Nigeria Case Study Vocab

Question 1

Sani Abacha

Answer 1

Oppressive Nigerian military dictator from 1993 to 1998 who came to power in a military coup.

Question 2

All Progressives Congress (APC)

Answer 2

Opposition political party formed in 2013 by merger of largest opposition parties and defections from the ruling People’s Democratic Party.

Question 3

Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe

Answer 3

Nigerian nationalist and independent Nigeria’s first head of state (1960-66).

Question 4

Ibrahim Babangida

Answer 4

Military ruler of Nigeria from 1985 to 1993 who sought to establish the failed Third Republic.

Question 5

Boko Haram

Answer 5

Islamist terrorist group based in northeastern Nigeria that since 2009 has launched a violent insurgency.

Question 6

Muhammadu Buhari

Answer 6

Former military ruler and democratically elected president of Nigeria from 2015 to 2023.

Question 7

derivation formula

Answer 7

Formula for distributing oil revenues between national and local governments in Nigeria.

Question 8

federal character principle

Answer 8

Nigerian quota system designed to ease ethnic tension by requiring the president to appoint ministers and civil servants from each Nigerian state.

Question 9

First Republic

Answer 9

Nigerian parliamentary democratic regime that followed independence (1960-66).

Question 10

Fourth Republic

Answer 10

Nigeria’s current presidential democratic regime, established in 1999.

Question 11

Fulani

Answer 11

Predominately Muslim ethnic group located in northern Nigeria.

Question 12

Hausa

Answer 12

Predominately Muslim ethnic group concentrated in northern Nigeria.

Question 13

House of Representatives (Nigeria)

Answer 13

Lower house of Nigerian parliament

Question 14

Igbo (Ibo)

Answer 14

Predominately Christian ethnic group concentrated in southeast Nigeria.

Question 15

Goodluck Jonathan

Answer 15

President of Nigeria from 2010 to 2015.

Question 16

Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND)

Answer 16

Militant seperatist group from the Niger Delta.

Question 17

Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP)

Answer 17

Ethnic association founded by Ken Saro-Wiwa to promote the interests of ethnic Ogoni in the Niger Delta.

Question 18

National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS)

Answer 18

A wide-ranging Nigerian reform program designed to stem government corruption and enhance economic infrastructure.

Question 19

Niger Delta

Answer 19

World’s third-largest wetland and source of Nigerian oil and economic and ethnic conflict.

Question 20

Olusegun Obasanjo

Answer 20

Military ruler from 1976 to 1979 and two-term elected president from 1999 to 2007.

Question 21

patrimonialism

Answer 21

An arrangement whereby a ruler depends on a collection of supporters within the state who gain direct benefits in return for enforcing the ruler’s will.

Question 22

People’s Democratic Party (PDP)

Answer 22

Political party that has dominated Nigerian politics since its formation in 1998; its base was originally the Hausa Muslim ethnic group of northern Nigeria.

Question 23

Republic of Biafra

Answer 23

Igbo-dominated Eastern Region that tried, and failed, to secede from Nigeria in 1967.

Question 24

resource curse

Answer 24

Theory of development in which the existence of natural resources in a given state is a barrier to modernization and democracy.

Question 25

Ken Saro-Wiwa

Answer 25

Noted Nigerian playwright and environmental activist, executed in 1995 for his defense of the land and peoples of the Niger Delta

Question 26

scramble for Africa

Answer 26

Late 19th-century race by European countries to expand influence and establish imperial control over the majority of African territory.

Question 27

Second Republic

Answer 27

Short-lived Nigerian democratic regime, from 1979 to 1983, in which the former parliamentary system was replaced by a presidential system.

Question 28

Sharia

Answer 28

System of Islamic law.

Question 29

Sokoto Caliphate

Answer 29

Islamic empire founded in 1809 and centered in northern Nigeria.

Question 30

state-nation

Answer 30

A multicultural or even multinational state that manages to retain relatively strong levels of patriotism from its citizens.

Question 31

Third Republic

Answer 31

Democratic regime proposed by General Ibrahim Babangida in 1993; precluded by General Sani Abacha’s military coup in the same year, following annulled elections.

Question 32

Yoruba

Answer 32

Ethnic group, largely confined to southwest Nigeria, whose members are divided among Christian, Muslim, and local animist faiths.

Question 33

zoning

Answer 33

A PDP system of presidential rotation; the party would alternate every two terms in nominating candidates from Nigeria’s north and south.

Question 34

Rentier State

Answer 34

A state which derives all or a substantial portion of its national revenues from the rent paid by foreign individuals, concerns or governments.

Question 35

Prebendalism

Answer 35

A concept in which government officials have a right to government resources.

Question 36

INEC

Answer 36

Independent National Electoral Commission; the Nigerian electoral body established in 1998 that oversees elections in the country.