ABSTRACT
Nigeria's political culture is heavily cartelised, being characterised by both backroom dealing among political elites and substantial overlaps between these elites and their commercial counterparts, especially those in the oil sector that stiches Nigeria's unwieldy federal system together. The centrality of oil in Nigeria's economy and political system has deleterious effects on the functioning of government institutions and distribution of economic resources. Repeated rounds of administrative decentralisation since the military era have only served to further concentrate power at the federal level, with most of Nigeria's 36 states dependent on centrally distributed oil revenues. Such friction has increased during election years, as gangs or armed groups hired by contending politicians have the potential to exacerbate Nigeria's wider security crisis. Thus, despite state forces making some progress in suppressing threats from jihadist and bandit gangs during the reporting period, security remains precarious in much of Nigeria.
