Welcome to our third and final federal case study. Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy and democracy is a federation with a good measure of federalism in it. Throughout its history, Nigeria and federalism has gone through different institutional guises. But just before we continue further, I wanna remind you that we have a number of readings on Nigeria available for you from the journal Regional and Federal Studies. In this video lecture, we won't be able to cover each and every relevant aspect of Nigerian federalism. So please make sure to read these articles in order to acquire a more advanced level of knowledge. At the moment, the Federal Republic of Nigeria has 36 regional states and the federal capital Abuja. But throughout it's history, Nigeria has tried other forms of federalism before. Nigeria's origins as a country could be traced back to the provinces created by the British colonial authorities. The territory comprising present-day Nigeria was governed mostly through the system of indirect rule. Where local traditional leaders were coopted into the British colonial system leading to a varied and a symmetrical system of governments. Indirect rule did not bring genuine territorial autonomy to the regions, instead traditional authorities were coopted into the system. Because colonial authorities themselves lacked the political and infrastructural capacity to govern directly and they needed the cooperation and the collaboration of the locals. Nonetheless, the acknowledgement and recognition of the legitimacy of traditional authorities during colonial times ensured the continuity of these institutions into modern times. Anyway, the three colonial provinces were brought together in the form of a federal union in 1954. Following independence in 1960, the country slid into a civil war as the Eastern Region declared independence. The war ended with the country intact, but the number of regional units increased from 3 to 12 to prevent polarization between the three dominant regions of the country. In 1976, the number of regional states went up to 19, in 1991, it went up to 30 and most recently in 1996, it went up to 36 regional states. Ethiopia and South Africa are also countries that have gone through momentous political design in the 1990s. But Nigeria's successive ways of institutional and constitutional redesign going back to the 1950s, puts the country in a league of its own, in terms of redesigning its own constitutions. The country has gone through different institutional guises of federalism. In an attempt to find the best balance between unity and autonomy, between unity and diverse. The current institutional set up of the Nigerian Federation is just like South Africa and Ethiopia also a product of the 1990s. The end of the military rule in 1996 ushered in a speedy transition from authoritarianism into democratic rule. Now let's have a very quick look at the set up that was created. The House of Representatives is the directly elected lower house of the parliament where Nigerians are represented on a one citizen, one vote system. The Senate is composed of regional state representatives. At the moment, there are two opposing political parties facing each other in nationwide terms. But these parties themselves are amalgamations and coalitions of smaller political groups and interests. Besides, they have strengths in different parts of the country. During the recent March 2015 elections, political power, particularly the country's presidency changed hands from one party to another. This successful and largely peaceful transition certifies Nigeria as Africa's biggest democracy. Of course not everything is perfect, but one should not underestimate how much Nigeria's democratic and peaceful change of government is a lesson for the entire continent. There are some 200 Language communities in Nigeria, but they are not all of the same size. The three big, that is the Igbo, Yoruba and the Hausa and Fulani each make up about 20% of the population. In very, very basic terms, the North is mostly Hausa and Falini and mostly Muslim. The South is mostly Yoruba and mostly Christian, while the Southeast is mostly Igbo and mostly Christian. While other communities of various sizes live in between. But of course these are very, very general terms as the country itself is defined by a bewildering degree of ethno-linguistic diversity. There are hundreds of language communities spread over 36 regional states. So in ethno-linguistic terms, Nigeria is indeed a federal society and the territorially based societal divisions are underscored by the geography of this vast and diverse land. The geographic divisions themselves are underscored by the different economic activities. The North of the country relies on a great deal of livestock herding, while the traditional economic activities of the Southern Delta Region have now given way to large scale oil extraction. When different economic activities define different geographic regions, inevitably this uncodified patterns sweep into the workings of federalism as well. Nigeria's federal society is reflected in the so-called federal principle adopted in 1979. The federal principle aims to use Nigeria's federal society as the basis for the composition of its national and regional bureaucracies. Accordingly, the country's ethnic, linguistic, religious and geographic diversity is supposed to be reflected in its public services. You'll probably remember that during model three we had discussed the question of regional representation in national bureaucracies. And we had mentioned how for a number of reasons, formal strict ethnic quotas did not always bring about effective and workable solutions. What happens in the Nigerian cases that the quotas in appointments based on the federal principle often disenfranchises those who might lack roots in the appropriate regional state. And this brings us back to a theme we have been visiting quite a few times in this course before. On the one hand, we have the corporate representation of collective groups. And on the other, we have individual rights and freedoms across jurisdictions. Federalism is inherently a non-majoritarian system of democracy based on the corporate representation of collective groups and not a simple one citizen, one vote system. The Federal principle is an example of group-rights trumping individual-rights. Regional states have a number of policies favoring the ethnic, linguistic and cultural rights of their indigenous peoples at the expense of other individuals who might lack such local roots. Here, we have to acknowledge that federalism's promise to bring peaceful and workable coexistence among communities. And its emphasis on group identity could sometimes cause frustration for otherwise, well qualified individuals who lack the prerequisite regional roots. And this brings us back, to what was discussed in the overview of model two. Federalism is not about solving ethno-linguistic divisions, it's about managing them by legitimizing dissent and disagreement. And this comes with an inevitable dose of frustration for all of those involved. Especially when we are talking about hundreds of ethno-linguistic communities. Throughout its turbulent history since independence, Nigeria has been searching for a federal institutional setup that can best reflect and accommodate its various social divisions. Around 190 million Nigerian citizens belonging to 200 different ethno-linguistic communities creates a federal society par excellence, which then makes federalism necessary. But what type of a federation? That has been a long going search. But they're interesting comparative lessons for the literature of federalism and decentralization here. The country has sought successive phases of federal institutional redesign as a solution to its problems. Consequently, new constitutions have replaced old ones. But after all the constitutional, institutional changes the country has gone through, there seems to be little long-term impact on the persisting societal divisions in the country. Despite the various federal prescriptions the country has taken over the years. And despite the breakneck speed of recent economic growth and social change, there's also been a remarkable degree of continuity. Now this is perhaps a hint to temper our faith in institutional engineering. I'll see you in the next video, that is gonna be our overview, bye.