Explaining the history of Africa’s largest democracy and the influence of the military, ethnicity, and religious belief.
Explainer
Published 29 June 2022
Updated 18 July 2025
— 12 minute READ
Image — A woman casts her ballot as she votes in the presidential and parliamentary elections on February 23, 2019, at a polling station in Port Harcourt, southern Nigeria. (Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba/ AFP via Getty Images)
Nigeria’s democracy has been fragile and fluctuating since independence. Successive governments have struggled to create a sense of national unity in a complex country whose borders were drawn by British colonialists. Democratization and development have progressed at different speeds in the country’s disparate regions.
The less-developed north is more religiously conservative, with the Hausa people representing a majority in far north-western states, and the Kanuri being the largest group in the north-east. Women in Nigeria’s northern states gained the vote decades later than women in the south, with universal suffrage not achieved until 1979.
The mostly Christian Igbo people are the largest ethnic grouping in the south-east, where there are less centralized and more egalitarian traditions, as well as a tense history of separatism from Nigeria.
The more religiously diverse Yoruba people are the largest group concentrated in the south-west, where identity is more influenced by regional culture and values.
While Nigeria is often discussed in terms of these three major ethnic groupings (Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba), it is home to more than 250 ethnicities and kingdom nations, each with their own cultural identities and political concerns.
Nigeria’s democracy also has a long and troubled relationship with its military. For 29 yearsof its existence as an independent state, Nigeria has been under military rule instead of civilian administration.
Three republics have been overthrown by military coups since independence in 1960, and two of the four democratically elected presidents of Nigeria’s fourth republic headed those military dictatorships.
This article explains the role of the military, the fluid influence of ethnicity, and the quest for a better democracy in Nigeria.
Is Nigeria a democracy?
Nigeria has a democratic constitution with a federal system modelled on the US. The executive is headed by the president, the legislature is formed by the National Assembly of Senate and House of Representatives, and the judiciary is headed by a supreme court.
But some commentators say Nigeria is not currently a true democracy due to its entrenched corrupt political class, its dwindling electoral participation, popular suspicion of the ruling class, shrinking civil liberties, and weak democratic institutions.
A history of democracy in Nigeria
Nigeria officially became a democracy on its independence from Britain in October 1960. But the history of Nigerian demands for greater representation go back to the 1920s.
A new constitution was created in 1922 under British colonial rule, largely due to Nigerian calls for reform. The country’s first general election – to a colonial legislative council – was held the following year.
The colonial administration hoped to contain demands for full independence but the elections failed to suppress Nigerians’ desire for control of their own affairs.
Civil resistance continued throughout the 1920s led mainly by women and student movements. The Aba Women’s Uprising of November 1929 saw protests by thousands of Nigerian women against the unjust rule of ‘Warrant Chief’ tribal officials appointed by the colonial government. Young nationalists in the Lagos area founded the Nigerian Youth Movement in 1934.
After World War Two, it became clear Nigeria would become independent. In the 1950s another new constitution created a structure for Nigeria’s federal government and paved the way for an end to British rule. The 1959 general election saw a victory for the Northern People’s Congress, which formed a coalition government with the south-eastern dominated National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons.
This created the first ever Nigerian led self-government, which would steer the nation into independence in 1960. Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa served as Nigeria’s first – and only – prime minister and Nnamdi Azikiwe became governor-general. For the first three years of independence, Nigeria was a constitutional monarchy with Britain’s Queen Elizabeth remaining as head of state.
The first republic
In 1963 the country became a federal republic with Azikiwe as the first president and head of state, and Balewa continuing as prime minister and head of government.
But democracy under the first republic quickly deteriorated. Elections were held in 1964 but the event highlighted widespread resentment towards the domination of the central government by northern politicians. There were also outbursts of inter-ethnic violence and Balewa was assassinated in 1966 as part of a bloody, failed military coup.
In the chaos that followed, Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi seized power but ruled for only six months before being overthrown in a counter-coup. He was replaced by Yakubu Gowon, beginning almost a decade of rule by a ‘supreme military council’.
Military rule under Yakubu Gowon
Gowon’s administration was rejected by Lt. Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, the military head of Nigeria’s eastern administrative region. In 1967 Ojukwu led the region’s secession, declaring himself president of the Republic of Biafra in protest against the Gowon regime and the pogroms of the Igbos in the north.
