Nigeria: Government

Principal Government Officials

Chief of State: President Goodluck Jonathan
Head of Government: President Goodluck Jonathan

The 1999 constitution provides for a bicameral National Assembly consisting of a 360-member House of Representatives and a 109-member Senate. The president heads the executive branch. The judiciary includes a Supreme Court and lower courts.

In April 2011, the Independent National Electoral Commission organized legislative, gubernatorial, and presidential elections. The opposition Action Congress of Nigeria captured additional governorships and National Assembly seats, although the majority of such positions continued to be held by the ruling PDP. President Jonathan captured 59% of the national vote, beating his main rival, Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Progressive Change, who won 32%. While imperfect, the elections were considered Nigeria’s most successful since its return to multiparty democracy in 1999, and reversed a downward trajectory of successively flawed election processes. President Jonathan was sworn in on May 29, 2011.

FOREIGN RELATIONS
Since independence, Nigerian foreign policy has been characterized by a focus on Africa and by attachment to several fundamental principles: African unity and independence; peaceful settlement of disputes; nonalignment and nonintentional interference in the internal affairs of other nations; and regional economic cooperation and development. In pursuing the goal of regional economic cooperation and development, Nigeria helped create the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which seeks to harmonize trade and investment practices for its 15 West African member countries and ultimately to achieve a full customs union. Over the past decade, Nigeria has played a pivotal role in the support of peace in Africa. It has provided the bulk of troops for the UN peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), and many of the troops to the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS). Nigeria is anticipated to do likewise in Somalia.

Nigeria has enjoyed generally good relations with its immediate neighbors. A longstanding border dispute with Cameroon over the potentially oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula was addressed by International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague in 2002. The ICJ awarded most of the disputed Bakassi Peninsula and maritime rights to Cameroon, and the UN established a Mixed Commission on implementing the ICJ ruling. On June 12, 2006 Nigerian President Obasanjo and Cameroonian President Biya signed an agreement in New York on implementing the ICJ decision. Nigeria promptly withdrew its troops within 60 days. On August 14, 2008, Nigeria formally ceded Bakassi to Cameroon.

Nigeria is a member of the following international organizations: UN and many of its special and related agencies; World Trade Organization (WTO); International Monetary Fund (IMF); World Bank/IBRD; African Development Bank (AfDB); INTERPOL; Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC); Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); African Union (AU); Maritime Organization of West and Central Africa (MOWCA) and several other West African bodies; Commonwealth; Nonaligned Movement (NAM); and Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), among others.

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