Criminal Politics: Violence, “Godfathers” and Corruption in Nigeria

Historical Background and Context
Nigeria is an inherently difficult country to govern. The country is an unlikely
amalgam of peoples and cultures that were shoehorned into one territory by their
British colonial rulers largely for the sake of administrative convenience. 1 Nigeria is
home to more than 250 separate ethnic groups, many of which either had no
meaningful relationships with one another or long histories of mutual antagonism
prior to the advent of colonialism. 2 The country is also divided in roughly equal
proportion between its two major religions—Islam and Christianity—and that
religious divide often overlaps with some of Nigeria’s most important ethnic and
cultural boundaries. 3
Much of Nigeria’s political history has revolved around the need to devise
institutions capable of governing the country’s diverse population in an inclusive
and equitable manner. All of Nigeria’s post-independence governments have, at
least in principle, adhered to some variation of Nigeria’s unique and complicated
conception of federalism. That model of governance enjoys wide legitimacy as the
best and most inclusive possible mode of governance for the country. 4 But
unfortunately, abusive, corrupt, and unaccountable Nigerian political leaders have
undercut serious efforts to construct stable institutions to govern the country,
solidify the rule of law, and promote respect for human rights.
1 The territories that now make up Northern and Southern Nigeria were administered by British authorities as two separate
colonies until being combined in 1914. Nigeria achieved independence in 1960.
2 For example, many of numerous ethnic minorities of the Middle Belt region were long the victims of conquest and slave raids
at the hands of their far more numerous and militarily powerful Hausa neighbors to the North.
3 For further discussion and reference on the links between Nigeria’s historical diversity and modern-day problems of
governance, human rights and conflicts, see Rotimi Suberu, Federalism and Ethnic Conflict in Nigeria (Washington: United
States Institute of Peace, 2001) and Human Rights Watch, They Do Not Own This Place: Government Discrimination Against
‘Non-Indigenes’ in Nigeria, Vol. 18, No. 3(A), April 2006, http://hrw.org/reports/2006/nigeria0406.
4 For a detailed discussion of the intricacies of Nigerian federalism, see Suberu, Federalism and Ethnic Conflict in Nigeria.
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