A brutal civil war followed, unleashing famine, death, and destruction in the south-east. Both sides were armed and supported by foreign actors interested in the future of the oil-rich country with Britain arming the Nigerian military government.
The civil war had an enormous impact both in Nigeria and internationally. In 1967, Nigeria was divided from three regions into 12 states in an effort to strengthen the central power in Lagos and undermine future secession attempts. A severely damaged Biafra surrendered in 1970.
Civil war had an enormous impact both in Nigeria and internationally.
Beyond Nigeria, images of the war’s famine led to an enormous international humanitarian appeal by charities such as the Red Cross and Save the Children. An expensive reconstruction effort followed the war, paid for by oil revenues.
But Gowon’s military government was seen as corrupt, incompetent, and failing to guide the country back towards democracy. Gowon was overthrown in a bloodless coup in 1975, replaced by General Murtala Mohammed who was then assassinated during an unsuccessful coup attempt in 1976. His deputy, Lieutenant General Olusegun Obasanjo took charge and oversaw Nigeria’s transition to democracy.
The second republic
Elections in July and August 1979 saw Shehu Shagari become the first democratically elected president of Nigeria and a new constitution introduced an American-style presidential system, rejecting the British parliamentary model. But Shagari’s government was characterized by extensive corruption, wastefulness, and a failure to thaw civil-war era ethnic and religious divisions in the country.
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Article part 2
The second period of military rule
The government declared itself the winner of 1983’s heavily disputed election. A violent response in Nigeria’s south-west saw another military coup take place with Major General Muhammadu Buhari declaring himself leader of a new military council.
His government was overthrown in August 1985 by General Ibrahim Babangida who promised a transition from military rule by 1990 but would stay in power until 1993. He expanded a corrupt patronage network mostly sustained by oil revenues which has been reorganized but still endures in Nigeria.
Military government was not more just, accountable, or efficient than democracy, nor was it less corrupt.
Babangida refused to recognize the outcome of the free and fair elections held in June 1993 and stymied the creation of a full-fledged third republic. But he struggled to contain domestic pro-democracy demands. He created an interim government council later that year which was then quickly replaced by a new military ruler General Sani Abacha.
Abacha imprisoned Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, the winner of the disputed 1993 election, and began a cruel period of government marked by human rights abuses such as the case of the ‘Ogoni Nine’. This group of environmental activists protested about oil pollution in the Niger delta but were executed in 1995 on fabricated murder allegations. Under Abacha’s corrupt and brutal leadership, Nigeria became a pariah nation.
The fourth republic
Abacha died in mysterious circumstances in 1998. Another transitional military government led by General Abdulsalami Abubakar oversaw a return to democracy with elections held in April 1999. Former military ruler Olusegun Obasanjo was elected president on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), a broad coalition of political elites and power brokers.
Obasanjo served two complete four-year terms in office, beginning the longest period of uninterrupted democratic government. His administration secured debt relief from international creditors and pursued economic reforms including the privatisation of key state-owned enterprises.
Obasanjo was succeeded in 2007 by Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who Obasanjo backed instead of his own vice president, Atiku Abubakar. Yar’Adua’s presidency, though brief, was marked by attempts to foster peace in the oil-rich Niger Delta and address electoral reforms, following widespread evidence of rigging in the election that brought him to power. Yar’Adua’s illness and subsequent death while in office in 2010 created a power vacuum.
Ordinary Nigerians joined protests across the country demanding a constitutional transfer of power. The then vice-president, Goodluck Jonathan, was eventually sworn-in as president that year. His administration oversaw a period of economic growth but was increasingly plagued by allegations of corruption and the escalating Boko Haram insurgency in northern Nigeria.
Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency
These challenges ultimately defined Jonathan’s term and contributed to his electoral defeat in 2015 by Muhammadu Buhari, another former military leader who had briefly ruled the country from 1983–1985. Buhari, whose 2015 election victory came after three failed attempts, was celebrated as a convert to democracy and a disciplined leader. He won on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which was formed in 2013 by a merger of prominent opposition parties, a splintered faction of the PDP and important regional leaders
Insurgency, kidnapping and political violence worsened during Buhari’s second term.
