The Political Atlassix axes

Atlas / Organisations / Nigerian Party Blocs

Nigerian Party Blocs

APC / PDP · 1999– · Nigeria · Big-Tent Clientelist · Electoral party · coding confidence low

+04ECmarket
+06CUtraditional
+03AUmonist
+03SCcentral
+03IDascriptive
−05CHlawful

Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →

Core principles

Coalitions organised around regional and religious balance and access to oil revenue rather than around programme.

Economic model

Oil rents, fuel subsidy politics, currency controls, weak formal taxation.

Organisation of powers

Competitive federal democracy with alternation in 2015, alongside severe electoral irregularity and insecurity.

Reading note

Coded at low confidence as a bloc average. The two main parties differ far less on these axes than on which region controls the presidency.

Check a claim about Nigerian Party Blocs. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.

Open in the atlas

The evidence for every score

All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.

EC · Economic organisation · scored +04

Coded +4: oil rents and subsidy politics rather than a programmatic economics.

  • Documented act or statuteThe fuel subsidy, costing several percent of GDP, was removed in 2023 after decades of failed attempts.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored +06

Coded +6: religious and regional conservatism across both parties.

  • Documented act or statuteTwelve northern states operate sharia criminal codes alongside federal law.

AU · Organisation of power · scored +03

Coded +3: genuine alternation with severe electoral irregularity.

  • Documented act or statuteThe 2015 election produced the first defeat of an incumbent in Nigerian history and a peaceful handover.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +03

Coded +3: a federation of 36 states with centralised oil revenue.

  • Documented act or statuteOil revenue is collected federally and allocated to states by formula.

ID · Rule of membership · scored +03

Coded +5: an informal north-south rotation of the presidency and religious balancing.

  • Documented act or statuteThe zoning convention alternates the presidency between regions; the 2023 ticket broke the Muslim-Christian balance.

CH · Method and tempo · scored −05

Coded −5: electoral since 1999 after decades of military rule.

  • Documented act or statuteCivilian government has continued unbroken since 1999.

Scores that have been revised

ID +05 → +03The zoning convention balances regional and religious access to office rather than excluding anyone from membership. It was being scored as exclusion when it functions as distribution.

Nearest organisations by measured distance

Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.

Countries

Nigeria

Cite this page

Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.

McGrath, K. (2026). Nigerian Party Blocs. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/apc_pdp/ (accessed 2026-08-01).

Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.