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Published 10 February 2021
Nigeria is a federation with shared powers between the centre and the federating units. There are three arms and three tiers of government. The three arms of government consist of the executive, legislature and the judiciary while the three tiers of government are the federal, state and local government. Constitutionally speaking, there is one Federal Government with the seat of power at Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, under the leadership of the President. There are 36 state governments under the leadership of the governors and thirdly, there are 774 Local Government Areas under the leadership of chairmen. We have a bicameral legislature at the centre consisting of the Senate and House of Representatives; at the state level, there is a unicameral legislature called state Houses of Assembly. At the Local Government Level, there is a legislative assembly made up of councillors.