Despite initial hopes for a decisive break from the past, Buhari’s two-term presidency ultimately reinforced existing governance challenges, particularly concerning Nigeria’s debt profile and vulnerability to global oil price fluctuations.
Insecurity in the forms of insurgency, kidnapping and political violence worsened during Buhari’s second term, which began after he was re-elected in 2019. Democratic freedoms regressed. Buhari’s government rushed the implementation of poorly conceived policies, such as closing Nigeria’s borders to enforce a ban on rice imports in 2019 and redesigning the national currency without issuing enough new notes in 2023. This caused food prices to soar, plunging millions of Nigerian households into economic distress.
Having served two terms, Buhari handed the presidency over to the flagbearer of his political party (the APC) following the 2023 elections. Buhari died in a London hospital in 2025.
Tinubu wins Nigeria’s 2023 election
The 2023 election was a three-horse race, reflecting a notable change in the dominant two-party model. Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC was declared the winner in a closely contested election against Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Peter Obi of the Labour Party.
The election was marred by logistical challenges, allegations of vote rigging, and disenfranchisement. It was the lowest voter turnout in Nigeria’s fourth republic – only 24.97 million of the 93.47 million registered voters in Nigeria casted their vote (a turnout of 26.72 per cent). Tinubu won the election with just 8.79 million votes, 36.61 per cent of the vote, ahead of Abubakar (29.07 per cent) and Obi (25.4 per cent).
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Bola Ahmed Tinubu gives a speech at Chatham House in December 2022, ahead of the 2023 Nigerian elections.
Since assuming office in May 2023, President Tinubu has initiated a range of reforms aimed at addressing Nigeria’s economic challenges, notably the removal of fuel subsidies and the unification of exchange rates. These polices have sparked condemnation and public discontent, especially for their sudden implementation without an adequate plan to absorb the shock. The value of the naira has plummeted while the price of petrol and food has soared.
Others have suggested the reforms are necessary to give Nigeria hope for sustainable growth, especially given the country’s undiversified economy, low government revenue and high debt. It remains to be seen whether Tinubu’s measures will have a long-term positive impact, as Nigeria continues to grapple with persistent socio-economic challenges and deep-seated political divisions.
Challenges of democracy in Nigeria
Nigeria’s democracy was severely weakened by the civil war and centralization of power during the military era. The conflict helped concentrate oil revenues in the hands of army officials and seeded a powerful, wealthy, and often corrupt military elite. The dictatorships militarized Nigeria’s political space and disrupted the flourishing of democratic institutions and culture.
The effects of the civil war still linger in the south-east of Nigeria where secessionist movements are still popular and many people accuse the government of failing to invest in the region or include Igbo elites in national leadership.
Nigeria’s army – once regarded as the continent’s most capable – has been dramatically weakened over the past decade. It has failed to provide basic security in large parts of the country, struggling to contain Islamist terrorists groups in the north-east, banditry in the north-west and armed attacks across the middle-belt states.
Its officer corps has been implicated in numerous corruption scandals. Nigeria’s federally controlled police is overstretched, understaffed, underfunded, and endemically corrupt.
These security and law enforcement challenges are aggravated by the fledgling state of Nigeria’s democratic institutions.
Freedom of speech
A vibrant media industry exists in Nigeria, much of it based in the south-west, but has faced government crackdowns on the free press, as seen during the #ENDSARS protests of 2020.
Twitter was banned by the Buhari administration for seven months, while big media houses closed and journalists fled abroad or went into hiding. As a result, security incidents go unreported or misrepresented for fear of reprisals by the government.
On 18 March 2025, Tinubu declared a state of emergency in the southern, oil-rich Rivers State, suspending the state’s governor and House of Assembly. This came after a long-running political controversy in the state, where oil pipelines had come attack.
Tinubu’s move, and his decision to appoint an administrator to the province, have provoked widespread denouncement. The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the country’s professional body of lawyers, condemned the president’s actions as ‘unconstitutional, unlawful, and a dangerous affront to our nation’s democracy’.
Elections
Most elections in the fourth republic have been regular, generally free, and credible, although this varies considerably by region and election cycle. Violence is a lingering feature of elections in Nigeria.
