Southwest Overview

Abstract

The southwestern region of the country is the heart of “Yorubaland” and hosts Lagos, one of the largest cities in the world. Lagos, which means “lakes” in Portuguese, was the capital of Nigeria from 1914 to 1991, when the seat of government was moved to Abuja. Politically, the southwest has shifted over the course of the Fourth Republic, with a tendency to join cross-regional coalitions in opposition to whichever region claims presidential incumbency when the incumbent is not from the southwestern region. In 1999, when the region’s own Olusegun Obasanjo (from Ogun State) came into power on the PDP ticket, the region was solidly AD but shifted to PDP in 2003 when Obasanjo was reelected. After he turned over power to Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (from the North), also of the PDP in 2007, the ACN was ascendant in the region, capturing most state houses in 2010 and 2011. Then, in 2013, with PDP’s Goodluck Jonathan from the Niger Delta in the presidency, the ACN joined the CPC, the ANPP, and part of the AGPA to form the All Progressives Congress (APC) in a major reshuffling of the political landscape, laying the foundation for a new cross-regional opposition coalition, including the Southwest and the far North.