ABSTRACT
The Igbo inhabit parts of the thick evergreen rainforest ecological zone in the Niger basin. The geography and ecology of Igboland impacted the evolution of their village-based democratic system of government. The Igbo political system is resoundingly democratic because of its characteristic feature of direct democracy. Although the Igbo constitute one of the three most populous nationalities that inhabit the parts of the Niger basin that were carved into Nigeria, like the other inhabitants, their exact population is still undetermined. The Igbo are not the only people whose religion played a central role in their affairs at both the micro and macro levels. The outcome would reveal that the authority patterns of the Eastern or Cross River Igbo whose decentralized village-based democratic political system is closely similar to those of the Southern Igbo, and the Northern Igbo.
