In-Spire Journal of Law, Politics and Societies (Vol. 3, No. 2 - 2008) ‘Eat and Give to Your Brother’: The Politics of Office Distribution in Nigeria Nkwachukwu Orji, Department of Political Science, Central European University, Budapest - Hungary This article analyses the politics of office distribution in Nigeria, focusing on how elite struggles for power shape the conception, implementation, and continuity of office distribution arrangements. The article adopts a methodology involving a re-description of history based on a review of published literature, government documents, and media reports. It contends that the politics of office distribution in Nigeria is conditioned by two main factors: fears in Northern Nigeria that the more educated South would dominate state institutions and concerns in Southern Nigeria that the more populous North would have upper hand in majoritarian electoral contest. The search for regional equilibrium in government by the elite has transformed office distribution arrangements in Nigeria into modalities for ethnic diversity management. Introduction Intense elite struggles for power are a striking feature of Nigerian politics. The key element of the struggle has been the tension between elites from the largely Moslem North and the Christian South. The underlying issues behind the political tension are the fears in Northern Nigeria that the more educated Southern elite would dominate state institutions as well as concerns in Southern Nigeria that the more populous North would have upper hand in majoritarian electoral contest 1 . The zero-sum political competition among the elites precipitated a bloody civil war between 1967 and 1970. The soul-searching that followed the civil war reflected in the quest for elite consensus on how Nigeria should be governed to ensure political stability and equity in distribution of resources. Two office distribution arrangements – the principles of federal character and zoning emerged as modalities for resolving elite conflicts over distribution of offices. These office sharing arrangements express the tendency of the Nigerian elite since the 1970s to manage ethnic diversity and promote a Nigerian state project by avoiding divisive politics and emphasising ‘unity in diversity’. This position shows the basis, contradictions and ambivalence that underlie the principles of federal character and zoning as modalities for sharing power, positions and resources between the Nigerian elite, and on the other hand, as frameworks and processes through which the elite seek to realise their interests within non- violent distributive politics. 1 Northern Nigeria refers to areas inhabited by predominantly Islamic communities like Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri and Nupe as well as the Christian groups like Tiv, Idoma and Igala in the Middle Belt; while Southern Nigeria is the area occupied by the Yoruba, Igbo, and other communities in the Niger Delta. Nigeria was divided into Northern and Southern Protectorates and administered as separate colonies by the colonial administration. The two protectorates were amalgamated in 1914, but it was in the 1940s that Nigerians from both regions began to have close political and administrative contact. www.in-spire.org 125