Voter turnout has steadily decreased as voters have become disillusioned by the recycling of political candidates, the lack of internal democracy in political parties, and the failure of government to deliver real progress.
The 2023 election had the lowest turnout yet, at just 26.72 per cent of registered voters.
Justice
The constitution guarantees Nigerians freedom of religion, expression, movement, and assembly and protects them from discrimination based on sex, religion, origin, or political opinions. Yet basic rights are continually challenged in a failing justice environment.
Nigeria’s police have a reputation for brutality which led directly to the #ENDSARS protests of 2020, demanding the dismantling of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a unit accused of kidnapping, murder, theft, rape, and torture.
Sharia criminal law, which was previously limited to civil matters, was reintroduced between 1999 to 2000 in 12 northern states, directly challenging the constitution and civil liberties of non-Muslim residents. In April 2022, a man was sentenced to 24 years in jail by a Sharia court in Kano on a charge of blasphemy for declaring himself an atheist.
The judicial system is too weak and compromised to step in and enforce civil liberties. This reflects the state of the political class in northern Nigeria and the absence of mechanisms to defend constitutional democracy. Religious legitimacy shapes political power in the north in a way that challenges national cohesion and a common citizenship. Parallel legal systems undermine the main pillars of the constitution.
Corruption in Nigeria
Despite numerous anti-corruption initiatives and reform attempts since the return of democracy to Nigeria, growth-damaging corruption remains a critical challenge, eroding public trust and hindering socio-economic progress.
A 2025 Chatham House report highlights how rampant political clientelism and the impunity of corruption has undermined attempts at meaningful policy implementation and prevented the creation of strong accountability mechanisms in Nigeria.
While most citizens disapprove of corrupt acts, many see them as the price for getting things done – a notion reinforced by the lack of accountability, weak and distrusted institutions and the politicization of anti-corruption.
Benefits of democracy in Nigeria
For many Nigerians the promise of democracy feels unfulfilled amid ongoing corruption and insecurity and a lack of socio-economic progress. But against this backdrop, the #ENDSARS movement, sparked by police brutality in 2020, became a watershed moment, showcasing the power of young Nigerians to mobilize for change.
While Nigeria #ENDSARS did not coalesce into a formal political party and activist optimism may have tempered in recent years due to the lack of systemic change, the urgency of Nigeria’s governance challenges remain.
For these to be resolved and institutions strengthened,Nigeria needs more young people to engage with politics, offer new ideas and run for office on issues which affect all Nigerians, from employment and security to climate and energy policy. Nigeria also needs its youth committed to the kind of long-term civic activism and community organizing which expands the narrow focus on electoral cycles, strengthens democratic institutions, and delivers long-term change.
The main challenge for these young democrats and future politicians is Nigeria’s clientelist party politics, which is mostly a contest for power to distribute patronage.
Nigeria’s democracy can only be strengthened through a revolutionized political system, better quality political parties, more independent and diversified media, a stronger electoral management body and well-resourced judiciary.
Law enforcement and security forces must be devoted to constitutional democracy rather than regime security and protecting elites. And entrenched networks of patronage and privilege need to be weakened.
Sustaining democracy in Nigeria will require more than just free elections. It will also mean ending a system in which corruption is not just tolerated, but widely encouraged and hugely profitable.
Chinua Achebe, Nigerian novelist, poet and critic
The importance of democracy in Nigeria
Given its history and its current trajectory, democracy is essential to the survival of the Nigerian nation. Military government was not more just, accountable, or efficient than democracy, nor was it less corrupt.
Democracy has not yet delivered a considerable uplift in living standards for most Nigerians. But it remains the only system of government which can offer the hope of reconciling the extraordinary plurality of religions, ethnicities, and political traditions of its large population.
It is the only system of government which can create a fair society without resorting to oppression or the exclusion of considerable parts of the population.
It is also essential for the rest of Africa that democracy survives in Nigeria. Half of West Africans are Nigerians and if democracy were to fail there it would have enormous implications for the rest of the continent and for the world.
Nigeria’s democracy needs to serve the rights, aspirations, and potential of its citizens for a good, dignified and fulfilled life.
