number of representatives from each state.
S/N | State | Number of LGAs | Federal constituencies | Senators |
1 | Abia | 17 | 8 | 3 |
2 | Adamawa | 21 | 8 | 3 |
3 | Akwa-Ibom | 31 | 10 | 3 |
4 | Anambra | 21 | 11 | 3 |
5 | Bauchi | 20 | 12 | 3 |
6 | Bayelsa | 8 | 5 | 3 |
7 | Benue | 23 | 11 | 3 |
8 | Borno | 27 | 10 | 3 |
9 | Cross River | 18 | 8 | 3 |
10 | Delta | 25 | 10 | 3 |
11 | Ebonyi | 14 | 6 | 3 |
12 | Edo | 18 | 9 | 3 |
13 | Ekiti | 16 | 6 | 3 |
14 | Enugu | 20 | 8 | 3 |
15 | Gombe | 12 | 6 | 3 |
16 | Imo | 31 | 10 | 3 |
17 | Jigawa | 27 | 11 | 3 |
18 | Kaduna | 23 | 16 | 3 |
19 | Kano | 44 | 24 | 3 |
20 | Katsina | 35 | 15 | 3 |
21 | Kebbi | 21 | 8 | 3 |
22 | Kogi | 20 | 9 | 3 |
23 | Kwara | 16 | 6 | 3 |
24 | Lagos | 23 | 24 | 3 |
25 | Nasarawa | 13 | 5 | 3 |
26 | Niger | 26 | 10 | 3 |
27 | Ogun | 25 | 9 | 3 |
28 | Ondo | 19 | 9 | 3 |
29 | Osun | 30 | 9 | 3 |
30 | Oyo | 33 | 14 | 3 |
31 | Plateau | 17 | 8 | 3 |
32 | Rivers | 23 | 13 | 3 |
33 | Sokoto | 23 | 11 | 3 |
34 | Taraba | 16 | 6 | 3 |
35 | Yobe | 16 | 6 | 3 |
36 | Zamfara | 14 | 7 | 3 |
37 | Federal Capital Territory (Abuja) | 5 | 2 | 1 |
Total | N/A | 791 (Nigeria really needs an official website with statistics. It was hard clarifying the numbers for each state. The numbers here are the best estimates.) | 360 | 109 |
For more information on the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, check http://www.nigeria-law.org/ConstitutionOfTheFederalRepublicOfNigeria.htm
